'Whether his focus is to prove people right or wrong, whatever his driver is it's working very well for him'
Exeter have paid tribute to Sam Simmonds, the unwanted England back row who has been lighting up the Gallagher Premiership scoring charts this season with a flurry of tries following his latest snub by Test boss Eddie Jones. Simmonds has scored nine tries in his eight league outings this term with defending champions Exeter, four more than next-best Paolo Odogwu of Wasps and Harlequins’ Alex Dombrandt.
So prolific is his scoring, his 45 points had him listed in seventh spot in the league’s most points category, which is supposed to be dominated by place-kickers, going into this weekend’s round nine games.
In making 309 metres from his 94 carries, the Premiership’s December player of the month has beaten 17 defenders and made eight clean breaks while his tackle completion is running at 95 per cent, 74 tackles made and just the four missed.
This rich vein of form, though, hasn’t been rewarded by the sniff of a look-in with England as the last of his seven caps continues to be the March 2018 Six Nations loss to Ireland at Twickenham.
The 26-year-old Simmonds suffered serious injury since then, an ordeal which he spoke openly about to RugbyPass in April 2019, but he returned with a bang, scoring nine tries as Exeter won last season’s Heineken Champions Cup and ten tries to help his team become Premiership champions.
“I haven’t actually (seen it). That might be something to do to get my head around it"
England backrow @samsimmonds_ talks to @heagneyl about his biggest career battle to date ???? https://t.co/8ieVt3iQbD
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 28, 2019
Overall, Simmonds has a prolific career try-scoring record of 52 tries in 76 Test, Premiership and Champions Cup appearances compared to Billy Vunipola’s 32 tries in 208 Test, Premiership and Champions Cup appearances – yet Simmonds is playing for Exeter at Sandy Park this Saturday while Vunipola, an out-and-out Jones favourite, runs out at Twickenham again as the preferred No8 despite his latest below-par performance in last week’s loss to Scotland.
How long more this strike rate of Simmonds can be ignored, who knows? What is clear is that Rob Baxter is revelling in seeing his No8 play so dominantly week after week after week. “What it comes down to is how they perform at the weekend and what he [Simmonds] has shown is that he is dealing with it exceptionally well,” said Baxter when quizzed by RugbyPass this week about his player’s stellar form and his ongoing non-selection by England.
“Whether his focus is to prove people right or to prove people wrong, whatever his driver is it’s working very well for him because he is performing very well in some tough games for us.
“What you see with Sam is he massively complements the rest of that (Exeter) pack of forwards, he complements the make-up of that back row, he complements the make-up of the back five of the scrum and he complements the make-up of the pack of a whole and he complements us as a team.
“That is what you need, you want each one of your 15 guys who are on the field to have a key role. They have obviously got to be an all-round rugby player, which Sam is because he gets talked about a lot as an attacker and as a ball-carrier and as a try-scorer but he is actually a very good defender.
“If you watch the quality of some of his collisions last weekend (at Newcastle) there is no way anyone is going to turnaround and say he is not a big defender as well. It’s that explosive raw power and speed that contributes to what he gives to the team as a back row forward,” continued Baxter, who team’s recent form suggests they have overcome the two league defeats they suffered in early January.
“As an example, having him work off the base of the scrum gives you great options in attack. In particular close to the opposition line, our five-metre attack does rely on power ball carriers over short distances which he is very good at so he scores in that area.
“And obviously if you set up any kind of a maul or a driving game you want the ball to be in the hands of the person who can make something happen if that maul breaks down or if it needs that final surge of power to get you over that last metre or so.
“He slots into filling all those roles really well and what we try to do with Sam is make sure we get the ball in his hands as much as possible because he has got the attributes that get him over a try line. That is what you do if you have got an attribute, you get the ball in that person’s hands.
“The challenge for any team when it has won trophies is not to hang in there and try and win it again, the challenge is how many players can have that season’s best tally in everything because that will ultimately drive you to another successful year.
“We talked to the players a lot about this. I said they need to have their best individual season this season because that is our best way of winning anything so if Sam has his best individual season as a try scorer, that is what gives us the best opportunity of winning a trophy at the end of the season. If you just try and have a season like last year we will go backwards, so it should be about individual targets and it should be about individual records, that is the way it should be.”
The Chiefs tighthead won his first cap in 18 months last Saturday at Twickenham, but is now surplus to requirement #SixNations #ENGvSCO #GallagherPremhttps://t.co/gR9DvE9SLK
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 10, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Are the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
2 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
2 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to comments