Chiefs side to face Warriors

By Mark Stevens

Having revved up for the new Aviva Premiership season with victories already over Cardiff Blues and Ulster, Exeter Chiefs will be looking to fine tune their game plan in tonight’s final pre-season friendly against Worcester Warriors at Sixways (7.30pm).

Head coach Rob Baxter admits he has been largely encouraged with his squad’s pre-season work so far, but the acid test will ultimately come when the Devon club kick-off their league campaign at newly-promoted London Welsh on Sunday week.

To ensure the Chiefs head into that tussle in fine fettle, Baxter is aiming to use his side’s final work-out as the chance for players to not only lock down Exeter’s seasonal plan, but at the same time cement their spot for the upcoming trip to the Kassam Stadium.

Injuries mean Baxter is robbed of the services of key men such as skipper Dean Mumm, Jack Nowell, Phil Dollman, Dave Lewis and Luke Cowan-Dickie for this evening’s game, but the Chiefs coach is still able to select from a powerful array of talent.

Hooker Jack Yeandle again leads the Devonians into action and he joins in the starting XV by summer signings Tomas Francis, Mitch Lees and Thomas Waldrom. Fellow newcomer Chrysander Botha is included in the Exeter back division, which sees Gareth Steenson start at fly-half and fellow playmaker Henry Slade line-up alongside Sam Hill in the centre.

Slade and Steenson were both on the scoresheet in Ulster a week ago, as was winger Matt Jess, who claimed two of Exeter’s three tries at the Kingspan Stadium.

The narrow 22-21 victory was only secured in the dying minutes of that match, but nevertheless Baxter was pleased to see his team record a notable scalp.

“You’ve always got to take the bigger picture. Travelling to Ulster, they’re a very proud side, especially at home, to come away with a win is a bonus more than anything else,” said Baxter. “You think back to the close games when we’ve conceded a late score to give up a tight game, in some ways we should look at it as very pleasing.

“What we weren’t so happy about was that in the first half we thought we didn’t play enough rugby. We were probably a bit conservative, to be a bit too tactical rather than trying to force our game on Ulster.

“At half-time we said to the guys we didn’t know what we were doing right or getting wrong in attack as we hadn’t really attacked too much. We rectified that at half-time, we attacked the game a lot more and as a result we won the second half and that ultimately won us the game.

As is often the case with pre-season games, sides will have bits and pieces to work on and Baxter has been glad to have another week on the training field to get his players into tip-top condition.

Baxter added: “We know there are things to work on, we had a relatively high penalty count, particularly around the breakdown, not completely all our own issues because we did seem to get on the wrong side of the ref, but you have to be able to adapt and learn and move on from that.

“We’ve had two really good performances where at times we’ve looked excellent in attack and scored some tries almost straight off the training field, what we have to do now is try to collect an 80-minute performance this week against Worcester that will push us on against London Welsh.”

Worcester, despite their relegation out of English rugby’s top flight at the end of last season, will be no pushovers and the Chiefs can expect a stern test in the game, which will also serve as a testimonial fixture for long-serving Warriors lock Craig Gillies.

Baxter continued: “We’ll take 28 or 29 players and look to run it using 23, and have the other guys there as additional cover if the guys have taken knocks or are fatiguing to the extent where they might get injured.

“Having a look at Worcester, they’re performing very well in pre-season and they seem to have a lot about them. They’re defending with line speed, they’re playing with physicality, the set-piece and driving game is going well so in a lot of ways it’s an ideal challenge for us going into London Welsh because there’s a fair few similarities.

“What we’ve got to do is force ourselves on the game. That’s what we didn’t do against Ulster in the first half and what we didn’t do against Cardiff in the second half. It’s about pulling together 40 minutes into more like 60 or 70 minutes where we’re driving the pace of the game.”

CHIEFS SIDE TO FACE WORCESTER WARRIORS

15 Chrysander Botha
14 Tom James
13 Henry Slade
12 Sam Hill
11 Matt Jess
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Will Chudley
1 Carl Rimmer
2 Jack Yeandle (capt)
3 Tomas Francis
4 Mitch Lees
5 Damian Welch
6 Dave Ewers
7 Ben White
8 Thomas Waldrom

16 Elvis Taione
17 Brett Sturgess
18 Moray Low
19 Ryan Caldwell
20 Don Armand
21 Haydn Thomas
22 Ceri Sweeney
23 Ian Whitten

24 Greg Bateman
25 Tom Johnson
26 Kai Horstmann
27 Stuart Townsend
28 Adam Hughes
29 Jack Arnott