Hanks hails Chiefs' fans

Pictures: Exeter Rugby Club

 


By Mark Stevens

Long-serving lock James Hanks has hailed the Exeter Chiefs supporters as "fantastic" after around 1,000 of them descended en masse to the South of France to back their heroes in their latest Heineken Cup encounter.

Just a week after Sandy Park was packed to the rafters for the visit of the reigning European champions, it was the turn of the Travelling Tribe to show their colours on the road for Saturday's latest encounter at the Stade Felix Mayol.

Toulon, it seems, has never seen anything quite like it as Chiefs fans used every available form of transport to ensure they were part of a wonderful sporting occasion.

Sadly, Exeter's brave on-field efforts were not quite enough to secure victory against the star-studded French outfit, who eventually triumphed 32-20, but it didn't stop the Tribe from enjoying their latest European escapade.

“Our away support has always been fantastic, and it made a massive difference to see the fans before we had the team run the night before the game. They gave us a big cheer as we walked into the stadium,” said Hanks.

“To see them all enjoying themselves was just fantastic, and long may it continue. We respect them so much, and we are so proud of those guys for being there for us all the way, even when we are losing and don’t perform as well as we should.

“At the end of the game, we just wanted to say thank you to the fans and we weren’t expecting anything else. It was great.”

Following the retirement of No.8 Richard Baxter at the end of last season, Hanks is now Exeter's longest-serving player and is fast closing in on 200 first team appearances.

Since making his debut against the Cornish Pirates in 2005, the Sidcup-born forward has enjoyable many memorable occasions with the Chiefs, but even he admits Saturday's showdown in France as among his highlights.

“It was a pretty special occasion,” said the 29-year-old. "Obviously, we were disappointed with the result. We had opportunities in the game, and we weren’t quite as clinical as we probably hoped to be.

“We didn’t quite take the chances that came our way, and you don’t generally get too many chances against the best teams in Europe, and that is a big learn for us. But I think for most of the game we were there or thereabouts, and just a few set-piece issues let us down a little bit when we really tried to force the game.

“The guys put in a lot of effort, and compared to where we were five years ago, the club have come a long, long way. This is where you want to be,” Hanks added.

“You want to be testing yourself against the best players in the world and playing on the big stages, and this was certainly one of them, and maybe we didn’t quite get what we wanted out of the game, but everyone is pretty proud of the club and where we have been. However, I think we can still push on and get better.”

It was the second successive week in which Exeter had run Toulon very close, after losing 14-9 at Sandy Park seven days earlier. And Hanks admits the Chiefs showed on both occasions that the club are capable of competing against the very best in Europe.

He continued: “We are not too far away, but the small margins that count out there on the pitch can lead to big gains for us, and we have got to keep paying attention to those small details.

“Toulon were very, very clinical with the chances they had in the first half, and we weren’t, but that is rugby at the highest level and you have got to take any chances you get.”