LONG READ Jack Nowell: 'Bath should get a backlash from La Rochelle this weekend'

You need to go back four years to the last time a Premiership side won the Champions Cup; four years since one reached the final even.

That was Exeter Chiefs who, in a blaze of Covid-delayed glory, saw off Racing 92 at Ashton Gate to deliver a moment of wonderment for the club and the English game.

Six of the Exeter starting line-up now play in France which serves to show where the balance of power in European club rugby now lies. Jack Nowell is one of them.

Eighteen months into life at La Rochelle, as he prepares to return to England for the tournament opener at Bath on Friday night, he is able to take a considered view of the state of play. His conclusion is balefully realistic. The chances of a Premiership side going the distance this season are slim, he reckons.

“You can’t write off any English side but playing against some of these teams in France really opens your eyes to how good they are,” said Nowell.

“A side like Toulouse has some unbelievable players across the board. We have some world-class players too. There are so many good players in the Top 14 now. Every single week feels a bit like a Test match because you are playing against so many international players.

I wanted to play in the best league in the world with the best players in the world and I’m certainly doing that now.

“I don’t want to fly the French flag too much – I loved every minute of my time in England – but I’m very glad I took up this opportunity to come here and play.

“I wanted to play in the best league in the world with the best players in the world and I’m certainly doing that now.”

Stade Rochelais, to give them their official name, have been involved in three of the past four Champions Cup finals, winning two of them. They will start as one of their fancied sides again this season. They have the pedigree and they have a head coach in Ronan O’Gara for whom Europe means everything.

“With Rog being coach and the history this team has created in Europe by winning it twice, the knowledge the boys have of what it feels like to lift this trophy, these are special games for us. The Champions Cup means a lot to these players,” said Nowell.

“I know first-hand how much it means to English clubs to play in this competition and how much more they give to play in it.

“We know it is a step up and we need to give a little bit more.”

The club’s Top 14 form had been good until last weekend when they suffered a surprise home defeat by bottom club Vannes.

“Our attitude needs to be better than it was against Vannes,” said Nowell.

I’d be lying if I said money wasn’t part of it. I’ve got three kids and I want to make their lives as comfortable and as enjoyable as I possibly can.

“It was a difficult one for us to take. Vannes were good but we certainly weren’t at our best. We maybe thought it was going to be easier than it turned out to be.

“If we’re really serious about winning more trophies Bath should get a bit of a backlash from the way we performed at the weekend.”

Nowell was so much part of the furniture after 13 seasons at Sandy Park as local-boy-made-good that it came as a jolt when he took the decision to leave – especially as it effectively meant ending his England career after 46 caps. In his view, about to turn 30, it was then or never.

“Everyone is different but the age I was, it seemed like such a good chance to go and experience something else with my family,” he said.

“There were so many guys leaving Exeter so I knew it was going to be very different which played a big part in my decision and with wages dropping in the Premiership that was a factor too. I’d be lying if I said money wasn’t part of it. I’ve got three kids and I want to make their lives as comfortable and as enjoyable as I possibly can.

“Being lucky enough to be offered a contract with one of the best sides in France, everything aligned.”

Not that it was easy.

“It did take a bit of time to settle in. It wasn’t really the rugby side, it was more the family side which was the bit we found the hardest,” he said.

“The rugby was the easy part – the boys made me feel very welcome – but the first four or five months of the kids going to school was the difficult bit. They go to a French school in La Rochelle and literally every night there would be tears. ‘I don’t want to go to school tomorrow daddy. No-one understands me, no-one speaks to me. No-one plays with me.’

“It was really heartbreaking but I kept telling myself so many people had done it before us and they got over that hurdle. They are pretty fluent in French now when they are speaking to their friends. We’re getting there now. We’re really enjoying it.”

Life on the Atlantic coast, on the whole, is good – familiar in some ways for a Cornishman but different too.

I don’t think Exeter are going to be last in the Premiership come the end of the season, I think they will work their way up the table with the players they have got.

“Now that I’ve done a year and a half of it I can say it’s a lifestyle which really suits the way I like to live,” he said.

“We were training today in shorts and T-shirts still rather than the thermal stuff I used to wear back home in December. It makes a big difference especially as I’m getting a bit older now. Whether it’s the heat or not, last year I played the most games I have done in my career in one season.”

He is embracing the cultural variance – French language game plans and two-hour breaks between training sessions to build in a nap, long communal lunches together for the squad which once a week also include all the stadium staff.

Exeter it is not but a change is what he came for.

He still keeps an eye out for the Chiefs’ results – the double they won in 2020 remains his career highlight over and above anything he achieved with England and the Lions – but watching Exeter this season has been a painful business. Bottom of the Premiership after seven games, they have yet to win a match.

“It’s not nice to see. I don’t want that for my old team,” Nowell said. “Last season was a bit of a honeymoon season with a lot of fresh faces playing their first season with the opposition not knowing too much about them. That’s not the case now. Teams know a lot more about them now. Someone like Immanuel Feyi-Waboso is a marked man now. The squad is certainly going through a learning period. I don’t think Exeter are going to be last in the Premiership come the end of the season, I think they will work their way up the table with the players they have got.”

Bath, in contrast, are flying high as Premiership leaders. They will, believes Nowell, be England’s strongest force in Europe this season.

Whether that force will be sufficient to land a knockout blow on the French superclubs – and Leinster – is doubtful but everyone starts level this weekend.

It is a mouthwatering fixture to kick Europe off and familiar territory for Nowell after so many visits to the Rec with Exeter. The place will be bouncing for the game and so will he.

“The changing rooms are awful – the worst I’ve been in – but I’m looking forward to being back,” he said.