Scott Sio gives Exeter the Aussie seal of approval

From Ali Murdoch in the early noughties through to the signature signing of Dean Mumm, and then Greg Holmes, Dave Dennis, Nic White and current squad member Scott Sio, Exeter have a good track record with Australian signings.

Wallaby back-rower, Tom Hooper will be the next arrival from Down Under, after the Chiefs announced his signing back in January, while Brumbies teammates and fellow internationals, centre Len Ikitau and scrum-half Jake Gordon, are set to be unveiled in the next week or so. England-qualified Aussie hooker Julian Heaven is another believed to be heading to Devon. Gareth Steenson’s bar, The Stand Off, would do well to get Foster’s on tap.

Personal recommendations play a huge part in a player deciding to up sticks and travel over to the other side of the world and Sio, who spent 10 years in Super Rugby with the Brumbies, might well have had a word or two with those set to form quite an Aussie enclave. The 124kg loosehead, who is in his third season at Sandy Park, knows from personal experience how reassuring it is to have had a countryman blaze a trail before you.

“It’s a big commitment to come across this far and you want to be able to feel like you can get comfortable really quick and gel with the playing group. So I think knowing other guys who are playing there and who’ve done well is a big draw. I think it naturally makes players want to gravitate towards here.

“I knew Dave Dennis well, so I hit him up. But Whitey and I have come through together at the Brumbies so he was my main point of contact there and he is quite a character, so for him to fit in pretty quickly you know there must be a sense of community and a good bunch of people there.

“For guys like Leni and Jake, they grew up in Queensland, you are not too far from a beach, as well, so that might be a big draw. I grew up out in the Inner West suburbs so it didn’t really bother me too much. Ironically, being here is the closest I have ever lived to the beach, growing up in Australia my whole life and playing in Canberra.”

One culture shock that Australian-based players need to be prepared for is the length of the season. Sio has clocked up a half-century of appearances in all competitions in two-and-a-half seasons, which is some workload compared to what players back home are used to.

“When I first got interviewed Rob Baxter explained that Super Rugby is a sprint whereas the seasons over here are a bit more of a marathon so just making that mental switch was a big one for me,” Sio explained.

“I am somewhere between 40-50-odd games already for the club in the Prem and in Europe, and back home that would take you four or five seasons. So you get an understanding of the toll it takes on your body and sometimes you have to change things up if your individual preparation has been big. But I’m in my third season and I kind have got a good hold on it and they look after the old fella.”

Sio candidly admitted that ‘extras’ for him no longer mean spending more time on ball presentation, ball carrying or tackle techniques, but more time in the sauna, the ice bath or on the physio bench.

The 74-cap Wallaby turns 34 in October but has no plans to retire just yet, from either Test or club rugby, after receiving some sage advice from former Wallaby and Brumbies flanker George Smith.

“George Smith was my idol growing up, I played a lot in the back row, so he was someone I looked up to the most. And then when I went back (to Australia)  for my first break after my first season, I went to a Brumbies match and I caught up with him there.

“I said to him, did you ever put a time on when you’d retire and he just said, ‘No, you just play, you don’t put any timelines on it, you just keep playing and playing and then you just know when the time is right’.

“It was a good piece of advice because you just focus on what’s ahead of you and what you have, and for as long as you have signed for, you go hard. Family circumstances and your body will naturally tell you when the time is right.

“It’s such a unique thing professional sport, and you don’t get much time to make the most of it so if you can keep doing it for as long as you can, then why not?”

Now based overseas, Sio hasn’t been able to add to his tally of Wallaby caps since a 39-37 home defeat to the All Blacks in September 2022. World Rugby’s three-year standdown period means that he will soon also be eligible to play for Samoa, where both his parents were born, under the birthright transfer ruling.

At this stage, Sio is not ruling anything in or out, with Australia or Samoa. Explaining his position with Australia, he said: “They know I haven’t retired and I am available but they have great players playing there in the loosehead position. Angus Bell has really established himself in the last year, and they’ve got young guys like Isaac Kailea (Rebels) and Blake Schoupp, at the Brumbies, so I think the future is bright for the Wallabies.

“I will always put my hand up for the country I was brought up and born in and represented so many times. But I understand the reality of it and I am enjoying my time here and paying some good rugby here at Exeter.”

Samoa will always have a special place in his heart, too, as his Christian name relates to the ground-breaking 1991 team that his father, Dave Sio, was a member of.

“I was born just before the game against Scotland, that’s how I got my name. They made a bet. If Samoa won, they’d name me Manu, and if Scotland won, I’d be called Scott. Scotland won 28-6. So it’s a nice little story they liked to tell about the significance of my name. It was a bit of a full circle moment when we played Scotland in the 2015 World Cup quarter-final. It’s funny how life works out like that sometimes.”

As for transferring to the land of his father, Sio says he’ll give it some thought at the end of the season.

“When you see players like Ardie Savea go back and play for Moana Pasifika, you sort of take a notice and you sort of maybe want to put the thought into your head. It is not something that I haven’t really given a lot of thought to, but at the end of this season it might be a little chat I have with my dad, to hear his thoughts are on it first and then maybe make a decision later down the track.

“You’ve got to obviously be playing well enough to be selected at international level, and if there is a need for a player like me in the Samoan squad and you could make it work if I’m not needed for Australia anymore, then who knows?”

The visit of Sale to Sandy Park this Saturday is a more pressing matter for Sio. For Chiefs, the Premiership Rugby Cup represents their last chance to salvage anything from an otherwise hugely disappointing campaign and they’ll be in full-on quarter-final mode.

“That’s the reality we face as a team, it’s the only chance to win any silverware,” he admitted. “Like every season, it’s not going to be the same group that suits up again next year, there are going to be players that depart, and you want them to leave with something and this is our last chance tp do that.”

Sio will be an old head in and amongst young shoulders for the winner-takes-all game (kick-off 15:00 GMT). Not many of the double-winning class of 2020 are still around and during the week the younger players have been reminded that they, too, could be part of something special.

“We had a meeting and it was said, ‘How many guys in here have won trophies?’ Not many put their hands up. So we said, this is your first opportunity at it, so get excited about it, you’re at home, at a packed out Sandy Park, vs Sale. It should be quite an occasion.”