Zim-born Ewers eyes strong finish to Exeter Chiefs career

EXETER "I want to show the boys here, the coaches and the fans, how much this club means to me," Dave Ewers told BBC Sport.

Exeter's man-mountain back-row will leave the club in the summer after a career that has seen him win everything there is to win in domestic rugby.

But the club, and the city, are much more to Ewers than just the base of a sports team; the place has helped shape the 32-year-old's life.

Having been born in Zimbabwe, a teenage Ewers ended up in Devon after he and his family were forced to ee their homeland, with Robert Mugabe's land reforms seeing their farms seized.

It is an experience that has shaped him and also makes him nervous ahead of his next step — a summer move to Ulster in the United Rugby Championship.

"Everything that happened growing up wasn't ideal, moving across from Zimbabwe and stu ," he says.

"But Exeter has become my home and it'll always hold a really special place in my heart. It's de nitely something I want to portray in the way I play, to show that.

"I know how much I struggled moving across and then Exeter and the game of rugby gave me that sense of being part of something again and feeling at home.

"So it's going to be a huge challenge for me moving away, but it is something that I need to make the most of and enjoy every second I have."

Ewers has seen the highest of highs and lowest of lows in his time at Sandy Park which, having made his debut in 2009 in a British and Irish Cup match, stretches back almost a decade and a half.

He has won a Champions Cup and a Premiership as he has helped Exeter establish themselves from a newly-promoted side everyone thought would go straight back down to one of the premier clubs in England.

He also helped Cornish Pirates reach the Championship play-o nal in 2012 while dual-registered with the club.

But he has missed signi cant stretches of time with serious knee injuries. He was on the sidelines for Exeter's rst-ever domestic title win in 2017 and injury forced him to withdraw from an England call-up in 2016.

"I went through that spell with my knee and it was just frustrating, but I can't thank the club enough for sticking by me through that period," he says.

"I'm very fortunate to have been looked after the way I have been and hopefully I've given back."

It is the positive memories that more than outweigh the negative ones for a player who has become a rm fan favourite during his time at the club.

"I was still at school but just coming up to the club in the year we got promoted. Being a part of that was special," he says.

"I wasn't involved in playing when we won the rst Premiership, that was a huge moment for the club. But the year we won the double would be the highlight of my career here.

"To be on the eld after all those losses to Sarries in the nals... It was good to actually win a nal and we went and won two."

But now Ewers' time is drawing to an end as he and a host of other big-name Exeter players prepare to leave in the summer as the reality of the reduced salary cap really hits home.

Along with Ewers, British and Irish Lions players Sam Simmonds and Luke Cowan-Dickie have already announced they will be leaving, while fellow internationals Jack Nowell and Harry Williams are among a number of others likely to follow.

"I think I would have struggled leaving knowing they were all still going to be here," Ewers says.

"It's going to be devastating to go our separate ways. But it just highlights for me how special we've got to try and make this next couple of months." BBC Sport