Simmonds primed for battle
By Mark Stevens
29/8/17
Sam Simmonds says he and his Exeter Chiefs were given a stark reminder of what lies ahead this season following last Friday’s narrow 21-20 pre-season defeat to Cardiff Blues.
Following their first-ever Aviva Premiership title success back in May, Devon’s finest have now become a prized scalp for all and sundry, a point underlined in a hard-fought encounter in the Welsh capital.
Since arriving in the Premiership for the first time back in the summer of 2010, the Chiefs have quietly gone about their business with aplomb, ruffling plenty of feathers amongst their rivals as they quickly established themselves amongst English rugby’s elite sides.
However, that success at HQ has changed the playing field, not just for Rob Baxter and his team, but also their many rivals. No longer consider the so-called ‘hunters’ – now they are very much the ‘hunted’ – with the Chiefs firmly in the cross hairs of many.
“Friday was not the best of results and wasn’t the type of performance we talked about in the week,” said Simmonds. “We laid some good foundations in the first half and we came in at half time knowing that we still had a job to do in the second half.
“Full credit to Cardiff, they did well and they really got stuck into us. As Rob said in the changing room afterwards, they are going to celebrate that win massively, because we have a bit of a name for ourselves now. Because we’re English champions everyone will want to come at us now, so we have to be ready to expect that kind of challenge every week.”
In winning the title, however, the Chiefs did show their credentials and Simmonds says they will need to rediscover that same form, which saw them go a record-breaking 17 league games unbeaten
“It’s something we have to go out and thrive on,” said the dynamic back-row forward. “We know people will want to knock us down, but as a team we’ve got to pull together as one. We done it last year and we know we have the team and the players in the squad to do it again.
“We know we need to push on in hard times, we didn’t do that against Cardiff, but there were plenty of things to take from the game and we need to put them into action next week [against Gloucester].
As part of the Chiefs side that won at Kingsholm last season, Simmonds – the older brother to Exeter playmaker Joe Simmonds – knows what to expect from the Cherry & Whites, who themselves will be looking to kick-off their season with a bang by toppling the reigning champions.
“Gloucester is always a very tough place to go and play,” admitted Simmonds. “Anything they doo r any mistake we make, you know the crowd is going to get on top of us. As a squad, we need to use that as a driver. We’ll look at them in detail during the week and we’ll get ourselves ready for a real battle up there.
“As always, though, the key thing will be to focus on ourselves and make sure we get the things right in our game. If we do that, then we give ourselves a great chance of getting something. It worked well for us last season, so hopefully it will do the same this time round as well.”
