Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

The Top 14-bound Jack Nowell has named his Ultimate Exeter XV

(Photo by Bob Bradford/CameraSport via Getty Images)

Jack Nowell has named his Ultimate Exeter XV nearly four weeks after bringing the curtain down on his stellar 12-year career playing in Rob Baxter’s first team. It was 2011/12 when the now 30-year-old debuted and he featured in the Chiefs’ April 30 Heineken Champions Cup exit to La Rochelle, the French club that he is set to join for the 2023/24 season.

ADVERTISEMENT

He will now sign off at Sandy Park with a sevens event on June 3, a tournament with quite a difference as Nowell and Henry Slade, with whom he is sharing a testimonial, have crafted a series of intriguing attack-minded law tweaks for the eight-team competition organised by Red Bull.

Nowell earlier this week revealed that he will not link up with the England training squad to challenge for a place in Steve Borthwick’s Rugby World Cup squad, explaining instead that his priority will be to get his family moved to France in the summer so that they are settled by the time the new Top 14 season starts.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

In the meantime, he has given an exclusive interview to RugbyPass that will be published this Sunday, a bubbly chat over Zoom from his sunny back garden that wrapped up with Nowell being asked to name his Ultimate Exeter XV.

It’s the sort of question that can take players ages to answer but Nowell rattled off his XV in just over a minute and his choices illustrated the calibre of people that have represented Exeter on their remarkable journey from the 2010 Championship title to clinching a Gallagher Premiership/Champions Cup double in 2020.

“Off the top of my head? I’ll probably miss out on a few boys doing it off the top my head,” he pleaded with a chuckle before getting stuck into naming his selection of all-time Exeter greats. “I’ll leave myself out for this one. I’m going to go number one Alec Hepburn, two Cowan-Dickie, three Hoani Tui. Second rows, I’ll have to go Damian Welch. No, I’ll go Dean Mumm, Geoff Parling. Back row, I’ll go Sam Simmonds, Thomas Waldrom and Dave Ewers all in there.

“Scrum-half Nic White. Fly-half Gareth Steenson. Twelve Jason Shoemark. Thirteen, see I have got to have Sladey [Slade] in there. I’d have 12 Sladey, 13 Sireli Naqelevuki. Eleven? Nenani Nadolo, 15, Phil Dollman and 14 Matt Jess or Santiago Carreras.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Pick one, Jack? “I can’t… Okay, Matt Jess, he’s a legend.” Sure is.

Jack Nowell’s Ultimate Exeter XV: 15. Phil Dollman; 14. Matt Jess, 13. Sireli Naqelevuki, 12. Henry Slade, 11. Nemani Nadolo; 10. Gareth Steenson, 9. Nic White; 1. Alec Hepburn, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. Hoani Tui, 4. Dean Mumm, 5. Geoff Parling, 6. Thomas Waldrom, 7. Dave Ewers, 8. Sam Simmonds.

  • Click here to purchase Red Bull Elevate tickets for the June 3 Nowell/Slade event 
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

287 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING The appointment I would make to save Steve Borthwick – Andy Goode The appointment I would make to save Steve Borthwick – Andy Goode
Search