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Steenson lands his first coaching gig at Exeter's old Championship rivals

Gareth Steenson has been with Exeter for the entire decade and has been a benchmark performer. (Photo by Henry Browne/Getty Images)

Exeter fly-half Gareth Steenson has landed himself a coaching role at a club who were once the Chiefs’ fiercest rivals in the Championship. 

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While Exeter have long since departed the English second tier and gone to win the Premiership title in 2017, the fortunes for nearby Devon rivals Plymouth Albion haven’t been as extravagant. 

After 13 seasons in the Championship, they slipped down to National League One in 2015 and have been trying to fight their way back up ever since.

The battle will now be aided by the addition of Exeter’s leading all-time points scorer after he agreed to help out coaching the Albion backs while still playing for Rob Baxter’s Chiefs next season.

This is a great opportunity for me,” said the 35-year-old Irishman who joined Exeter in 2008 after initially playing for Rotherham and Cornish Pirates following his move from Northern Ireland. He is contracted at Sandy Park until the end of the 2019/20 season. 

“It will be great to work with the guys in Plymouth and get to know them. The last time I actually played against Plymouth would have been about 10 years ago. I always remember them as being a tough side.

“Continuing to play at Exeter and coaching at Plymouth fits the bill for me. It’s great to be a player, but a fantastic opportunity to be in a different environment and taking on a coaching role. Being a player gives you a good understanding of the game.

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“Everything has changed since I started playing rugby. I’m not sure about my coaching style – I’ve only ever had two or three coaches, so I’ve been quite lucky. It’s about me coming in and helping out and sharing my knowledge.

“My playing style had to evolve and the way we play at Exeter is an attacking brand of rugby. We’ll see how it goes in Plymouth and what style of rugby they like.”

Steenson’s first coaching role came about following an approach from Albion boss Ben Gulliver, who is new to the job. Carl Rimmer, Steenson’s former Chiefs team-mate who retired from the game after a stroke last year, is also involved as an assistant, taking charge of scrums and forward play.

“Ben realises the club has been doing quite well, so no-one’s going to come in and rip it all up. He knows the place is in good shape,” continued Steenson, who opened The Stand Off, an Exeter sports-themed bar last year, with business partner Rimmer. 

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Gulliver, who also has Dan Mugford assisting, added: “I’m building a group of people around me that I trust and can support me in a way that we can develop the team. Gareth has the experience and knowledge, at a high level, that can deliver a stepped change in the skills of Albion players.”

WATCH: Part one of The Academy, the six-part RugbyPassdocumentary series on how Leicester Tigers develop their young players

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AM 44 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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