There Won't Be An Asterisk Next To This Superb Team

It was the season that would never end we thought and the final nobody really expected to witness – but Exeter duly claimed a wonderful European and Premiership double at a sodden Twickenham where the rain, torrential rain, bounced off the empty seats.

- Brendan Gallagher

Back home, however, we were all cheering both sides because Wasps could easily have nicked this one and produced a heroic defensive performance after the most difficult of fortnights, but most of the accolades and plaudits go to Exeter after their season of all seasons.

They join a very select group of English clubs who have achieved the double – Leicester (twice), Wasps and Saracens. That is the elite territory they are now entering and the exciting thing for Exeter fans is that their team are still relatively young and can get much better.

Their fresh-faced captain Joe Simmons is only 23 for heaven’s sake and now takes his place alongside the veteran hairyarsed trio of Martin Johnson, Lawrence Dallaglio and Brad Barritt as a double-winning captain!

The likes of Jonny Hill, Sam Simmonds, Sam Skinner and Luke Cowan-Dickie have only just got going; Scottish superstars Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray – the latter played a brilliant hand off the bench yesterday – are just getting their feet under the table and Sam Maunder looks young enough to still need ID in pubs.

Henry Slade is entering his pomp as the classiest of midfield operators, Alec Hepburn and Harry Williams are looking to kick on as props after patiently learning their craft and only recently has Dave Ewers worked out how to fully utilise his extraordinary man strength.

Exeter are on a roll. We could be entering a period of dominance that we have only seen before in this country with Leicester and Bath of old. We don’t have a Super RugbyChampions Cup match this year, they called it off after the first round of fixtures, but on this form I would back the Chiefs against last year’s champions the Crusaders.