Joe Simmonds provides timely reminder why he has the spark that can ignite Exeter Chiefs’ season
It was has been a tricky season for the young Exeter fly-half, a 20-minute cameo displayed the very best of his game that suggests this could yet be his season after all
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Your support makes all the difference.This was meant to be the season for Joe Simmonds. The season he moved from rookie to controller, from prospect to contender, from runner to rider. The season young Joe followed his older brother Sam into the England team.
After a magnificent second half to last term, Simmonds was very much the coming man of English rugby. The young gun ready to project his lavish skills onto the international stage and take England and Exeter’s attacking game onto a new plane.
On Saturday against Bristol, for 20 minutes of an otherwise tortuous game of rugby, we were reminded why.
This has been tricky season for the 22-year-old playmaker. Not disastrous by any means. But tricky.
After enduring a torrid time in last season’s Premiership final against Saracens, when his head-to-head with Owen Farrell was scored a no-contest in favour of the more experienced No 10, Simmonds has struggled to recapture his form.
He has once again slipped behind veteran fly-half Gareth Steenson in the Chiefs pecking order and been forced to make do with cameo roles at full-back and only very occasional outings as the lead ringmaster at No10.
But he is too gifted not to come good and on Saturday, after replacing Steenson from the bench midway through the second half of a pig of a game, he lit up Sandy Park with his superb distribution off both hands and one of the best takes off a high ball you could possibly wish to see.
In what was otherwise a dirge, Simmonds played music from a different script as Exeter pulled clear through Sean Lonsdale’s 67th minute try to reclaim top spot in the Gallagher Premiership table.
Few players understand the challenge of recapturing early promise following a setback better than Henry Slade. The Exeter Chief burst onto the scene spectacularly in 2013 only to hit the buffers hard when he broke his leg in 2015 before faltering badly when not match-sharp in the 2016 Final.
Slade, now 25 and with 17 England caps to his name, has matured into the player we all knew he could be and provides a calming presence for Simmonds as he works through the teething problems which will surely pass.
“We speak a lot,” Slade said. “Even though I’m playing 13 I still do half-backs meetings with him. He’s a big talent. Physically he’s very gifted and very quick. He loves a show and go like myself. He’s been a really good player for us and had a really good end to last season.
“It has been frustrating for him this season not getting the game time he’d have wanted but he’s still got a lot of quality. You see that in training and see it when he gets his opportunities on the weekend. I’ve said to him just keep your head down and keep working hard. Don’t get frustrated by little things.
“The saying is that form is temporary and class is permanent and he’s a classy player. I’m sure he’ll keep pushing through.”
Whether Rob Baxter opts to reintroduce Simmonds in a bid to add some spark to Exeter’s stuttering attacking play in what is a must win European Champions Cup game against Castres next weekend remains to be seen. The absolute requirement for a bonus point win to stand a chance of progressing may tempt Exeter’s director of rugby to opt for the young tyro to pull the strings of a Chiefs backline which could also include fit-again Jack Nowell after he came through an “A” game unscathed on the weekend.
Baxter was sanguine on Saturday after another workmanlike but uninspiring win against a dogged Bristol side in a game as appetising as a toad pasty until Simmonds’ second-half introduction.
Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam cited an obscure maul law as reason for his side’s defeat but by the time the 24th scrum had been completed in a game refereed by Craig Maxwell-Keys, few in the ground had the appetite to draw breath, let alone reach for rugby’s dense law book.
Hopefully the next two weeks will bring more exciting fare as Exeter seek to reignite a European campaign which still somehow, against the odds, has life left in it.
Castres are first up followed by Munster. Two huge games for a club which needs to take the next step on an exciting journey. The same could be said of young Simmonds. Perhaps this could be his season, after all.
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