History

The club existed as early as 1871/72, the first recorded match being against the training college (latterly St Luke’s) on October 26, 1873. Exeter won by one touchdown and four saves to two saves.

The club first played in a field belonging to Mr Morrison, and then in the Militia Field behind the barracks. Subsequently it went to the Cricket Field at St Thomas (now the County Ground) then to Matford before returning to the County Ground again.

The club has since built up a proud record of achievement on the field, with many players achieving international honours. Since 1997, the club (now known as Exeter Chiefs) has played in National Division One, finishing second for the last years in a row. The club also has a strong youth section of eight to 18-year-olds followed by a now amateur club called Exeter Athletic. It also runs a thriving community programme called Community Chiefs that comes into to contact with thousands of children every year.

With the advent of the professional era, the club was restructured off the field in 1998 when a limited company structure was created to run all the club’s affairs through a board of seven directors chaired by local businessman Tony Rowe. It remains however a members’ club with the company shares held by four trustees who act on behalf of and on the instructions of the 700 members.

To enable the club to meet the off-field and on-field requirements for achieving its ambition of promotion to the Premiership, it was decided to relocate from the historic home of the County Ground, which in 1905 had hosted the New Zealand All Black’s first ever game in Europe, to a purpose-built stadium which would be the top rugby ground in the south west and one of the top six in England.

The club moved into the current facilities at Sandy Park in September 2006 at a cost of ￡15m. Phase one has a capacity of 8,000, including the new South West Communications Stand, and is almost Premiership-ready having already secured planning permission for the addition of extra spectator places to meet all facilities requirements of the top flight. 

A crucial element of the planning of Sandy Park has been not only to create a modern sporting stadium, but also to combine that with a first-class conference and function venue for the region. This has been achieved by designing the first and second floors of the West Stand to offer four suites that can accommodate more than 1,000 people in various configurations, fully equipped for business and social use. The function business, run by the club’s own dedicated staff, helps to finance both the playing side of the club and future phases of physical development.

Despite finishing second last season, Chiefs re-arranged its coaching structure to give it the best chance possible of realising its dream of reaching the Premiership in the near future. Former captain Rob Baxter is head coach assisted by a whole team of coaching experts and his club captain Alan Miller and 1xt XV skipper Tom Hayes to face what is the inaugural season of the Championship and British & Irish Cup.

The 2009/10 season turned out to be the best yet for Exeter with a record run of opening league game wins intercepted by a three-match dip during the Christmas period, followed by another collection of wins to put them in second place in the league. This left Exeter at the top of pool B for the play-off phase and four wins in this six-game stage gave them a home semi-final against Bedford Blues. Chiefs comfortably dispatched the Blues to set up a two-leg Championship final against Bristol Rugby.

The first leg saw a record Sandy Park crowd urge Chiefs on to a narrow 9-6 win. This three-point deficit was not seen as being enough to overcome Bristol in the second leg... but Chiefs' critics were wrong! A stunning performance silenced the Memorial Stadium regulars as Gareth Steenson kicked six penalties and two drop-goals, and Simon Alcott scored a last-minute try, to completely crush the favourites by 29 points to 10 to give an aggregate score of 38-16.

The 2010/11 season saw Exeter Chiefs play in the Aviva Premiership, Amlin Challenge Cup and LV= Cup for the very first time under the leadership of head coach Rob Baxter and skipper Tom Hayes.

It proved to be a memorable first year for the Chiefs in English rugby's top flight as they finished a creditable 8th in the standings, recording league victories over established names such as Saracens, Northampton Saints, London Wasps, Sale Sharks and, of course, a memorable opening day scalp in the shape of Gloucester.