Sam Maunder delighting in the pre-season pain with Exeter Chiefs after a year of injury hell

At least one man was enjoying Exeter Chiefs’ brutal fitness tests on the club’s return to pre-season last week, as scrum-half Sam Maunder was able to join the ranks having missed the entire 2023/25 season with an ACL injury.

In his absence, young Will Becconsall and Niall Armstrong have grown in profile in the number nine jersey having been given plenty of playing time by director of rugby Rob Baxter.

But Maunder, who comes from a family of Exeter Chiefs rugby royalty, with his father Andrew having made 149 appearances for the club and his brother Jack having been instrumental in the Premiership and Champions Cup double in 2020, is now back to throw his hat back into the ring for the starting number nine jersey and add to his 55 appearances.

Talking to Exeter Chiefs club media during their new Inside the 23 behind-the-scenes look at pre-season, 24-year-old Maunder said: “I have been out for a while now. I have spent a lot of time on the sidelines, so I am just buzzing to get back in now. I have done a lot of work with the physios and S&C staff to get be back to this point, ready to go for pre-season which I am now and I am buzzing about it.

“When you have out for so long, doing any running challenge in genuinely enjoyable because there is nothing worse than watching the lads do tough sessions. You just want to get involved. It is very nice to be getting involved and doing them.

I need it [tough pre-season sessions] to get back to the best I can be. Hopefully, I will stay injury-free now and then can roll into the season.”

Exeter have announced pre-season games earlier than any other team in the Gallagher Premiership with a first run out on August 24 when they will host Championship sides London Scottish and Cornish Pirates in a doubleheader at Sandy Park which will give Baxter an opportunity to use the majority of his squad, probably barring those returning from international duty like Henry Slade and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso who are currently away with England on tour in New Zealand.