So, Exeter Chiefs are champions! There is confetti and champagne, a few selfies and plenty of ecstatic supporters. The Exeter players take it in turns to hold the trophy aloft, before coming together for pictures and other frolics which will surely last long into the night. Then comes a rousing Tomahawk Chop. Thank you very much for joining me for this classic. Have a good evening. Bye!
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The party is well underway for Exeter Chiefs, who are about to collect their Premiership winners’ medals. They are slowly gathering on a stage, erected on the Twickenham pitch, ready to lift the glistening trophy stood in front of them. It is anguish for Wasps, who can only look on thinking ‘what if’.
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Dai Young has his Wasps team in a huge huddle, doubtless praising their efforts as opposed to pinpointing what went wrong. That was helluva game for the neutral, and that is some ending to the season for Chiefs. For Wasps, it is “agony”, says Joe Launchbury.
“We came up short right at the end,” he says. “It is going to hurt a lot but I am sure we can learn from it. We were within a minute of winning the game.”
A mammoth effort from all involved, including yourselves. “It is unbelievable, I cannot even put it into words to be honest,” says Gareth Steenson, who looks absolutely absorbed in the occasion. “It is going to be an interesting three or four days down in Devon.
What tension? “I have had the worst week of nerves, if you ask my wife, she has been looking at me like I have two heads,” Steenson says.
Exeter’s Rob Baxter is in tears pitchside. Don Armand is full of every emotion too. “We believed in ourselves, we believed we could finish stronger but credit to Wasps because 90 seconds was the difference between winning and losing that game.”
Exeter are overjoyed, Wasps are on the floor. Rob Baxter’s side have won this game in extra-time, with a last-gasp penalty. What an ending to this season!
Full-time result: Wasps 20-23 Exeter
Exeter Chiefs are Premiership champions!
We've only gone and won it!
— Exeter Chiefs (@ExeterChiefs) May 27, 2017
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99 min Exeter are just looking to run the clock down. Whitten is tackled by Cipriani but Nowell collects. Seconds to go at Twickenham ...
Penalty! (Steenson, 98) Wasps 20-23 Exeter
Cool as a cucumber.
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97 min Mullan pulls down Thomas Francis in the Exeter scrum and he is penalised. Gareth Steenson steps up to convert from 27m out ...
97 min Penalty to Exeter Chiefs!
97 min Exeter Chiefs’ chief executive, Tony Rowe, does not know whether to laugh or cry. He smiles straight down the camera, as the referee resets things for another Exeter scrum.
96 min “I can’t see that has been grounded, it’s held up,” JP Doyle is told. Exeter look a little upset in the dugout but there are no big protests. So, we have another scrum 6m or so from the Wasps’ line.
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96 min JP Doyle goes to the television match official, with Exeter confident they have themselves a try through McIntyre ...
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95 min Exeter rattle through the 21st and 22nd phases, with Waldron pushing his team closer and closer. Johnson and Simpson make two big tackles but Waldron is still in there with the ball.
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94 min Parling crashes into Johnson, who again rebuffs his advances. Campagnaro is bullied away from moving forwards by Launchbury. Exeter press again with Nowell going around the houses to move 7m away from the Wasps’ line.
92 min Yeandle throws in from the line-out, with Waldron collecting in the middle. The players seem to be, understandably, taking more and more time to get back on their feet after each ruck breaks down. Exeter look bright still, though, with Nowell and Woodburn dancing into pockets of space in the Wasps defence.
91 min Doyle gets the second period underway. Are we heading to a penalty shootout?
Extra-time half-time score: Wasps 20-20 Exeter
A catalogue of errors to close the first 10 minutes of extra time, with the ball eventually bouncing off Daly before JP Doyle blows his whistle.
89 min A peach of a kick by Cipriani sees Wasps move downfield, within 6m of Chief’s line, with Launchbury and co coming up for Johnson’s line-out. Chiefs seize upon his low, flat delivery but Wasps just about get away with it. The ball eventually falls to Wade and Le Roux but they make a mess of it.
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87 min Woodburn appears to still have plenty left in the tank, dodging away from a couple of Wasps challenges before being pulled to the floor. Campagnaro and Nowell link up nicely but Wasps get the line-out. You sense Christian Wade’s pace, if he can dig deep here, could yet prove pivotal.
85 min Wasps win a penalty, with Nathan Hughes hurting himself in the process. Chiefs were closing in the 5m line but Hughes’ turnover allows Wasps to end the Exeter siege and kick out of their 22.
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84 min Exeter have a lineout in a fanciful area down the left flank. Parling gathers it, before Whitten picks it up. He runs into Cipriani before Waldron then has a go himself. Chiefs are enjoying plenty of the ball.
83 min Matt Mullan looks as though he could come back on here, with Marty Moore grounded with seemingly a shoulder injury. Both teams have a little more downtime as a result, with Moore sat up receiving treatment on the field.
82 min Myell knocks it on, Hughes played him in with something of a hospital pass. There simply is no margin for error here now. Chiefs have a scrum on the halfway.
We're back underway ... again!
After Cipraini’s kick gets us started, Wasps have an early line-out inside the Chiefs half, with Ashley Johnson doing the honours.
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The two teams hold a quick and hopefully inspirational huddle. We will have two 10-minute halves. And if that does not separate them, then there will be a kicking competition. Sounds good, right?
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Final score after 80 minutes: Wasps 20-20 Exeter
Well then, we will have another 20 minutes of action at Twickenham to separate these two.
Penalty! (Steenson, 80) Wasps 20-20 Exeter
That was easy. We are heading towards extra-time ...
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79 min Wasps concede a penalty, with Hughes penalised for dangling those hands into the ruck. It is a head in hands moment for Dai Young. Exeter were 90 seconds away from defeat last Saturday against Saracens ...
78 min Daly’s boot clears from the scrum. Exeter, relentless, drive forward again. A late, late penalty for Exeter would send this match into extra-time.
76 min Chiefs have been hammering at the door but Wasps have no intentions of letting them in. A crucial scrum for Wasps, after Campagnaro loses the ball within seconds of arriving. Phil Blake, the Wasps defensive coach, is ecstatic up in the stands.
75 min Slade gets caught by Johnson’s fresh pair of legs at halfway. Woodburn then breaks away, but Simpson, the Wasps scrum-half, gets in the way to block. Another change for the Chiefs, with Campagnaro replacing Devoto. Less than five minutes to go at Twickenham.
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74 min Nowell gifts the ball away to Hughes at the crucial moment, with Gopperth clattering into the fly-half at the decisive moment. Exeter are not giving up here, with Steenson driving forward from deep but others are beginning to look a little leggy.
73 min Wasps come away with the ball, with Guy Thompson snaffling it away from Whitten. That was a heroic bit of defending. Simpson launches a clearing kick, which is gobbled up by Slade before Exeter pour forward once again.
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72 min And after all that, we have another scrum 5m from the line. Can Wasps shove Exeter out again, as Haskell did superbly then. Plenty of nail-biting to come in the final stages here.
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71 min The scrum finally comes, but Haskell prevents Waldron from nicking the ball from the scrum. The Chiefs pile forward once more through Parling ...
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69 min A cauldron of noise is rolling around all three tiers of Twickenham, with so much riding on this scrum. JP Doyle orders another.
68 min A scrum it is ...
67 min Exeter are 5m from the line. After 34 phases, Exeter win a penalty. Do they take the simple three points or go to the scrum. There is a degree of inevitability here either way you would think.
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66 min Exeter bear down on the Wasps 22, with Devoto stepping inside with Whitten providing a helping hand. Steenson then attempts to burst through on the blindside, with Woodburn accelerating to within 10m of the try-line. A spirited route one drive forward ends with another ruck.
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65 min A couple more personnel changes: Guy Thompson and Ashley Johnson replace Thomas Young and Tommy Taylor.
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Penalty! (Steenson, 63) Wasps 20-17
Steenson kicks it over and he closes the gap to three points at Twickenham.
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62 min Parling loses the ball but Wasps seize on the ball illegally. Their director of rugby, Dai Young, has been chatting about his team’s progress. “We have got ourselves back in front but this game is far from over,” he says. “We seem to have slowed down in the last couple of phases but we need to make Exeter work.”
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60 min A forward pass by Wasps gifts Exeter Chiefs a scrum at halfway. Meanwhile, Sam Simmonds comes on for Dave Dennis. Chudley is on for Dennis too. Plenty of changes and there could be more: Marty Moore looks in a bit of trouble, but he stays on – for now at least.
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59 min This game is getting pretty tetchy now. You get the sense that the next score could make or break this one. Both teams look frightened to make the wrong move.
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58 min Another knock on against Exeter, this time Whitten is the guilty party. The television camera pans to Eddie Jones, who will be back tomorrow at Twickenham for when England host Barbarians.
57 min Geoff Parling is caught in two minds and concedes a knock on. Wasps, meanwhile, make a triple-change of their own, with Joe Simpson replacing Robson for his 150th Premiership appearance. Simon McIntyre and Kearnan Myall enter in place of Mullan and Symons.
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56 min Henry Slade catches but that it is about it, he is yet to really make any impact on this game. It’s one-way traffic at the moment, with Wasps 25 minutes away from another Premiership title.
Penalty! (Gopperth, 54) Wasps 20-14 Exeter
Woodburn crashes into an airborne Gopperth, and the New Zealander converts his kick. Wasps are beginning to grind through the gears a little, and Exeter have frozen since that Daly try at the start of this half. Meanwhile, Horstmann is replaced by Mitch Lees for Exeter.
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51 min Cipriani gambles, going long to his right but it pays-off, with Wasps finding their rhythm going forward with a beautiful sweeping move. That all came at breakneck speed. Gopperth stays grounded: he looks fatigued by that run and dummy, after good work by Wade to bring Wasps close to the Exeter 22.
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50 min Front-row movements for Exeter. Ben Moon, Cowan-Dickie and Williams replaced by Yeandle, Rimmer and Francis. All change, all change.
49 min Fine interplay between Cipriani, Robson, Wade and Daly. It is the sort of lightning attacking move Exeter will have had nightmares about. Ultimately it comes to nothing but Gopperth seizes back the ball on halfway.
48 min Exeter win a penalty but Henry Slade’s kick goes straight out, the wrong side of the flag. A penny for Saracens’ thoughts. Rob Baxter looks anxious up in the gods of Twickenham.
46 min On comes Henry Slade in place of Phil Dollman, who leaves the field gingerly. Meanwhile, Wasps are in the groove with Le Roux storming forward but Exeter put in the hard yards to get back at them but they could do with steadying themselves here.
45 min Not the start Exeter had in mind. Waldron thunders into the Wasps pack, while Dollman appears to be in trouble, limping around the field.
Try (Daly, 43) + con! Wasps 17-14 Exeter
Hughes creates this, making the hit before surging forward, bouncing off a trio of white shirts before Wade chips over the top, the bounce falls kindly for Daly and over the line. Wasps are more than just back in this now. Gopperth, just about, converts too, in off the right post.
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42 min Horstmann drives into a ruck before Jack Nowell takes over ahead of Townsend. Waldron then has Launchbury and Young for company. Then the ball is moved from the left-to-right, it is all very nice, with Parling attempting to find a route through. Nathan Hughes, though, stops all of that.
We're off again!
Exeter kick downfield, but Wasps come straight back at them through Josh Bassett.
The second half of action is imminent. Wasps will no doubt want to start this second period as they finished the first. As for Exeter, they will essentially just want more of the same.
Half-time: Wasps 10-14 Exeter
An exhilarating first 40 or so minutes at Twickenham.
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Try (Gopperth, 41) + con! Wasps 10-14 Exeter
An inside break allows Jimmy Gopperth to drive forward and under the posts after a neat spell by Wasps. He converts, too, to send Wasps down the tunnel with a bounce. Cipriani had led another move before eventually running into Ollie Devoto, who has been everywhere so far in this one. Wasps suddenly come alive before the interval.
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38 min Wasps have a free-kick after Ian Whitten is pulled up for going over the top of the shoulder on Joe Launchbury. Another frenetic break by Wasps in this fast-paced affair. Taylor with the line-out but Wasps get it wrong, allowing Nowell and Townsend to turn it over.
36 min Steenson and Elliot Daly interchange kicks before the Wasps centre kicks straight out. The pain on the face of Dai Young, high up in the stands at Twickenham, says it all. Wasps have been extremely wasteful in possession at times.
35 min Wasps’ Phil Swainston fails the HIA, with Marty Moore hoping now to play the rest of this relentless match.
34 min Nowell goes chasing after the ball is punted forwards by Stu Townsend as Exeter look to break. Bassett has the legs to match him but Wasps, all of sudden, lose 60m. Steenson then pours forwards, as does Woodburn, before Wasps earn a penalty through Bassett.
33 min Wasps still have the ball, but they cannot find a way through past Exeter’s white wall ...
31 min Wasps are little unlucky, with Daly playing a neat kick out to Bassett but it bounces awkwardly and high. It’s a Wasps line-out after Exeter intercept on the verge of the try-line. Hughes, Haskell and Cipriani all look to try and find a response.
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30 min Wasps have it all to do then. Exeter have been absolutely rampant at times. Once everybody vacates a ruck, Nathan Hughes bursts through again, a one-man band on a mission. He has had a brilliant half an hour in the centre, but Luke Cowan-Dickie – somehow – turns it over before Launchbury gets involved. Wasps earn a scrum.
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Try (Dollman, 28) + con! Wasps 3-14 Exeter
A second HIA of the afternoon, with Moore replacing Swainston for Wasps after a clash with Devoto. From the scrum, Exeter break through Steenson and then Devoto, who sidesteps towards the line. He cannot take it over but Dollman can, who runs off celebrating his first try of this campaign, before Steenson converts. No bother.
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26 min Exeter’s scrum overwhelms Wasps, with Swainston and co at a loss to prevent another driving line-out. Ben Moon is a real colossus for the Chiefs, and might he just be one of the most under-rated cogs in Rob Baxter’s team?
25 min Guy Thompson welcomes Nathan Hughes back on. He looks all ready to go again. Hughes has made eight crashing tackles already in this clash.
24 min Wasps are readying Nathan Hughes again on the touchline it seems, assuming he has passed his head assessment. He certainly picked up a few bruises in those opening stages. Meanwhile, Daly tries to wriggle away from the Chiefs defence but he loses the ball in the process, as he is suffocated out by Jack Nowell.
22 min “Things like this are a little bit frustrating,” Rob Baxter says, as his Exeter side are penalised from the scrum. Wasps seek a way forward through Launchbury and then Haskell but Parling is there to hound him out. Whitten then dives into to steal the ball away himself. What can they do with the ball?
21 min Robson’s pass is intercepted by Harry Williams before Whitten’s movement forward forces Jimmy Gopperth into a knock-on. That looked like nerves to me. Exeter earn a free-kick, while Tommy Taylor is momentarily down with Ali James the Wasps physio.
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Penalty! (Gopperth, 18) Wasps 3-7 Exeter
The New Zealander converts after Whitten strayed offside. Meanwhile, Nathan Hughes is off and Thompson comes on to replace him. If that is a permanent move then he’ll be a big loss.
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16 min Wasps look to hit back, but Cipriani is blocked by Horstmann. Hughes again looks to drive his team on with a huge carry, with Willie Le Roux finding space on the left, Josh Bassett then takes over, with a hint of a forward pass, but he continues before Steenson stops him before the cavalry arrive to snuff out the threat.
Try + con! Wasps 0-7 Exeter
Exeter get a penalty after Wasps’ collapsed scrum. Exeter’s driving line-out, from Luke Cowan-Dickie looks to cause danger and Jack Nowell runs through a big hole on the inside to skip away from his outside number for the first try of the afternoon. Gareth Steenson kicks to ensure Exeter get their noses in front.
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10 min Exeter get themselves into a great area, with Woodburn driving into space, fending Yarde but Wasps defensively do well, with Launchbury slowing up the next phase of possession.
9 min Possession stats so far read as Exeter 65% and Wasps only 35%. Exeter look to breakthrough via Horstmann but it is that man Nathan Hughes again who makes a huge hit in the middle of the field. Exeter, though, go again, with Woodburn flying forward.
8 min Wasps build from a solid scrum, sweeping from right-to-left with Daly, but Josh Bassett cannot quite get hold of the ball after flooding down the left channel.
7 min Woodburn looks to Steenson but Hughes turns it over, and suddenly it looks as though they may counter. Cipriani apologises after failing to drive forward with any real incision. Hughes is proving a real nuisance against Steenson – crashing into the fly-half.
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5 min Wasps have been under the kosh to begin with but Exeter’s scrum is moving so Dai Young’s side win a free-kick themselves. The lineout sees Cowan-Dickie intercept before Woodburn takes it on. Exeter have made a bustling start at Twickenham.
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4 min The first line-out comes from Luke Cowan-Dickie, with Waldron attempting to breakout but Wasps crowd him out. The first driving lineout results in another once in quick succession. Great work by Wasps, though, with Nathan Hughes rolling in to stop Townsend from digging the ball out.
2 min Elliot Daly slips past Steenson’s challenge, and Launchbury almost gets away but the offload results in a scrum. The Exeter scrum really is a thing to behold, but this time the referee penalises Phil Swainston.
Peeeeeeeeeeep!
And JP Doyle blows the whistle to get the 2017 Premiership final underway at Twickenham, with Danny Cipriani kicking downfield from the off.
The teams are out on the pitch, bypassing the Premiership trophy as they go. There are pitch-side pyrotechnics and a thumping soundtrack to boot. More than 82,000 fans inside Twickenham are ratcheting up the noise levels. We are just a minute’s silence away from kick-off now.
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We are just a few minutes away from kick-off. Twickenham is absolutely teeming, with supporters – some drenched in dodgy fancy dress – waving flags, beer cups and more. Who will be celebrating in around a hour and a half’s time?
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Another splendid occasion for Rob Baxter, the Exeter head coach, who 21 years ago was part of the Chiefs side crowned Division 4 champions. He says his team, unbeaten in 16 Premiership matches, must lean on the experience from their defeat by Saracens last year. “Getting to a final last year was great, and we have got to use that. We probably looked at Saracens a little bit too much last time. The battle is not necessarily trying to stop the opposition but being the best you can.”
Danny Cipriani is geeing up the troops on the Twickenham turf. James Haskell too is playing the role of Mr Motivator. In a VT, Haskell says the 29-year-old “has always had the X-Factor about him”. There’s also talk of a trip to Las Vegas years ago, and Cipriani’s antics at a pool party. Back to the rugby now, promise. “It is going to be a good final, a good contest,” says Cipriani.
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Time for some pre-match chit chat. “We are a team that if we play well, we keep hold of the ball and do not give away too may turnovers,” Wasps’ Elliot Daly says. “We are going to keep to what we do, keep to our structures and if we lose then it will be to a better team on the day.”
As for Exeter, Jack Nowell says: “This is where we want to play and we do want to stay in our shells like we did a bit last year. We pride ourselves on our work-rate.” Flanker Dom Armand adds, “we have been through it once already, it is still quite fresh in our mind from last year”, referencing Saracens’ 28-20 win at Twickenham last May.
What a weekend it is – and could be – for the city of Exeter, with Paul Tisdale’s side in London tomorrow too, for their very own showpiece event.
What with Exeter City (@OfficialECFC) at Wembley and @ExeterChiefs at Twickenham every coach in Devon has been chartered. So . . . . pic.twitter.com/eJBLdm7u8j
— Exeter Chiefs (@ExeterChiefs) May 27, 2017
So, a few quick-fire stats and facts to get us started then.
All four of Wasps’ past Premiership triumphs (2003, 2004, 2005 and 2008) have come after finishing second in the league. This season, they finished first. Exeter have not won at Twickenham in six previous visits. But victory for the Chiefs would equal Leicester’s Premiership record of 17 matches unbeaten. And the man in the middle this afternoon, JP Doyle, the 37-year-old Dubliner, trained to be a secondary school teacher down the road at St Mary’s University.
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The teams!
Wasps: Le Roux; Wade, Daly, Gopperth, Bassett; Cipriani, Robson; Mullan, Taylor, Swainston, Launchbury (capt), Symons, Haskell, Young, Hughes
Replacements: Johnson, McIntyre, Moore, Myall, Thompson, Simpson, Leiua, Halai
Exeter Chiefs: Dollman; Nowell, Whitten, Devoto, Woodburn; Steenson (capt), Townsend; Moon, Cowan-Dickie, Williams, Dennis, Parling, Horstmann, Armand, Waldrom.
Replacements: Yeandle, Rimmer, Francis, Lees, S Simmonds, Chudley, Slade, Campagnaro
Referee: JP Doyle (Ireland)
Preamble
You have been warned. “Never leave early when it comes to our matches,” the Wasps scrum-half, Joe Simpson, said this week before what promises to be a tantalising Premiership final against Exeter Chiefs at Twickenham. A sell-out crowd of more than 82,000 will watch some of the world’s best players do battle. This is the rugby showpiece, the main event, the plat du jour, the pièce de résistance. Got it?
This match-up will see two of the country’s most attack-minded, free-scoring teams come together, with both coming through their respective semi-finals with flying colours – just. Exeter left it stupidly late to bypass Saracens 18-16 at Sandy Park last weekend before Wasps were even more last-minute, with Josh Bassett doing the business in the final seconds against Leicester.
Wasps have strength in depth – even without hamstrung Kurtley Beale – especially going forward, with Christian Wade, Danny Cipriani and Elliot Daly all more than capable of inflicting damage and winning points on their own. “The final is new territory for this group of players, but really exciting territory,” Wasps’ director of rugby, Dai Young, said. “But, as much as we are going to enjoy the day, we want more than that.”
Exeter, too, have talent in abundance, with Henry Slade coming to the fore again of late. “We’re actually probably a stronger group going into the final than we were last week, which is always nice,” said Chiefs’ head coach, Rob Baxter.
In terms of team news, Willie Le Roux switches to full-back for Wasps while Bassett will start on the wing. Exeter, meanwhile, make once change from their semi-final win, with Olly Woodburn replacing Chiefs’ top try-scorer, James Short, on the wing.
Kick-off: 2.30pm BST
