Nowell looking to kick on next season

By Mark Stevens
2/6/2016

Jack Nowell insists Exeter Chiefs must use the past season as the springboard for the club to launch another significant push for the Aviva Premiership title next term.

Rob Baxter’s side narrowly missed out on claiming a maiden English crown when Saracens followed up their recent European Cup triumph by successfully defending their Premiership tile with a 28-20 victory at Twickenham.

Down 23-6 at the break following a first half attacking storm from the Londoners, the talented Cornishman helped to lead the Exeter revival as the Chiefs fought back to within three points, just six minutes from time, courtesy of tries from Jack Yeandle and Nowell himself.

In the end, Saracens still had one last knockout blow to deliver and they floored their rivals just moments later when full-back Alex Goode claimed a match-winning score.

For the Chiefs there was little time to react, let alone overcome the deficit, and it meant that there was to be no fairy-tale ending to a magnificent season for the Devonians.

England star Nowell, however, believes there is plenty to be positive about moving forward and says by the start of next season he and his team-mates will be revved up and ready to have another crack at landing the big honours.

“The first thing Rob just said in the changing rooms was pre-season is going to be hard, but so it should be,” said Nowell. “Obviously the boys have got a bit of time off now to rest and recover and we’ll do the same once the summer tours are over, but then we’ll all come back in and get ready to go again.

“Although the boys are gutted right now, we should look to use the disappointment of it all to push us on for next season and use it as a sling shot to go forward.”

But whilst the majority of the Chiefs squad will rest up over this next month, Nowell - together with club mates Luke Cowan-Dickie and Henry Slade - will form part of Eddie Jones’ England squad who are currently touring Australia.

“It will be nice to have Sladey and Dickie over there with me, but we could easily have had more boys over there as well,” added Nowell. “It’s been a great season for all of us and it’s good that so many of us have been rewarded with tours, especially those going over to South Africa with the Saxons as well.”

As Nowell rightly points out, the Chiefs have just recorded their best-ever top flight campaign, reaching not only the Premiership Final, but the last eight of the European Champions Cup and also claiming the Premiership A League title.

“It’s not just been about the 15 guys who start or those on the bench, it’s been a whole squad thing throughout the season,” added the 23-year-old. “All the players, all the staff, everyone has done their bit. It’s been a long season for all of us, but it’s one we have enjoyed as well. As a club these are the games you want to be involved in and although we’ve come up short in the final, there is no point dwelling on it too much, it’s about moving forward again.

“Saracens came out a bit quicker than us in that first half and it meant we had a lot to do. We didn’t say too much at half time because we knew that wasn’t us, we knew what we had to do. In the second half you saw how we play and we caused Saracens a lot of problems, it was just a shame we didn’t do that in the first half.”