Friday 29 December 2017 23:22, UK
The recent success of Premiership champions Exeter Chiefs may be down to the players' regular afternoon tea meet up.
Sky Sports News was invited to 'Cookie Club', the regular afternoon tea meet up the Exeter players have organised in their spare time.
Sharing cake and tea may not be what you expect Premiership rugby players to be doing with their downtime, but Exeter players believe tight relationships forged off the pitch are helping their results on the field.
Dave Ewers told Sky Sports News: "[Cookie Club] keeps us together. We always have it at the last day of training. We have our lunch and then come across have some coffee and a bit of a chin wag."
Fly-half Gareth Steenson says the team have been encouraged to spend time together away from rugby, whether it be at 'Cookie Club' or more conventional bonding activities.
He said: "We've always been encouraged to go out and enjoy our time together. Quite a lot of players also play golf together, meet up for lunches and go to the cinema on days off. We are very fortunate to have that sort of bond within the group."
Exeter, currently 10 points clear at the top of the table, take on Leicester Tigers at Sandy Park on Sunday hoping to extend their unbeaten home record this season.
No 8Thomas Waldrom is hoping to finish the year off on high.
"We knew last year at the start of the season it wasn't right," he said.
"We changed it around and brought in some good players and we have done well. We're on a good roll so as long as we maintain what we do, fingers crossed we can finish off the year on a big high."
