Chiefs raring to go again

By Howard Lloyd

Exeter Chiefs players are back in training having been given a three-day break by head coach Rob Baxter to recuperate from their exertions.

The Sandy Park side have a rare weekend off coming up due to Gloucester taking on Edinburgh in the final of the European Challenge Cup tomorrow, followed by Toulon and Clermont Auvergne clashing in the European Champions Cup on Saturday.

The Chiefs – who lost 36-29 to Wasps on Sunday – travel to Saracens in their penultimate league fixture on Sunday May, 10, as they chase a play-off spot.

Baxter says the time off will help revitalise his squad for the final push.

“We wish we weren’t having the time off – we would love to be heading up to The Stoop for a final,” he said. “But this will be our first weekend off this season as a complete group, although we have managed to give guys bits and pieces of time off as we have rotated in the LV=Cup and Europe.

“The whole squad has worked extremely hard this season so it is good to give everyone a bit of a break and freshen-up, including the coaching staff. But when you get to this stage of the season and everything has been as exciting as it has been then it really is fantastic.

“You have to look at the positives – the truth is we have two rounds of Premiership left, we have recorded our highest-ever points total and have reached the LV= Cup final and the semis of a European competition. Even at this stage, you’d probably have to describe it as our best season and we still have a puncher’s chance of making the top four.”

Baxter and his fellow coaches will use the end of this week to begin the team’s preparations for Sarries, which is followed by Sale’s trip to Sandy Park on the final day of the regular season.

The head coach reiterated the need to improve on key aspects of their display against Wasps last Sunday, although he maintained they were not far off on the day.

“We have to look at ourselves to do a bit better than we did [against Wasps],” he said. “We were not blown away by any means, but we were off enough for Wasps to build enough of an advantage in that first half that it became difficult for us.

“The nice thing is that we are starting to get quite picky about our performances because we are very ambitious. That is a nice way to be. We don’t look for excuses, we look very inwardly at ourselves and know when we are not happy and have not done ourselves justice.”