Yeandle expects 'tough challenge'

By Howard Lloyd
24/3/2016

Exeter Chiefs club captain Jack Yeandle has warned his team-mates of the 'tough challenge' awaiting them in their first-versus-second clash at Saracens on Saturday (3:15pm).

The 26-year-old hooker knows better than most what is required to win at Allianz Park, coming off the bench in last season's famous 24-20 success.

That victory required a herculean defensive effort from the visitors as they breathed new life into their top-four tilt, although they still came up agonisingly short on the final day of the season.

Yeandle knows this weekend represents another tough assignment for the league leaders, but he feels their current form means they enter the game full of confidence.

"First versus second on a Saturday is nice. It is always going to be a tough challenge going up there, especially as the league stands now," said Yeandle. "It is going to be a pretty exciting game.

"There are only limited games left and we keep looking at it as in when things are going well, you don't want them to end. We don't want this season to end. Why work hard all season and not see it through or finish off the chance when you have got it? If you don't finish it off, you have to start from 'go' again.

"There is so much more of the season left. We need to achieve top four first and then we'll look to achieve what we can."

Exe head into the game with a two-point lead over Mark McCall's men, having defeated play-off chasing Northampton Saints on Sunday.

Sarries, who are four points clear of third-placed Wasps, suffered defeat to Leicester.

The Chiefs' win over Northampton was by no means straight-forward. They trailed Jim Mallinder's side 12-3 at the break, but 17 unanswered second-half points saw them take victory and deny the Saints as much as a losing bonus point.

Nevertheless, Yeandle concedes that there are aspects in which the team can still improve.

"At the moment there are little areas we are not switching on to fully and not quite buying into," he revealed. "It was only small things in the first half on Sunday, not massive things we needed to change, but it started to click in the second half and we were doing the simple things well. Good performances around the pitch started to come together.

"There was certainly more of an emotional buy-in in that second half. You could start to see celebrations of little turnovers and big hits coming out from the boys as it showed how much it meant. We were just a lot more clinical. There were no spectacular performances, it was just doing the simple things really well."

The win means that Exeter now have a 13-point buffer zone back the Northampton in fifth spot, making the significance of Sunday's victory even greater.

"It has opened up the gap between us and them and not only kept us at the right end of the table but also kept the teams below us even further away, so it is a very good result," Yeandle said.