Chiefs side to face Gloucester

By Mark Stevens

Having chopped and changed personnel for the first two fixtures in this year's Westcountry Challenge Cup, Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter is promising a more settled approach for the final two games of the competition.

With Gloucester next on the agenda tomorrow at Bristol's Memorial Ground (3pm), followed by Bath a week later at the Rec, Baxter hopes to use these subsequent away days as the ideal opportunity to ready his troops for the battles ahead.

Buoyed by home wins over both teams already in the new-look, three-team competition, Baxter is well aware the next two fixtures will offer a much more realistic feel to that he and his players are likely to experience during the course of the 2015/16 campaign.

The experimental changes, coupled with the blooding in of new players, will now be replaced with a more hardened approach from the Chiefs, who in the back of their mind will have one eye on their opening Aviva Premiership encounter away to Bath on October 17.

And ahead of kick-off, Baxter is true to his word that he will field a powerful line-up for the latest match-up against the Cherry & Whites, who themselves have named an equally strong team for the encounter.

With the exception of the seven Chiefs away on Rugby World Cup duty and Dave Ewers, who is nursing a small knock, it's a virtually full-strength Exeter squad that will travel to the Memorial Stadium for the first time since 2010.

Chiefs supporters will remember the venue fondly as it was at the Bristol venue that the Devon club sealed their place into the Premiership. Tomorrow's skipper Gareth Steenson (pictured) was one of the heroes that famous night and this weekend he will lead Exeter out against Gloucester as they look to maintain their unbeaten pre-season form.

Although content with large aspects of what he has seen so far from the opening two games in the Westcountry Challenge Cup, Baxter will be hoping some fine tuning on the training pitch these last few weeks will ensure the Chiefs hit the field in fine fettle.

“It’s a strong starting line-up this weekend and those guys will probably have the first crack at tying down their positions,” said Baxter. “However, I do think there is still plenty of scope for change before we get back into the Premiership. It is still quite exciting for the guys in the squad – there is plenty to play for.

“If the starting XV go out and perform exceptionally well then they do give themselves a fantastic opportunity to make themselves front-runners for the start of the season.

“At the same time, if they don’t do very well and the guys coming on excel then they obviously give themselves a chance for the number one spot.”

Among those looking to impress from the outset will be Ben Moon (pictured) and Will Chudley, neither of whom have yet to feature this pre-season, whilst summer signings Julian Salvi, James Short and Olly Woodburn will also get their chance to shine.

Included on the bench will be Jack Yeandle and Kai Horstmann, both of whom are fighting fit following their summer operations, as well as newcomers Ollie Atkins, Will Hooley, Shaun Malton, Harry Williams and Jonny Hill.

“We will take quite a large squad up to Bristol but I think we are probably less likely to spread that game time across all the players,” said Baxter. “There isn’t much experimenting now.

“There are some players that we have deliberately kept low on game minutes for pre-season games because we are predicting they will have a lot of time in the coming weeks.

“It has meant a bit of balance, but as we get to the start of the season, that balance will change towards getting them more minutes.

“We are trying to give some players some extra game time. Ben Moon has had a niggling injury so we would like to give him some time. We would like to look at one or two different combinations, but it will look like our strongest starting line-up of pre-season so far.”

CHIEFS SIDE TO FACE GLOUCESTER

15 Phil Dollman
14 Olly Woodburn
13 Ian Whitten
12 Sam Hill
11 James Short
10 Gareth Steenson (capt)
9 Will Chudley
1 Ben Moon
2 Luke Cowan-Dickie
3 Moray Low
4 Mitch Lees
5 Damian Welch
6 Don Armand
7 Julian Salvi
8 Thomas Waldrom

Replacements

16 Jack Yeandle
17 Alec Hepburn
18 Alex Brown
19 Ollie Atkins
20 Tom Johnson
21 Dave Lewis
22 Will Hooley
23 Matt Jess

2 Shaun Malton
3 Harry Wiliams
4 Jonny Hill
7 Ben White
8 Kai Horstmann
9 Haydn Thomas
13 Max Bodilly
15 Byron McGuigan