60 not out

Exeter Chiefs' win over Wuss at the weekend means that they will become the 60th European club to appear in the premier Heineken Cup competition: Chiefs

Great stuff. Amazing story. Up the Chiefs. I'm pricing up a season ticket for next year, rather than my stupid Dragons one

Good man, Rev, it's only an hour and you can crash here afters



PS We'll even guarantee you your usual slot on TV

Nice one, hope I get a chance to see them live. Embra or Glasgows group.

Just an amazing acheivement in such a short space of time.

Delighted for you my wee skirted pal!

Would have sent you a wee text on Saturday when I saw you were definate qualifiers but your blessed phone still won't speak to mine!

Still have a play-off spot in your sights too.

Well done lads, you deserve it.

Great achievement, hope they can secure a jeff play off place now

Congratulations, fantastic achievement and nice to see an Irish influence in a club doing so well

I think that Exeter will be the team that everyone will want to avoid from pot 4

In it I think they will win 2 games at home and finish a respectable third

Would love to see them make the amlin 1/4 though

Amazing rise to power. They'll be winning the thing given a few seasons!

Congratulations Exeter

As

If they draw Edinburgh or Glasgow, I'll be counting on you for tickets at SP!!

Done, Tattie S

Me too ASBO - Warriors invade Exeter in the Heino next season

Grand, c21st, I've got your lodgings, pal

A little video accompaniment: Living the dream

This compilation of unedited/no commentary tries is fantastic particularly the last winning one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H59eES4XAM&feature=relmfu

Congrats to Exeter.

All hail the Chiefs.

The Chiefs are the best thing to happen to the AP in many a year, and their fans have consistently been the most fun to have at the Stoop.

I wish them every success, as long as it doesn't involve beating Quins.

Would love to draw them in the pool stages next year.

There would be some buzz in Sandy Park!

How is Craig Mitchell doing there ? Is he a cult hero yet ?

Mickado wrote:Would love to draw them in the pool stages next year.

There would be some buzz in Sandy Park!

I don't think that can happen unless there are 7 English teams in the HEC, which won't happen next year unless Edinburgh or Clermont win the HEC and Wasps survive financially and in the AP. Even then, I think Quins deserve a break from playing another English team - IIRC, the last two times we've been in the HEC we've drawn Gloucester! But I'd make an exception for the Chiefs. My favourite moment this season was when the combined fanbase at the Stoop adapted the tomahawk chop into a chorus of "Haaar-le-quins" to celebrate a Quins try. There aren't many sports or groups of fans who'd join in with something that generous and witty.

Pot Hale wrote:This compilation of unedited/no commentary tries is fantastic particularly the last winning one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H59eES4XAM&feature=relmfu

Congrats to Exeter.

All hail the Chiefs.

4:41 Happy Warriors fan.

Poorfour wrote:

Mickado wrote:Would love to draw them in the pool stages next year.

There would be some buzz in Sandy Park!

I don't think that can happen unless there are 7 English teams in the HEC, which won't happen next year unless Edinburgh or Clermont win the HEC and Wasps survive financially and in the AP. Even then, I think Quins deserve a break from playing another English team - IIRC, the last two times we've been in the HEC we've drawn Gloucester! But I'd make an exception for the Chiefs. My favourite moment this season was when the combined fanbase at the Stoop adapted the tomahawk chop into a chorus of "Haaar-le-quins" to celebrate a Quins try. There aren't many sports or groups of fans who'd join in with something that generous and witty.

I don't follow Poorfour, surely they will be in the HC regardless. Hence the original post?

Mickado wrote:

Poorfour wrote:

Mickado wrote:Would love to draw them in the pool stages next year.

There would be some buzz in Sandy Park!

I don't think that can happen unless there are 7 English teams in the HEC, which won't happen next year unless Edinburgh or Clermont win the HEC and Wasps survive financially and in the AP. Even then, I think Quins deserve a break from playing another English team - IIRC, the last two times we've been in the HEC we've drawn Gloucester! But I'd make an exception for the Chiefs. My favourite moment this season was when the combined fanbase at the Stoop adapted the tomahawk chop into a chorus of "Haaar-le-quins" to celebrate a Quins try. There aren't many sports or groups of fans who'd join in with something that generous and witty.

I don't follow Poorfour, surely they will be in the HC regardless. Hence the original post?

Agreed, Mick - not following your logic there, PoorFour, why couldn't Leinster and Exe be drawn in the same pool?

KickAndChase wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:This compilation of unedited/no commentary tries is fantastic particularly the last winning one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H59eES4XAM&feature=relmfu

Congrats to Exeter.

All hail the Chiefs.

4:41 Happy Warriors fan.

K&C, i think he's pointing out that we've beaten Wuss twice this season!

LordDowlais wrote:How is Craig Mitchell doing there ? Is he a cult hero yet ?

LD, not quite yet, altho he has been playing really well and is first choice atm. Injured his shoulder again against Stade Francaise, but hopefully it's nothing too serious. Budgie is likely to retire from the position of official Chiefs' cult hero, so there will be a vacancy for Craig to apply for - hopefully he's still working on Ian Evans to move to Sandy Park too

Mickado, Exeter and Quins are both in the HEC regardless, but the ERC will only put two English teams in one group if there are seven English teams in the draw.

There will already be seven French teams in the HEC next year (since the Amlin is an all-French affair now). If an Irish team wins the HEC itself, they will get 4 slots, but if Clermont win it there won't be 8 French teams, and if Edinburgh win it there aren't 3 Scottish teams to enter (see the debate elsewhere on this board). So the rule is that the place goes to the highest team in the ERC seedings that hasn't already qualified.

Assuming they survive, that's Wasps. Which would mean 7 English teams, and the possibility of Exeter facing Quins or some other English side.

Poorfour wrote:Mickado, Exeter and Quins are both in the HEC regardless, but the ERC will only put two English teams in one group if there are seven English teams in the draw.

There will already be seven French teams in the HEC next year (since the Amlin is an all-French affair now). If an Irish team wins the HEC itself, they will get 4 slots, but if Clermont win it there won't be 8 French teams, and if Edinburgh win it there aren't 3 Scottish teams to enter (see the debate elsewhere on this board). So the rule is that the place goes to the highest team in the ERC seedings that hasn't already qualified.

Assuming they survive, that's Wasps. Which would mean 7 English teams, and the possibility of Exeter facing Quins or some other English side.

Regardless of who wins the HC Exeter could still be in the same group as Leinster. That's all I'm saying.

From today's Grauniad:

Exeter? A European superclub? Don't smirk at the Chiefs ...

By Robert Kitson

Ahead of Exeter's Premiership battle with Northampton, chairman Tony Rowe is thinking big. In his days as a powerboat racer, Exeter's chairman and chief executive, Tony Rowe, once broke a speed record on Lake Windermere. That kind of exhilaration is hard to match but Sunday will induce similar emotions if the Chiefs defeat Northampton and reach this season's Aviva Premiership semi-final play-offs. Should they succeed it will maintain one of the steeper ascents in English rugby history, a remarkable journey which Rowe firmly believes is far from over.

Given the ebullient Rowe also collects fire engines for a hobby, left school at 15 to join the Royal Marines Band, and has ridden a motorbike the entire length of Africa, it is fair to assume this is not a man shy of a challenge. Exeter, it is easy to forget, were still in the Championship two years ago. Now they sit in the league's top four, having already ensured qualification for next season's Heineken Cup, and are talking about competing with the likes of Toulouse, Leinster and Munster. "In the long term our ambition is to become one of the top clubs in Europe," says Rowe. "We've still got masses of room for improvement."

Many will read his pronouncements and smirk. Exeter? A European superclub? Rowe, though, has an instant reply for the sceptics. "It only seems a few weeks ago I switched on the television and listened to so-called knowledgeable people saying: 'They're going to suffer second-season syndrome' 'They're one-dimensional, they're going to get caught out,'" he says. "I don't think people have taken the time to look beyond the surface at who we are. They have been too quick to write us off. Now, finally, they're starting to give us a bit of respect."

It is impossible not to. The Chiefs have yet to lose an away league game in 2012. Under the shrewd guidance of head coach Rob Baxter, they have beaten Leicester home and away, toppled Gloucester at Kingsholm and hammered the likes of Sale and Perpignan.

As anyone who saw their Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final against Stade Français in Paris will testify, they do not fear the big occasion. Had an apparent Richie Baxter try not been ruled out by the television match official – "If you me you'd say: ''What happened to the camera angle right in front of where he scored it?'" mutters Rowe – they would already have made a European semi-final. Their unbeaten reserve team, the Braves, host Leicester in the A League semi-final on Monday night. Last year Exeter regularly supplied four members of the England Under-20s backline. They have satellite academies in both Truro and Ivybridge churning out the cream of local talent. None of this is happening by accident.

When you factor in their enviable modern surroundings – a planning application is due to be submitted next month for the next stage of Sandy Park's proposed development into a 20,000-capacity arena – and a catchment area stretching from Somerset to Cornwall, the potential becomes more obvious still.

Fifteen years ago Munster were in a not dissimilar position, deemed hopelessly unfashionable country boys. "There's no reason we can't become the club that's the focus of every rugby player in the West Country," says Rowe. "Someone told me the other day they'd done a spreadsheet on where current Premiership rugby players come from. You could almost put two teams together from West Country guys playing in other Premiership clubs. There is no reason why we can't keep more of that talent here. This is a hotbed of rugby. They've had a go at football but they don't really get very far. "

At a time when the financial pips are squeaking elsewhere it shows how far collective desire, good management and a positive outlook can get you. Having been excluded from the established old boys' club of familiar names for so long, Rowe is not exactly weeping for those struggling now. "I don't want to appear big-headed but we've been a long time getting to where we are. We will make a profit this year, not a big one, but we run the club as a business. We don't get carried away like some businessmen do in sport. They make decisions which they would never make in the commercial world. We don't do that. If it's not viable, we won't go there. It's not only about money. It's about getting the right people around you."

The other secret, if there is one, is patience. Rowe, who started out repairing powerboat engines in Exmouth before launching his own computer and telephone business, insists rugby is no place for get-rich-quick merchants. "You can put the peg in the ground and say 'I'm going to get there.' Just don't kid yourself and say: 'I'm going to get there by next year.' Set yourself realistic targets but don't set yourself unrealistic timescales. This year Rob and the lads have far exceeded their target. I think that's brilliant. If they'd set the bar too high they'd have been disappointed. If you've succeeded in something, you can always go and succeed more, can't you?"

Which brings us to this weekend. See off Northampton and even Harlequins will be wary of the Marine-drilled, resilient Chiefs. The unflinching Richie Baxter and James Scaysbrook, the technically-excellent Brett Sturgess and the powerful Sireli Naqelevuki are tough nuts to crack. Tom Johnson, Haydn Thomas and the hooker Chris Whitehead should all be contenders for England's summer tour. "I would like to think we'll have a few more guys next season wearing the shirt with the red rose," agrees Rowe, determined to propel the club onwards and upwards. "It's a hell of an achievement qualifying for the Heineken Cup but we've got to go and do something in it now, haven't we? I'm very confident we can."

If not he can always go back to polishing his fire engines. Rowe boasts an extensive collection – "I've got fire engines going back 300 years … horse-drawn, hand-pulled, all sorts". His passion for the Chiefs is clearly evident, though, looking ahead to Sunday: "There'll be no one more excited or upset than me at the end of this game … I don't like losing." Northampton will do well to retreat from Devon, increasingly a hostile land of inflatable tomahawks and confident smoke signals, with their composure intact.