Chairman Tony Rowe has dreams for Exeter after watching his club beat Wasps to win Premiership Final

Exeter were still celebrating their historic Double amid a monsoon at Twickenham on Saturday night when chairman Tony Rowe revealed a grander vision for the years ahead.

The Devon club have conquered England and they have conquered Europe. One day soon, they want to conquer the rugby world.

Rob Baxter’s side demonstrated in a wet and wild Premiership final that they have the resilience, the confidence and the sheer bloody-minded determination to claim trophies by fighting their way out of tight corners.

Exeter Chiefs have greater ambitions after winning the Premiership at a sodden Twickenham

A week after dispatching French giants Racing 92 to seize the Heineken Champions Cup at Ashton Gate, the Chiefs dug deep to edge past Wasps and clinch the league title for a second time.

While a wonderful solo try by England centre Henry Slade propelled them towards their target, this was a triumph of spirit and commitment rather than artistry. Jacob Umaga had touched down for Wasps, but neither team could achieve fluency in the appalling conditions, so it came down to the error-count and composure under pressure.

Exeter held their nerve, prompting Rowe to outline his vision for an expansion of their sporting dynasty.

‘I told them they are a very special bunch of guys,’ he said. ‘Usually in a squad which has done what we’ve done, you have old heads — but our old heads are actually young men. That squad has another three or four years before you’d think they are old, and they are getting better.

‘I remember Rob telling them four years ago, after another final defeat against Sarries, “We’ve got to learn how to win”. Now we need to establish ourselves as the premier club. I want it to be the premier club in the world and we can do that. We’ve got ambitious guys there.

‘We’ll keep doing what we’re doing. We’ve got one of the best coaching groups in the Northern Hemisphere. I said we’d do Europe in five years (after the first Premiership title in 2017). How about we do the world in the next five? It would be nice to have a world club game.’

Henry Slade was all smiles as he celebrated his side’s first try with Exeter Chiefs’ Jack Maunder

Local talent is at the heart of the Chiefs’ success story. New captain Joe Simmonds and his brother Sam have been influential, as have established England trio Henry Slade, Jack Nowell and prolific hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie.

Exeter make use of strong links with feeder clubs in their area and Rowe wants to maintain that approach, while supporting the principle of bringing in a few pedigree outsiders — such as Scotland pair Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray.

‘More than half the squad today have come through our academy,’ said Rowe proudly. ‘They don’t grow very tall in Devon or Cornwall — I don’t know why — so we’ve had to bring in our locks. And for some reason we don’t breed good full backs. Rob is bringing in these guys because we haven’t got anyone of that standard.

‘If you haven’t got them coming through your own production line, you’ve got to go out and bring them in.’

But even as his club’s players, coaches and staff were boarding buses for a boisterous drive back to the South West with their trophies and medals, Rowe was gearing up for a resumption of hostilities with the RFU over player release, scheduling and financial assistance.

Slade scored the opener in the Gallagher Premiership Rugby final to send Exeter on their way

‘All this stuff coming down about more international games — I’m totally against that,’ he said.

‘We employ the players. They are our club players. Being forced to release them for so many international games is not good. We don’t get compensated enough. The reality is that we bred these guys for ourselves, we didn’t breed them for England.

‘England can get too greedy. They are very quick to run the other way when we want money. At the moment we are desperate for money in the Premiership to stay alive. We should be able to turn to the RFU for financial support because they turn to us when they want our players.’

Despite being weakened by their recent Covid outbreak, Wasps were valiant in combatting Exeter’s renowned driving game. Captain Joe Launchbury was magnificent leading the resistance, but he was distraught at the final whistle — five minutes after his decision to go for broke with a penalty backfired.

Lee Blackett did not blame any of his Wasps stars but conceded that they were not on top form

Instead of taking a shot at goal which would have levelled the scores, Wasps went to the corner but a chronic lineout malfunction cost them a glorious opportunity to snatch the prize.

Head coach Lee Blackett refused to blame his shattered skipper or any of those involved.

‘I’ll never question that decision,’ he said. ‘That was what they felt so it will never be questioned by me.’

However, he added: ‘Little parts of our game weren’t the best. Our lineout wasn’t at its best. We’re disappointed. I think, reflecting on the season, we should be proud of where we’ve come, but we didn’t come here to finish second.’