Something special brewing in Exeter
Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:06
Flyhalf Steenson slots another one for Exeter. (c) Getty
Irishman Gareth Steenson may have stolen the headlines following his opening day heroics, but the Exeter Chiefs flyhalf was quick to heap praise on his teammates following his side's excellent 22-10 victory over Gloucester.
Yet again the 26-year-old was in deadly form with his right boot as he slotted 17 points on his Aviva Premiership debut to sink the threat of Bryan Redpath's visitors at Sandy Park.
His outstanding display - in which he slotted five successful kicks from five attempts - was in stark contrast to that of his opposite number Nicky Robinson, who failed to hit the target once in as many attempts.
Saturday's 17-point haul ensured Dungannon-born Steenson has now moved onto 549 points for the club and he is keen to add to that tally over the coming weeks and months.
Following the final whistle, however, Steenson heaped gratitude on the work of his fellow players, particularly the Exeter pack who laid a superb foundation for the Chiefs No.10 to work his magic.
"Personally, I'm delighted to get a few points over the bar and I've got to work hard on that on a week-by-week basis," he said.
He added, however: "The pack were outstanding, they're the boys who win the penalties and it's my job to put the ball over the bar.
"Thankfully, it happened on Saturday."
Steenson opened his account by converting Mark Foster's early try, before adding four penalties and a late drop-goal to sink the threat of the Cherry & Whites.
"I'm delighted, it's a perfect start to the season," he added.
"We've worked hard in pre-season, we've learned from the couple of games we had and we've now shown we can perform at this level.
"I'm really pleased with how the boys, from one to 23, performed. We want to make this place as much of a fortress as we can, but it's got to happen every week.
"It's a lot more demanding than the Championship, the intensity is there but we've got the guys who can perform and hopefully people will now sit up and take notice of us. We're really proud of how we performed but we've got to do it all again against Leicester next week."
Chiefs wing Mark Foster described Saturday's 22-10 victory over Gloucester in the Aviva Premiership as a "real squad performance" and has backed the club to continue to flourish in English rugby's top-flight.
He said: "It's a massive confidence thing. We had a quiet confidence that we could mix it with the big boys, hopefully on Saturday we showed a few people we can.
"Emotion and heart go a long way in this league. Leicester have had it for the last 20 years, they've had world-class sides with the foundations built on wanting to play for each other.
"What Rob (Baxter) and Ali (Hepher) are building is something that can rival that in terms of the emotion that goes into the fixture every weekend."
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