Champions of Europe. Check. Champions of England? You can check that now too.
Exeter Chiefs confirmed their status as the best rugby side on home soil on Saturday night as they beat Wasps to win the Premiership Rugby final.
The Chiefs won 19-13 in the pouring rain at Twickenham to complete their first-ever domestic and European double.
Joe Simmonds’ boot proved the difference between Exeter and Wasps as his two late penalties steered Rob Baxter’s side to victory – in what was a euphoric moment for their head coach.
‘The biggest emotion right here and now is one of relief. I know that sounds strange when you win a competition, but I think last week plays a huge part in that,’ he reflected post-match.
‘What I’m really pleased with more than anything else is that we’ve got a group of players down there now, we’ve got both trophies in the changing rooms because we need them both there because we can now celebrate last week as well as this week.
‘Whatever would have happened today, if we hadn’t have won it would have certainly taken the shine off that a little bit. What this allows us to do is to genuinely stop and pause and look back a little bit over a very good season over two very good competitions and allow us to actually now spend some time reflecting on how important the work these guys have done has been to the club.
‘I’m just relieved that they’re capable now of really enjoying what they’ve achieved without any shine being taken off.’
Wasps took an early 3-0 lead through a Jimmy Gopperth penalty before Henry Slade cancelled that out with a piece of magic.
With 18 minutes gone, Exeter were inside the Wasps’ half as they were looking to break the gainline and they did so with a piece of magic from their England centre. Collecting a pass on the 40-metre line, Slade the Wasps defence a dummy as he dissected through them to score near the corner. Simmonds added the conversion to make it 7-3 in their favour.
Wasps regrouped though and 12 minutes later were back in front through a try of their own. Scrum half Dan Robson’s flat pass on the gainline found young fly-half Jacob Umaga who sprinted through a gap in the Exeter defence to score under the posts.
Gopperth scored the conversion to make it 10-7 to Lee Blackett’s side.
Wasps though couldn’t hold on to the lead as two Simmonds penalties in the final five minutes of the first half saw Exeter go into half-time with a 13-10 lead.
It took nearly 20 minutes inside the second half before the scoreboard moved when Gopperth levelled the scores at 13-13 with a penalty that was brilliantly won by Lima Sopoaga.
Simmonds nudged Exeter in front again with another penalty to set up a grandstand finish with 15 minutes left as the Chiefs led 16-13.
Twickenham was tense, despite barely anyone inside due to the coronavirus pandemic, and that was palpable with five minutes to go when Wasps won a penalty with five minutes remaining. Instead of opting to kick for the three points, they backed themselves and kicked for the corner to win a line-out. However, replacement hooked Gabriel Oghre’s throw was picked off by Exeter lock Jonny Gray to Wasps’ despair.
With their big moment gone, Wasps tried to disrupt the Chiefs in order to regain possession but it was to no avail as Exeter recycled possession wisely.
And to add further salt to their wounds, Exeter won another penalty that was dispatched by Simmonds as the 23-year-old became the youngest captain to ever win the Premiership title.
On October 17 Exeter had defeated Racing 92 to win the Heineken Champions Cup for the first time in their history. That coupled with this achievement at Twickenham means they will go down in English rugby history as just the fourth club to win domestic and European titles in the same season.
They join Leicester, who did back-to-back doubles in 2001 and 2002, Wasps – who won both titles in 2004 – and Saracens, who dominated at home and abroad in 2016 and 2019.
However, Exeter’s feat is made the more remarkable as they were only promoted to the top flight in 2010, having spent the first 139 years of their existence among the lower reaches of the English rugby pyramid.
