NIGEL WALROND

The excitement is growing at Sandy Park as the business end of the season fast approaches.

The Chiefs have a Premiership Rugby Cup final against London Irish to look forward to; a home round of 16 match with Montpellier in the Heineken Champions Cup; and they are still very much in the hunt for a top-four finish in the Premiership and a place in the semi-finals, especially if they can beat second-place Sale Sharks today,

And Exeter’s ladies’ team is sitting at the top of the Allianz Premier 15s.

Not bad for a club that, if you read some of the doom and gloom posts on social media in recent weeks, you would think was having a dreadful season!

I’ve read calls for the coaching staff to be changed, demands for a change of playing style, and a general negative feeling about anything Chiefs spouted from some quarters.

Much of the doom and gloom has been caused by what has felt like a never-ending stream of news about players leaving the club at the end of the season.

And I am as gutted as anyone that people like Dave Ewers, Sam Simmonds, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jannes Kirsten - and some of the other names who have been linked with moves away that have not been confirmed yet – are moving on come the end of the campaign.

I have followed every inch of their journeys at the Chiefs from the commentary box, and it will feel very strange when their names do not appear on the teamsheet in 2023-24.

I have also listened to the Chiefs’ coaches in recent weeks and months talk about how excited they are about the future, and the players that they have coming through.

At times it has felt like a bit of good PR to soften the blow of big-name departures.

The problem is that we have been denied seeing some of these young stars, that they witness on a daily basis at training, in action because of the lack of an A League, so many supporters are very much in the dark about the next crop of Cowan-Dickies, Slades and Nowells coming through.

But my excitement over the Chiefs’ future is growing day by day, having watched the likes of Dafydd Jenkins, Greg Fisilau and Christ Tshiunza in both club and international action in the past few weeks and months.

And then came that superb Premiership Rugby Cup semi-final win over Sale Sharks, when even more names came to the fore. Players like Tom Wyatt and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso to name just two.

Two more bright, young talents, Richard Capstick and Will Becconsall, are currently injured.

And then you can add in the fact that director of rugby Rob Baxter has not announced any new signings for next season yet.

No-one likes change, but change can be a good thing, and anyone who has watched Chiefs on a regular basis since their wonderful EuropeanPremiership double in 2020 will know that at times things have looked like they have needed a bit of a freshen up.

I can’t wait for what the next three months might bring – and I sincerely hope that all these players who are departing are given the glorious on-thepitch send-off they so deserve.