Exeter eager to underline Premiership ambitions

Devon club determined to put their name on map with creditable showing at mighty Gloucester in Powergen Cup

Ninety-seven years ago, the first genuinely representative team of New Zealand rugby players – Dave Gallaher's "Originals" – pitched up at the County Ground in Exeter for a game against Devon, the opening fixture of a 33-match European tour. Before kick-off, Gallaher was approached by a rubicund local committee man and politely informed that the All Blacks, as they had been dubbed, could hardly expect to beat the champions of the English south-west. Eighty minutes and 55 visiting points later, the official was nowhere to be seen.

The All Blacks intend to celebrate the centenary of that seminal tour – 32 wins, one distinctly dodgy defeat by Wales, 868 points scored, 47 conceded – by returning to Exeter in 2005. They will not play at the County Ground, but at a spanking new 10,000-capacity stadium off junction 30 of the M5. There may well be other changes, too. Exeter see themselves as a Premiership side in waiting, and will be mortified if they are not operating at the élite end of the game by the time the silver fern blows in from Auckland.

"For a long time now, good young players from the real south-west, as we call it, have driven past Exeter on their way to joining Bath or Bristol," said Ian Bremner, the director of rugby, this week. "Now that we have been granted Rugby Football Union academy status, there is less reason for people to drive past us. The West Country does not end at the Recreation Ground or the Memorial Ground. It begins there. Rugby in our part of the world is as vibrant as it always was – last weekend, 3,500 people watched our National Division One game at Plymouth – and I am convinced, as are the other Exeter directors, that we could immediately guarantee a basic 5,000 audience in the Premiership, rising to 8,000 quite quickly."

So there you have it: the current relegation rumpus, with its independent inquiry and its whispered allegations and its public denials, is not about Rotherham and Worcester alone, even though they are the only second-tier teams who ever get a mention worthy of the name. It is about Orrell, who have money to burn, and Coventry, one of the traditional powerhouses of the English game. It is about Bedford and London Welsh, too. And it is very definitely about Exeter, who, as Bremner proudly pointed out, are a model of shrewd management and sustainable progress. (Their new stadium will barely cost them a penny, thanks to the sale of the County Ground and an innovative arrangement with a major leisure operator).

All the same, strong performances on the pitch, as opposed to the boardroom, must count for something in this game, and Exeter have their opportunity this afternoon. They are travelling to Kingsholm, aka Castle Grim, for a Powergen Cup tie with Gloucester, the current Premiership leaders and, until Leicester caught fire in Europe last weekend, the hottest act in the land.

This time last year, at the same stage of the same competition, they travelled to Leicester and lost 27-0. Bremner has been working all week on possible ways of making a bigger impact today. "I thought we did well at Leicester," he said. "Unfortunately, it was a case of doing well on the back foot, rather than in any attacking sense, and we failed to register on the scoreboard. We're stronger this season, and while Gloucester will be equally difficult opponents, we're aiming to achieve something more tangible and gain their respect. We're an ambitious club, and the plan is to acquit ourselves as such."

Ambitious indeed. Exeter, blessed with what Bremner describes as "a young and active board of directors", have accepted an invitation to meet with the RFU next month. At that meeting, they will urge their hosts to expand the Premiership next season – in common with a number of other ND1 clubs, they would be happy with an increase from 12 to 14 – and then move rapidly towards a 16-team competition, split into two conferences. The fact that there is a growing consensus among clubs from both divisions that expansion is the only sensible way forward marks a positive shift in relations between the élite and the wannabes.

"There is a very strong message coming through from the Premiership owners that relegation is something with which their business plans cannot cope," Bremner said. "With that in mind, we will put our ideas to the RFU in January. A 16-team, two-conference format would placate the people who have invested very considerable sums of money in our sport, provide a more realistic play-off structure between the two divisions and give professional club rugby a bigger geographical spread.

"Why shouldn't we present a view on how this political turmoil might be eased? It is sometimes difficult for outsiders like ourselves to break into a new environment, make new friends and secure their trust. But I think we push ourselves forward in a positive way: last year, before the Leicester tie, our managing director, Tony Rowe, travelled up 24 hours early and spent the day with Peter Wheeler, their chief executive. He picked his brains, basically. It was important to find out precisely how a club like Leicester operates, because we'd like to be up there with them."

They have a long way to go. Come to think of it, the far south-west in its entirety has a long way to go. Exeter can claim only three capped players since the Second World War – the scrum-half Richard Madge in 1948, the flanker Dick Manley in 1963 and the wing Adrian Underwood a year later – and Devon and Cornwall as a whole can point to only 17, the vast majority of them decorated in the late 1940s and early 50s. There has been no sign of a Stack Stevens, the gnarled old loose head from the Penzance and Newlyn club, since... well, since Stack Stevens. Local successors like Phil Vickery and Trevor Woodman were forced to head north in search of a professional career.

Circumstances dictate that the Exeter front row will face neither Vickery nor Woodman today. The former is taking a breather, the latter recovering from a worrying bout of neck trouble. But Bremner's side will still do well to finish within 30 points of their hosts, and the director of rugby knows it. "It is a big West Country occasion, and Gloucester will treat it as such," he said. "There again, Gloucester is closer to Scotland than it is to Land's End. As I keep on saying, there is more to the south-west than the three teams in the Premiership."