Exeter Chiefs make a promising start to the 2023 season

Just a few short weeks into the rugby season and the Exeter Chiefs have made a promising start.

The Chiefs came out fighting during the opening rounds of this season’s Gallagher Premiership, winning all three of their first games. Round one saw the Chiefs beat the Leicester Tigers by 24 points to 20, with Patrick Schickerling scoring the winning try in the 80th minute. The Chiefs continued in round two, defeating Worcester Warriors with a score of 36-21, before finishing round three with a score of 43-42 against Quins.

With three fantastic rounds under their belt, fans are hoping that the Exeter Chiefs can keep up this momentum. So, what can we expect from the Exeter club this season?

Previous record-setting performances

As it stands, the Exeter Chiefs are the only rugby club to win the top four tiers of English rugby. Their first of the four titles came in 1996, when the Chiefs won the National League 2 South. The team were crowned champions of the National League 1 in 1997 and promoted to Premiership Two for the first time in the club’s history.

Their next victory came in 2010 when the team won the RFU Championship and were subsequently promoted to the Premiership. Then the moment that fans had been waiting for finally arrived, as the chiefs won the Premiership in 2017.

Since their promotion in 2010, the Exeter Chiefs have made their name as one of the Premiership’s leading teams – a profile that’s been raised even more during the last seven years. Between 2016 and 2021, the Chiefs cemented their reputation as one of the fiercest clubs in English rugby. In these six Premiership seasons, the Chiefs were the runners up in 2016, 2018 and 2021, and the champions in 2017 and 2020.

Expectations for the 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership

Unfortunately for fans, the Chiefs’ performance was somewhat lacklustre during the 2021/22 Gallagher Premiership. After years of success, the club finished in seventh place – their lowest finish since 2015.

This came as a shock to their supporters, who had been expecting a repeat of 2020, when the team not only took the Premiership, but also won the European Rugby Champions Cup after making it to the final for the first time.

After unanimous victories in the first three rounds of the Premiership, the club’s fans are hoping that the team is back on form and the results will continue to be positive. With a roster that includes international-level players like Luke Cowan-Dickie (England) and Stuart Hogg (Scotland), many are predicting that the team will return to the top of the league in 2023.