1
'Sunday morning, I was a bit of a mess': How Tony Rowe celebrated Exeter's breathtaking European success
Exeter owner Tony Rowe has admitted the celebrations that followed last Saturday’s Champions Cup semi-final win over Toulouse at Sandy Park took their toll, leaving the telecoms entrepreneur feeling more than worse for wear the following morning.
ADVERTISEMENT
The win by the Chiefs was the first time they have reached a European final and they are now on course for a Premiership and Champions Cup double as they are also in the semi-finals of the league after topping the table in regulation-season play.
Exeter will have a home semi-final in the Premiership on the weekend of October 10 and will then face Racing in the European showpiece on October 17 in Bristol.
That appearance will mark the high point in the long Rowe investment in Exeter, funding which guided the club from the lower leagues in England right to the top of the sport, and he wasn’t letting last Saturday’s breakthrough pass without recognition.
Speaking to The Rugby Pod following the defeat of Toulouse, Rowe explained his emotions and how his body felt after a celebratory Exeter beer or two at Sandy Park. “Rough, rough,” he quipped. “It was a bit of an anti-climax as you can imagine. The thing was it was really fantastic but only when I went back to the changing room with the lads.
There's just no stopping @ExeterChiefs from there ?
A string of powerful forward phases before @HarryWilliams91 burrows over for his first of the day ?
Will the Exeter forwards have too much for @racing92 in the #HeinekenChampionsCup final? ? pic.twitter.com/30d1fPbCFJ
— Investec Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) September 28, 2020
“Then I had to leave them and someone had smuggled some beer in disguised as water. I went back upstairs because we are only allowed a couple of people to the game, my wife was there and that. I was feeling a bit lonely. I buzzed down to Rob Baxter and said, ‘Look mate, why don’t you come upstairs with the coaches?’ Wrong thing to do. Rob couldn’t because he was going home. But all the coaches descended on us and drunk us dry. Sunday morning, I was a bit of a mess.”
No fans were allowed into Sandy Park to watch the European semi-final and it pains Rowe that these restrictions will continue throughout October. “Everybody knows what my ambition, the club’s ambition and Rob’s ambition is and we are within touching distance but there was no one there to share it.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The way they televise it now when you’re sat at home watching the game you get a bit of an atmosphere because they double it [the sound] but when you’re actually in the ground it is a hollow silence. It’s a shame because we have got some fantastic supporters at Exeter and they just couldn’t be there on the day. We have just got to be grateful I suppose that we are still here, still alive, and we have just got to get through this horrible thing [the pandemic].
“On Saturday there was about half a dozen trying to make the noise for 14,000 people… we made as much noise as we could and that is probably why I needed a lot of medicine afterwards,” he said, adding how he took great pride that many of Exeter’s team had come through the club’s academy.
“I’m pretty sure on Saturday there were nine starting lads that had come through our academy structure and that is brilliant. A lot of players are very transient and spend two years here and two years there, but I’d like to think a lot of our homegrown boys will stay.
“It means in time you will amass more of your homegrown talent. Rob and I share an ambition to one day see a Premiership team we put on the field of all homegrown players and we’re 60 per cent of the way there at the moment.”
ADVERTISEMENT
"Big games of rugby, they are like boxing matches"
– A beaming Rob Baxter hails Exeter's progress to a first European final
https://t.co/2tHziRPRTJ— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 26, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
29 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to comments