The rugby season starts now!

The new shirt has been launched, the fixtures have been announced, the lines have been painted on the pitch, the last pre-season training sessions are almost at end…now we just need the fixtures to start!

There are just two days to go as Exeter Chiefs men head into their 2026/27 curtain-raiser against Scarlets Rugby to whet the appetite for a season that will see last year’s Gallagher PREM finalists play at least 16 games on the hallowed Sandy Park turf.

Prem captains and senior players gathered for the first time yesterday with Dafydd Jenkins front and centre with Fin Smith, alongside the trophy. At the start of last season, very few would have put money on Chiefs making that final last June, but they did.

Chiefs also made the final of the Prem Rugby Cup and the semi-finals of the EPCR Challenge Cup. It was a far cry from the season before when Chiefs finished ninth in the league and stuttered through the European competition.

The question is, what will this season hold with new investment behind the team and a place in the Investec Champions Cup buoyed by a sense of brotherhood that was clearly evident last season?

Fans can make their own assessment with almost every player available playing against Scarlets this Saturday as director of rugby Rob Baxter fields two different sides for each half. This will give him the opportunity to blood some local youngsters ahead of the first Prem Rugby Cup game against Bristol Bears on Saturday, 12 September.

Another away friendly at Cardiff Rugby will follow this game before the dial is turned up a notch for the first PREM game of the season against Gloucester Rugby on Saturday, 26 September (KO 15:00).

Jenkins said: “We definitely exceeded a lot of people's expectations last season, but we fell a little at the final hurdle. Now we know truly what it takes to win a final, and I know the boys are chomping at the bit to get back into action this year.

"We've got some new faces, but the core of the group is the same. We know what we're working towards, and we know who we are as a group. Our home support is unreal; it's like no other. The Sandy Park crowd truly can be the 16th man, so we really can't wait to get back out there and start getting some results on the board."

This match will mark the end of the Sandy Park 20th Anniversary festivities in the wake of the Pasty & Pint Night on the Thursday and the gala dinner on the Friday. With players wearing shirts inspired by the jerseys that were worn for Chiefs’ first game at Sandy Park 20 years, emotions will be running high. More seasoned supporters will also remember Chiefs’ first game in the Premiership against Gloucester 16 years ago.

Summer is over. Rugby is back. Make sure you are involved from the get-go to see where this season takes us.

Buy tickets for Saturday’s curtain-raiser against Scarlets here.