Coaches may have scant scope to change in a season like no other, and Exeter will take some stoppingOut with the old and in with the new. It has been more of a post-season than a pre-season for most Premiership players with the 2020–21 campaign starting less than four weeks after the play-off final between Exeter and Wasps at Twickenham. And the weather is the same dull grey.It will be a campaign unlike any other, shoehorned into seven months with no slack in the schedule. The pandemic will be in the background, frustratingly lacking an off switch, like muzak in a lift, with players and clubs waiting nervously every week for the results of tests. Another familiar feature will be...
Chiefs join Leicester, Wasps and Saracens as double winners but none of these were in the second tier a decade previouslyNo scorching May heat or packed stands, just damp autumn leaves on a windblown concourse and a soaking, empty colosseum. On the face of it this was as far removed from grand theatre as a small flapping tent on a sodden campsite but Exeter are increasingly a team for all seasons and stages, whatever the opposition or the weather throw at them.It was properly Hitchcock shower-scene wet by the end but, when it absolutely counted, the Chiefs’ grip on a cherished double proved impossible to shake. They are in excellent company with only Leicester (twice), Wasps and Saracens (twice) having...
Analysis by the ex-Wallaby’s company shows the benefits of long-term team stability and could transform our view of sportIn the leadup to the Premiership final on Saturday, here is an intriguing theory for you. A champion team is not, apparently, defined by brilliant coaching, charismatic leadership, massive biceps or even individual talent. In fact it is primarily dependant on none of those things. Success, instead, hinges on something very different: the level of familiarity between the players and how long all the various ingredients have been collectively simmering. Related: Exeter desperate to add Premiership title to Champions Cup success It’s not that Exeter necessarily make better players: they take players and get the most out of them Related: Wallabies must...
Racing 92 and Wasps know the double-seeking Chiefs will be relentless and intense but thwarting them is another matterBefore England played New Zealand in the 1995 World Cup semi-final in Cape Town, they did not pay too much attention to Jonah Lomu, the 19-year-old wing who was to reduce their defensive wall to rubble and reconstruct a game that was in the death throes of amateurism. “Nobody really knew much about him or his capabilities,” recalled the England No 8 that afternoon, Dean Richards, last year. “I do not think we did our due diligence on Lomu: we may have discussed him, but that was probably as much as we did do.”England preferred to focus on themselves, although in the...
Unshakeable belief their time is now and collective trust are the bedrock of both teams’ storming runs to the Premiership finalExeter are supposedly all about their no-nonsense forwards while Wasps are a free-wheeling bunch of adventurous buccaneers. The truth is considerably more layered: this year’s two Premiership finalists, above all, are prime examples of the crucial power of the mind, as much as body, in successful professional sport.Of course Exeter were punishingly physical against Bath while Wasps eventually ran Bristol ragged in the first of two one-sided semi-finals but at the heart of both results was something even more significant: a mindset, a belief and a collective trust that said far more about the victors than the big numbers on...