Exeter’s Gareth Steenson: ‘My career has been built on being told I wasn’t good enough’
Uncapped Irish fly-half is benefitting from years of adversity and rewriting the rules of sports psychology before Munster matchMunster supporters visiting Devon for the first time this weekend should brace themselves for a strangely familiar experience. A south-west based band of brothers, deeply rooted in their local community, fiercely committed to putting their region on the European map and roared on by a passionate audience? The cathedral green of Exeter has a more mellow feel than worldly-wise Limerick but, in terms of attitude, the rugby men of Chiefs and Munster are peas from the same relentless pod.
The home team even boast their own Guinness-loving out-half, now such a bona fide legend he is opening an Irish pub in town with his former team-mate Carl Rimmer. The Stand Off (its name is shared with the bar famously installed in his own garage for recreational use) is a few days away from serving its first customers but, when it does, the queue to buy Gareth Steenson a pint will stretch to Topsham and back. If one player epitomises how far Exeter have travelled it is “Steeno”, as pivotal a figure in the Chiefs’ rise as Ronan O’Gara and Johnny Sexton have been to their respective tribes.
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