Dave Ewers follows David Pocock in beating pain of exile
Ewers, 22, is just making his way in the Premiership, whilst Pocock is a seasoned Test campaigner, accustomed to the big stage and widely acknowledged as one of world rugby‘s finest openside flankers.
But scratch beneath the surface and both have similar tales to tell.
Like Pocock, 25, Ewers was born and raised in Zimbabwe, where both their families became victims of the despotic regime of President Robert Mugabe, whose murderous land reforms of the early Noughties caused countless white farmers to flee.
Ewers can consider himself fortunate – and does. In 2004, his mother and father escaped to Devon, where he attended Ivybridge School before developing his rugby career and being accepted into Chiefs academy, where he excelled.
But thoughts for family members still marooned in Zimbabwe are never far away.
“My mum and dad came to England but everyone else is still back home,” Ewers told The Rugby Paper. “On my mum’s side of the family everyone lost their farms, and where my dad was working the farm was taken over (by Mugabe’s people).
“We were based in Mutare and my uncles, who owned the farms, were in Chinhoyi, which is just above Harare. It was an incredibly sad time for everyone, very difficult, but luckily we came here and things have worked out amazingly well.
“It was a big move to make at 14 and I did struggle to come to terms with it all for the first two or three years. But the situation is what it is and if you look at David Pocock and other Zimbabweans, they’ve done very well for themselves.
“I’ve been blessed to get a chance in rugby and hopefully I can follow in David’s footsteps.”
Ewers is accustomed to meeting challenges head on, which is just as well given the task he now faces in filling the boots of legendary Chiefs No.8 Richie Baxter.
With 431 games to his name, Baxter became synonymous with Exeter’s achievements before retiring in May.
But whilst acknowledging the great man’s deeds, Ewers has risen to the challenge and is one of their success stories of the season so far.
“Personally, it’s been going pretty well and I’m really pleased to be starting,” Ewers said. “Richie’s an absolute legend and I don’t think the club will ever be able to replace someone like that, but it’s a challenge that I’m relishing.
“They’re quite intimidating boots to fill really. He was loved by the players and the crowd here and everybody had great respect for him, both for what he did for the club and his career as a whole over many, many years.
“Richie’s stature and what he brought to the team were immense, but I tried to learn as much as I could from him whilst he was here and hopefully I can go on and make him proud of me.
“He continues to be a mentor of mine and he was a very composed player who made good decisions. Richie worked incredibly hard, too, and that’s what I’m trying to emulate. He was just everywhere on the field.”
Chiefs are still feeling their way into the new season, with last week’s home defeat by Leicester coming as a major disappointment.
But Ewers is confident form will improve, adding: “We stood off Leicester in the first half and gave them opportunities through our mistakes. We got told off at half-time but the coaches didn’t need to say it, we knew ourselves.
“We need to start games much better than that and, hopefully, both personally and as a team, we can now start building week by week, settle things down and attack games like we have been doing over the last couple of years.”
NEALE HARVEY
