Chiefs side to face Ulster

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter says his side can expect a stern test when they continue their pre-season build-up with tonight’s friendly against Ulster at the Kingspan Stadium (7.30pm).

Having opened their account with a 24-17 win at Cardiff Blues a week ago, the Aviva Premiership side are well aware that the Irish province provide a much harder obstacle to overcome.

That said, the Chiefs have arrived in Northern Ireland brimming with confidence. Indeed,  having checked out the impressive stadium at Ravenhill yesterday with a short team run, they will look to build on the positives of their victory over the Blues.

Baxter said: “They’ve been one of the strongest sides in the Pro12 for a number of years now, very strong in the Heineken Cup, so we’re away it’ll be a tough game for us away from home.

“The Premiership is a tough competition and you’ve got to be prepared to play tough games if you want to be up to speed in the Premiership.

“We’re expecting it to be tough but we want to make sure we get some of the things we want to work on out of the game, and I’m sure that’ll be the case.

“We tend to be a team that gets up to speed quite quickly through our pre-season games and I’m looking for a slightly changed up starting XV to force the quality on the game that we did last week in Cardiff and go from there.”

Tries from Jack Arnott, Will Chudley and Sam Simmonds were the highlights in a solid display in the Welsh capital, whilst fly-half Gareth Steenson - one of three former Ulster players in the visiting ranks - kicked the remaining Exeter points.

Although Baxter is keen to see positive results come from all three warm-up games, it’s the performance - both individually and collectively - that he craves the most.

He added: “I know results are important and I’m expecting us to go out there looking for the win, but at the moment it’s about looking at things we want to bring to a game and trying as hard as we can to make them work.

“If we make some errors doing it I’m not too concerned. What I want us to make sure we’re doing is trying to force ourselves on the game.

“There’s still time for us to make the odd mistake so long as that comes from us trying to play like Exeter and trying to achieve the things we have talked about in pre-season.”

A week ago Baxter fielded two separate line-ups in each half, but it’s unlikely the Chiefs leader will do similar on this occasion

“Our intention is to take 32 or 33 players, but I don’t think we’ll be making wholesale changes at half-time,” he said. “Like when we went to Connacht a few years ago, we’ll run it as we see the game happening.

“It doesn’t mean everyone will necessarily play, what we want to do is put in a very competitive performance and see how goes perform together. If things are going very well and we think the contest has been tough enough after half a game or 50 minutes we might make some early changes, but if we feel the guys will benefit from staying out there we might not make too many too early.”


CHIEFS SIDE TO FACE ULSTER

15 Phil Dollman

14 Tom James

13 Ian Whitten

12 Sam Hill

11 Matt Jess

10 Henry Slade

9 Haydn Thomas

1 Ben Moon

2 Jack Yeandle (capt)

3 Moray Low

4 Ryan Caldwell

5 Damian Welch

6 Mitch Lees

7 Tom Johnson

8 Thomas Waldrom

 

16 Elvis Taione

17 Carl Rimmer

18 Tomas Francis

19 Don Armand

20 Ben White

21 Will Chudley

22 Gareth Steenson

23 Chrysander Botha

24 Brett Sturgess

25 Greg Bateman

26 Alex Brown

27 Sireli Naqelevuki

28 James Scaysbrook

29 Stuart Townsend

30 Ceri Sweeney

31 Adam Hughes