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'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.
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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
— Heineken 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.
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“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.”
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"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
The RFU will find a way to mess this up as usual. My bet is there will be no promotion into the the Premiership, only relegation into National League One. Hopefully they won’t parachute failed clubs into the league at the expense of clubs who have battled for promotion.
1 Go to commentsWell that’s the contracts for RG and Jordie bought and paid for. Now, what are the chances we can persuade Antoine to hop over with all the extra dosh we’ll have from living at the Aviva & Croke next season…??? 🤑🤑🤑
2 Go to commentsWow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
2 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
14 Go to commentsIf someone like Leo Cullen was in O’Gara’s place I don’t hear Boo-ing. It’s not just that La Rochelle has hurt Leinster and O’Gara is their Irish boss. It’s the needle that he brings and the pantomime activity before the game around pretending that Munster were supporting LaRochelle just because O’Gara is from Cork. That’s dividing Irish provinces just to get an advantage for his French Team. He can F*ck right off with that. BOOOOO! (but not while someone is lying injured)
2 Go to commentsDid the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
2 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
4 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
21 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
21 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
4 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to comments