EXETER No.8 Sam Simmonds feels back to his dynamic best and would love a Six Nations shot with England alongside Tom Curry – “the best seven in the world”.
Things have changed considerably since Simmonds won the last of his seven caps against Ireland in March 2018. That day he was part of a back row containing James Haskell and Chris Robshaw with Chiefs colleague Don Armand on the bench – none of whom are currently involved.
Twenty-one months is a long time in rugby, as Simmonds can attest after being an unused tourist in South Africa later that year before an ACL injury wrecked last season – a cruel blow that left him on the outside as Billy Vunipola and Nathan Hughes contested the World Cup spots. Vunipola won that battle, but with Hughes in form for Bristol and Harlequins' Alex Dombrandt roaring into contention, the question is whether Simmonds, with his relative lack of size, can force his way into Eddie Jones' reckoning on the back of a superb Champions Cup campaign?
Reflecting on the vagaries of life since his last England outing, Simmonds told The Rugby Paper: “Haskell and Robshaw had amazing careers for England, winning 60 or 70 caps each, but it's all changed and the youth is coming through now in Sam Underhill and Tom Curry.
“Tom's probably the best No.7 in the world right now – I certainly think so – and to have someone as young as him at 21 with such a huge career ahead of him, it would be nice to get in amongst that.
“I'm 25 now so I'd still like to count myself as being youngish. Hopefully I'm coming into my peak years now and to be around that fold, with the types of players they are, would be great.”
Asked if he had heard from Jones, Simmonds replies: “No. I spoke to him as I got injured last year and he said it was a time for me to recover and better myself. He believed I would come back better and stronger and I feel I've got to that stage now where I'm performing very well.
“I said before I got selected in the England squad for the first time that for me it's all about performing well for Exeter and then I can't really do much more.”
Unlike Vunipola, Hughes and Dombrandt, Simmonds is never going to be selected for his size, but as he has shown during Exeter's unbeaten run in Europe, in which he has scored four tries in four games, his speed, agility and eye for the scoring chance set him apart from the rest.
Simmonds also feels stronger after his injury lay-off, which took eight months out of last season before he returned in May but allowed him a chance to make physical gains.
He explained: “Guys like Billy and Nathan are lucky because they're huge men and they're not slow either. I'm not as big as these players and I'm not going to bounce off as many people as they do, but the more carries I get in a game and the more times I'm on the ball, the more I can demonstrate my own points of difference.
“What Rob Baxter wants from me at Chiefs is to be in and around the play and although I might get knocked back a couple of times, the other times I'm carrying the ball I'm making metres and, hopefully, scoring tries. Billy and Nathan are good ball-carriers who get over the gain-line because of their size, but I think I'm doing similar through carrying on the edges.
“I feel as quick as I was before my injury and I'm certainly more powerful. In rehab, you pretty much become a weightlifter for three or four months and I did get very strong, so now it's about maintaining that while putting the rest of your game out on the field. It was my explosiveness and speed that set me apart and I'm back to where I was, but I want to be better now.”
Simmonds is grateful for the faith rugby director Baxter showed in his abilities after he was parachuted back into the side late last season as Chiefs made the Premiership final.
He added: “For him to trust me on what I'd done previously was very reassuring. I hadn't played for eight months and other players were performing wel. For him to have that confidence in me says a lot.”
NEALE HARVEY
