Dennis targets greater rewards
By Mark Stevens
12/7/17
Aussie star Dave Dennis insists there is no reason Exeter Chiefs can’t push on and achieve greater success this season, both in the Aviva Premiership and European Champions Cup.
The 31-year-old forward enjoyed a dream debut season at Sandy Park, helping his new club to lift English rugby’s top prize with a hard fought victory over Wasps in May’s Premiership final at Twickenham.
Brought to Devon during the summer of 2016 following ten years with Super Rugby outfit, NSW Waratahs, Dennis admits life in the Northern Hemisphere has exceeded expectations.
“I consider myself very lucky,” said Dennis, who was also part of the Waratahs squad that lifted the Super Rugby crown back in 2014.
“I’ve been privileged to face a new challenge be part of a great place to play rugby and be involved in the Chiefs’ first-ever Premiership win.
“I had some good reports from people who’d been here, but it’s far exceeded anything I envisaged.
“I’d only ever been at the Waratahs and that’s all I knew, but I can’t imagine there being too many places in world rugby now where you actually feel the same community spirit and passion for the game the people here in Devon have.”
Refreshed and revived following a short summer break, which included an enjoyable golfing trip to Portugal with some of his fellow countrymen, Dennis is raring to go again and help the Chiefs back up their best-ever performance in league competition.
“Not long after winning the Premiership final the chairman Tony Rowe and coach Rob Baxter were talking about winning the Champions Cup, which sent out a clear message about where they want to take this club,” added Dennis.
“Some people never win a league title in their whole careers, so to do it twice with the Waratahs and Exeter is fantastic – there’s no reason why we can’t push on and achieve greater success at European level.”
Part and parcel of Exeter’s success last season was the way in which they attacked the season, particularly during the second half of the campaign, where they produced a record-breaking run of eight successive five-point victories in the top flight.
Dennis acknowledges that the English game offers much more attacking threat than he had previously thought - and that such a mind-set had undoubtedly boosted England’s chances of lifting the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Only beaten finalists Wasps (on 89) scored more Premiership tries than the Chiefs (86) last season. That collection of 175 touchdowns between them formed part of 725 scored in total from 132 regular season matches.
“As far as Exeter are concerned in how we want to play the game, our backs coaches Ali Hepher and Ricky Pellow want us to attack and play good footy,” continued Dennis.
“Five years ago, the perception back in Australia was that the Premiership was a kick-fest and set-piece grind, but over the last few years the Premiership has shown that if you want to win it, you have to attack well and score points.
“Unless you’re just trying to survive in the Premiership or finish in mid-table, you can’t be conservative. If you want to be a leading team you’ve got to score tries, which both ourselves and Wasps showed throughout last season.
“Saracens do things slightly differently but they still score lots of tries and that’s got to be the way forward for English rugby. That’s certainly our mentality at the Chiefs and I don’t think anyone could argue it’s not successful.”