Exeter Chiefs

The 2019/20 season ended with Exeter Chiefs holding both the Premiership and European Rugby Champions Cup at once, a double no other English club had managed, sealed by beating Racing 92 in the Champions Cup final and Saracens for the domestic title. It was not the club's first Premiership run either: three years earlier they had needed extra time to get past Wasps, 23-20.

Getting there took decades rather than one good season. Exeter Rugby Club, formally constituted in October 1872 after forming the previous year, spent most of its life outside the top flight, and its rise through it is unmatched: promotion from National League 2 South in 1995-96, then National League 1 the following year, then the Championship in 2009-10, making the Chiefs the only club to have won all four tiers of English rugby on the way up. Rob Baxter took over as Director of Rugby in 2009, before that final promotion, and stayed to oversee the whole climb to European champions.

Sandy Park, home since 2006 after the move from the County Ground gave the club room for proper commercial facilities, now holds 15,600 following the East Stand development. Sam Simmonds came through the academy to become the club's all-time leading try-scorer, with 85, and was named European Player of the Year in the title-winning 2020 campaign.

None of it carries the same needle as the West Country derby against Bristol Bears, alongside the older grudges with Bath and Gloucester that come with sharing a corner of England.