Sturgess upbeat despite narrow loss at the weekend

Returning prop Brett Sturgess still believes that Exeter Chiefs’ Heineken Cup dream is still alive despite their narrow defeat against Leicester Tigers at the weekend.

The boot of England international Toby Flood kicked the Tigers to a narrow 12-9 victory at a packed Sandy Park, but Kettering-born Sturgess insists the mood within the camp remains buoyant despite the latest reverse.

The Chiefs currently lie in eighth place in the Aviva Premiership standings, but are just five points adrift of the crucial sixth spot which brings about qualification for next season’s Heineken Cup.

And having been part of the Exeter squad that tasted playing in Europe’s top competition for the first time this season, the 31-year-old forward is keen for more of the same.

“We want to be there again next year,” said Sturgess. “It was a great experience for the players, everybody involved in the squad, and the fans really got involved in it.

“We want to be there next year because it’s a great place and a great feeling to play in the Heineken Cup and it’s really important that we really strive for it over the next four games.

“It’s still there for us after a good performance against Leicester and we need to carry on that and get the results. With some good performances, who knows we could be there again next year. There are still four games left, so we’ll see if we can get something out of them and hopefully we can make it interesting towards the end of it.”

With Worcester Warriors next on the agenda this Saturday, the former Northampton Saints man believes the players need to learn from defeats like Saturday if they are to challenge for the top six.

“They [Leicester] know how to close out games like this because they’ve been there year in, year out,” added Sturgess. “Once they did nudge ahead they really started to play the territory really well by knocking it us behind us and making it hard for us to get back in the game.

“Hopefully we can learn from this. That’s what we have always said down here, we will learn from things like that. This is where in seasons to come we need to be able to do it as well and hopefully we can.”

Sturgess, who is fast closing in on 150 appearances for the Devon club, does however believe that the Chiefs were unlucky not to get something out of the game at the weekend.

He said: “Coming to this stage of the season, with four or five games left, Leicester have got their boys back from England and they are starting to build real momentum. You can see they are a top side and they came at us full ball, but we stood in front of them for 70 minutes of that game. Obviously we could have nicked the draw in the last minute, but unfortunately it’s gone against us.”

For Sturgess, though, just being part of the Chiefs match-day squad was a positive in itself after recovering from a broken arm sustained in the home game with Bath back in December.

“From a personal point of view it’s great to be back in with the boys, the last couple of weeks I got back with the guys full on and to be selected into the squad was great,” he explained. “Obviously coming on when it’s 9-9 the game was there for us, but it was always going to be one of those 12-9 games and in the end it didn’t go our way.”

Sturgess and his team-mates will now be looking to put that disappointment to one side when they face the Warriors on their own turf at Sixways this weekend.

Last season the two clubs fought out an epic encounter with the Chiefs famously scoring two tries in the final minutes to secure their Heineken Cup spot.

Months on from that memorable occasion, Sturgess is aware the Midlanders will be gunning for revenge and is predicting a stern test ahead. He added:  “They’ve made it a real fortress again this year and we all know Worcester is tough place to go and play. Going back to last year, it was really good and that win kept us on course at the top.

“We know we can go there and get a result, but we need to pick ourselves up and that’s the great thing about rugby, we’re away next week and it’s another challenge. As I said, we need to learn from previous defeats and turn up to away games like we did at Harlequins and get the result.”