Arscott excited ahead of Cup Final

With the Bath hoodoo finally banished, Exeter Chiefs have the chance to achieve another first in the LV= Cup final against Northampton Saints this weekend.

Full-back Luke Arscott weighed in with his first two tries of the season as the Devon club beat Bath for the first time since promotion to the top flight in 2010.

The Plymouth-born back says their torrid record against their Westcountry rivals was never an issue inside the Chiefs dressing room, but he does believe two wins in the last weeks will give them huge confidence for the Sandy Park final on Sunday.

“I think there was probably more made about the Bath hoodoo in the press than we made of it ourselves,” said Arscott. “We will be going into the game this weekend off the back of two good results against London Irish as well as Bath in the semi-final.

“We are now really excited to get to this weekend and get another win over our belts.

“Even with their international boys away on Six Nations duty, Northampton have got a very strong pack of forwards. They’ve got internationals all through their backline as well. We know what they are going to bring, we just have to front up all over the pitch to try and get the win.”

Chiefs’ first chance at silverware at the top level is another remarkable landmark for the club after promotion nearly four years ago and two campaigns in the Heineken Cup in recent seasons.

Arscott said: “I think everyone involved with the club wants big games like this, games of this importance and calibre. The fact it is at Sandy Park is another benefit for the club. I don’t know if it will be a big factor for us, we haven’t really talked about that very much. Maybe we will attack it a little bit more because it is another home game.

“First and foremost, everyone is just really excited about it being a final for us to try and win. The big games that we’ve had in recent years will factor into it quite a bit. But, ultimately, we will still just try and attack the game, score some tries and try to play some good rugby.”

Arscott hopes his two tries last weekend make him a strong contender for a starting role this weekend. But he accepts the team can perform better than they did at the Recreation Ground.

“It is a tough place to go at any time of the year and we know we didn’t play as well as we could have done, but we got the result,” he said.

“We have probably played better against them in the past and come out on the wrong end of it. It was nice to get the losing run against them off our backs, but it was not at the forefront of our minds.”