Premiership final: Exeter Chiefs v Harlequins

Venue: Twickenham Date: Saturday, 26 June Kick-off: 17:30 BST Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio Devon, BBC Radio London and Radio 5 live sports extra. Live text updates on the BBC Sport website

Exeter remain unchanged as they take on Harlequins in the Premiership final.

Harlequins make three changes from last week’s historic semi-final win over Bristol with South Africa centre Andre Esterhuizen back for the first time since March after completing a ban.

Winger Caden Murley comes in for the injured Aaron Morris while flanker James Chisholm replaces Tom Lawday.

The crowd for the final will be limited to 10,000 in the 82,000-capacity arena after the event was not given special dispensation to increase numbers.

Under current Covid-19 rules stadiums can only accommodate the lower of 25% of capacity or 10,000 spectators.

Chiefs back-rower Richard Capstick is fit to play having been forced off early in the semi-final win over Sale after taking a knock to the head.

Exeter are in their sixth successive final and looking for back-to-back domestic titles for the first time in their history.

Hogg is one of four British and Irish Lions summer tourists in Exeter’s squad, with hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie, lock Jonny Hill and number eight Sam Simmonds all starting.

Simmonds, the Premiership Player of the Year, is looking to add to the league-record 20 tries he has scored this season as Exeter aim for a third title after victories in 2017 and 2020.

Harlequins have reached the showpiece for the second time, and are hoping to add to the club’s sole Premiership title in 2012.

England prop Joe Marler and scrum-half Danny Care are the only players who started that day who also start on Saturday.

Hooker Joe Gray is on the bench having been alongside Marler in the front row nine years ago and Will Collier is a replacement, as he was in 2012.

Fly-half Marcus Smith – the Premiership’s leading points scorer this season – plays at fly-half in an intriguing battle with another promising young England number 10 in Exeter captain Joe Simmonds.

Meeting of the comeback kings

Whatever happens on Saturday evening at Twickenham, nobody will be writing either side off until the final whistle after a month of stellar comebacks by both sides.

Last week’s comeback win for Harlequins at Bristol was a game that will never be forgotten – at 28-0 down before half-time nobody gave the Londoners a chance against their star-studded hosts who had topped the table for the first time and had stars including Semi Radradra, Charles Piutau, Nathan Hughes and Kyle Sinckler in their side.

But cue the fightback as tries for Alex Dombrandt, Tyrone Green, James Chisholm, Louis Lynagh and Joe Marchant saw the game tied at 31-31 at full-time before Green and Marchant crossed again in extra time to seal the biggest comeback in the history of Premiership rugby.

Before that Exeter were seen as the comeback kings – they came back from 13 points down to beat Harlequins at Sandy Park in March, so their opponents know first-hand their never-say-die attitude.

The reigning champions finished second thanks to two incredible comebacks in their final two regular-season games.

First they reversed an 18-0 half-time deficit to win 29-26 at Northampton in their penultimate game of the season before coming back from 19-3 down in the second half with 14 men against third-placed Sale to win 20-19.

The Sharks needed a bonus-point victory to leapfrog the Chiefs and secure a home semi-final against the Devon club.

Sam Simmonds – Exeter’s record breaker

You cannot mention Exeter’s season without talking about their star man – Sam Simmonds.

The number eight may have been deemed surplus to requirements by England, but his 20 tries in the regular season was a Premiership record and saw him named in the British and Irish Lions squad for the tour to South Africa.

A dynamic runner in the open field and powerful from close range, Simmonds’ tries have accounted for 16% of his team’s regular-season points.

“Credit to him, he’s always there in the right positions and it takes a lot of hard work to score those tries, especially 20 of them,” his younger brother and Exeter captain Joe Simmonds told BBC Sport.

“He’s been brilliant, not just him on a personal level, but for the team as well.

“The great thing is the team want him to score those tries, the team really wanted to see him break the record and I think it’s a credit to how hard he’s worked in these last couple of years, and now he’s reaping the rewards with the Lions.”

And while his boss Rob Baxter says not winning the title will not tarnish what Simmonds has achieved this season, it would be the best way to end it.

“To make it that season that everyone remembers and everyone will talk about and everyone would highlight it, you’d want to round it off by being a champion,” said Baxter.

“I think good seasons are driven by individual performances, by guys who decide they’re going to have that incredible season, they’re going to set themselves personal bests and they’re going to achieve things that year, that’s what drags a team on year after year.”

No head coach, no problem for Harlequins

If you had told someone at the turn of the year that Harlequins would make Saturday’s Twickenham showpiece they may well have thought you were mad.

Just two league wins under former coach Paul Gustard had left the club in seventh place and all was not well in the camp.

Gustard left on 20 January, with general manager Billy Millard becoming the focal point for the team and fellow coaches Jerry Flannery, Nick Evans and Adam Jones stepping up.

Since then results have spoken for themselves – 11 wins from 16 league games followed, with the side only losing at both Exeter and Bristol courtesy of late scores for their hosts.

“We just keep going back to the very start of this whole process where we had a plan of what we wanted to do and we haven’t deviated from that,” Millard said.

“Each week has looked the same, and we’ve said it 100 times, but this sort of shared leadership model is nothing new.

“Everyone’s got a job to do, everyone’s really good at it and everyone trusts each other to work together and it’s been really enjoyable.”

Quins are expected to announce a new head coach next week, with Millard likely to revert to his role of overseeing rugby operations across the whole club, which includes their Premier 15s title-winning women’s team and the academy structure.

But with the success they have had in the past six months, why change?

“All the good clubs in world sport, while you’re doing well you’ve got to keep evolving,” Millard explained.

“To get another senior, experienced set of eyes in can’t hurt.

“The announcement will be made, my role will be made pretty clear. It’s never a harm to get a really good coach in to compliment what we’ve already got.”

Exeter: Nowell; Cuthbert, Slade, Devoto, O’Flaherty; J Simmonds (capt), Maunder; Hepburn, Cowan-Dickie, Williams, Jonny Gray, Hill, Kirsten, Capstick, S Simmonds

Replacements: Yeandle, Moon, Street, Lonsdale, Armand, Townsend, H Skinner, Hogg

Harlequins: Green; Lynagh, Marchant, Esterhuizen, Murley; Smith, Care; Marler, Baldwin, Louw, Symons, Lewies (capt), Chisholm, Kenningham, Dombrandt,

Replacements: Joe Gray, Garcia Botta, Collier, Lamb, Lawday, Landajo, Tapuai, Northmore

Referee: Matthew Carley

Assistant Referees: Luke Pearce & Karl Dickson.

TMO: Ian Tempest.