Armand still harbours European hope
By Mark Stevens
9/12/18
A defiant Don Armand says no one at Exeter Chiefs will be throwing in the towel when it comes to the remainder of this season’s Heineken Champions Cup.
After three rounds of European battle, the Chiefs sit bottom of Pool Two, having picked up just three points from their opening three games.
An opening round draw at home to Munster (10-10) has since been followed with defeats to Castres (29-25) and Gloucester (27-19), the latter coming on Saturday when the Cherry & Whites became the first team to win at Sandy Park since February.
At the halfway stage, Rob Baxter’s side are now eight adrift of leaders Munster, who remain unbeaten having seen off Castres 30-5 at Thomond Park on Sunday. But with 15 points still up for grabs, England international Armand is refusing to write off Exeter’s qualification hopes at this stage.
“We’ve got through on less odds in the past,” said the back-row forward in a reference to January 2016 when the Chiefs booked a quarter-final place with a famous victory over Ospreys at Sandy Park. “There is no point going into next week at Gloucester and thinking we are out and have nothing to play for.There is a lot for us to play for!
“The story of us getting 15 points and making it through is a fantastic one to try and achieve.Yes, we’ve got our backs against the wall, but let’s see how we react.”
Certainly, the Chiefs will be looking for a response of sorts after slipping up against their Gallagher Premiership rivals at the weekend.
“It’s disappointing because it’s this cup and we’ve been targeting this,” added Armand.“As I said, there is still hope, so we need to make sure - especially with the short turnaround - that we learn from the mistakes and we move on quickly.”
“Come Monday we need to come in, review the whole performance, and make sure we don’t repeat those mistakes again.We need to make sure there are no major system errors - and that there is an individual focus from all of us to pick up on certain areas of our game.”
The loss to Gloucester comes just a week after the Chiefs surrendered their unbeaten tag in the Premiership to Harlequins, but Armand insists there is no cause for alarm within the Devon ranks.
“You can look at this in two ways, you can be pessimistic and negative about it, or you can hurt for a bit and then look to move on,” he said. “Of course, we’re disappointed, but being down is not going to make anyone better of do anything for us.
“We’ve still got a long season ahead of us, we’re competing still on all fronts, so there is no real cause for concern.What we have to make sure is we learn from days like today and that we take the right attitude into every game we play.”
With a trip to Kingsholm coming up on Friday, the Chiefs have a swift chance to put the record straight against Gloucester on their home patch.
“That’s the wonder of rugby, you don’t have to wait too long to put things right,” said the 30-year-old. “What we need to do is back ourselves more and not switch off at certain points.There were things which went wrong today which we don’t normally error on.
“It’s a lift here, a catch of a ball, or we do certain things in certain areas.We’re usually pretty hot on all those things, so we just need to refocus and make sure everyone knows why we do certain things and crack on.”