Arscott's happy to be back

By Nigel Walrond

Luke Arscott is delighted to be back playing again after missing the opening eight weeks of the season with a broken finger.

The 2012-13 Exeter Chiefs Player of the Year picked up the injury in the club’s final pre-season friendly of the summer against Glasgow Warriors in August.

He came on as a 58th-minute replacement in the 18-16 Aviva Premiership victory at Sale Sharks last Friday night, and performed like he had never been away, showing some great touches in a very impressive display.

“It is nice to get back,” said Arscott, who was named at full-back in last season’s Premiership Team of the Year. “It has been a disappointing first eight weeks of the season for me, and looking on from the sidelines it has been frustrating seeing the boys going so well and not being able to be a part of it.

“It just shows what they are capable of, and they are doing it in training as well, so it is tough to get back into the side. It is not the longest time I have been out injured. I was out for about three months a couple of years ago, and it is never nice to be injured, but it is good to be back playing again.”

The next two weeks of LV= Cup games, against Harlequins at home and Bath away, provide Arscott with the perfect opportunity to get some valuable game time under his belt before the Premiership campaign resumes at home to Premiership leaders Saracens on November 23.

“There are a few of us chomping at the bit to play some rugby, and hopefully, over the next couple of weeks, we will get the chance to do that,” admitted Plymouth-born Arscott.

The Chiefs are lying fourth in the table, and a win over the 2011 champions would put them in a great position in the league.

“We have put ourselves in a nice spot after the first couple of blocks of Premiership games. The wins over Worcester and Sale have put us right in the mix,” said 29-year-old Arscott. “We probably could have been in an even better position, but for a poor 40 minutes against Leicester.”

There was nothing pretty about the win at Sale, but it was an excellent four points at a venue where Exeter had lost in February.
Arscott played his part in the final quarter of the game, particularly with a couple of beautifully-judged touchfinding kicks to push the Sharks deep into their own territory.

“The game plan was to put the pressure back on them and make them play, rather than hold onto the ball and play a bit more,” he explained. “It wasn’t easy to play out of your own half because of the greasy conditions, but we did very well.

“Sale came back into it at the end and we had to defend a lot of phases, and the boys put their bodies on the line, but luckily we got the result we wanted.”

Sale, who beat Exeter 21-16 at the AJ Bell Stadium in February, after trailing 16-5 early in the second half, did their cause plenty of harm by having three forwards sin-binned in the first half.

“A big key to the match was the difference in the discipline between the two teams in the first half,” said former Bristol back Arscott. “We managed to go in 15-6 up at half-time. It was a very still evening and there was no wind to speak of, so to go in nine points ahead gave us that little bit of a cushion, but we knew that, coming out in the second half it wasn’t going to be easy.

“We had a good lead at Sale last season and they came out and turned us over in the second half, and that was always in the back of our minds. We had a bit of a focus last week on putting right what we got wrong last year, and luckily we did that.”

He added: “Our defence was brilliant. We have had a massive focus on that from all the way through pre-season. We were going very well last season with our attack and scoring tries, but we wanted to bring down the number of tries we conceded, but also keep working on that attack.

“The way we go about that will hopefully get us more wins, and more points on the board at the end of the season.”