Chiefs side to face Glasgow Warriors
By Mark Stevens
17/12/21
Exeter Chiefs take flight today looking to build on what was an impressive start to their latest Heineken Champions Cup campaign.
Up against stiff opposition in Montpellier, Rob Baxter’s side were at their ruthless best, dispatching the French visitors 42-6 at Sandy Park last Saturday. Tomorrow, the Devonians must follow it up with an equally powerful showing against Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun (5:30pm).
Familiar foes in recent seasons, the Chiefs need little reminding of the threat carried by the Warriors, who in a narrow defeat last weekend to La Rochelle, showed they still had plenty about them to cause problems to their English visitors.
“We’ve been looking at Glasgow a fair bit,” said Baxter. “What we’ve seen is a lot of the threats we have seen before. They have a good structure in counter-attack; they have planned moves to get them momentum in the game; and they are good around their set-piece.Add into that, they’ve hurt us before and they’ve got a number of Scottish internationals who are used to playing on the big stage, so it’s going to be a tough old game.
“In the Heineken Cup, though, you shouldn’t expect to have easy games. Your in the Heineken Cup to battle your way through an incredible competition, so you have to be willing to roll your sleeves up and get on with things - and that’s exactly what we have to do on Saturday.”
The Chiefs, however, head North of the Border in buoyant mood, spurred on by recent league wins over Bath and Saracens, as well as last weekend’s bonus point success against Montpellier.
Now, the Chiefs Director of Rugby wants more of the same from his team, which shows just one change to the starting line-up with Sam Nixon coming in at tight-head for Josh Iosefa-Scott.
“It’s a chance for us to build on last week,” added Baxter. “Obviously, five points at any time is a good return, but as we have seen in past seasons, especially last season, just collecting points is vitally important because you are never sure what will happen in the current state of things.
“Watching the game back, I was pleased with the performance, especially the second half. If I’m honest, I think we were still trying to find our a feet a bit during the first half - and there are reasons for that - but as the game went on, you saw how we took more control and really accelerated through the second half.
“Now, we have to convert all of that second half intensity and put it into this weekend from the very outset. As I said, anyone who saw Glasgow’s game with La Rochelle will know it was a full-on, full-blooded encounter, and if we are slow to start this weekend, then we could have an issue.”
Tomorrow’s encounter will be the eighth meeting between the two clubs in European competition and to date the two clubs have picked up three wins apiece, plus a draw on Exeter’s last visit to Scotstoun.
On that occasion, former Warriors favourite Stuart Hogg came within a whisker of snatching a first-ever win for the Chiefs at the venue, but his lengthy penalty kick was just short of the mark. In the opposition side that day was current Exeter lock Jonny Gray, who is set to make his first competitive return to his old stomping ground.
The Scottish international warmed up for the clash by bagging his first-ever hat-trick of tries in last weekend’s win over Montpellier. Also on the mark were Hogg, Sam Simmonds and Don Armand, who is joined on the bench for the first time in Europe by young prop Patrick Schickerling.
