Chiefs side to face Gloucester
By Mark Stevens
27/1/23
Rob Baxter says his Exeter Chiefs side must be ready to ‘roll their sleeves up’ in their quest to get amongst the top four in the Gallagher Premiership.
Having booked their place in the last 16 of the Heineken Champions Cup in the past fortnight, it’s back to domestic matters for the Devonians tomorrow as they prepare to welcome Gloucester to Sandy Park (4:30pm).
With the visitors occupying the last of the play-off places, a point ahead of the Chiefs, Baxter has spent the week outlining the importance of this Round 16 clash to his squad.
“Things are right on top of us, this is the opportunity for us to get into that top four,” said the Chiefs Director of Rugby. “The way the fixtures are this weekend, if we can beat them, then we can leapfrog them into the top four, which would be incredible.
“We have been a little up and down this season but, more recently, we’ve started to show some form; we’re starting to get collectively stronger; things are starting to tick along - and we’ve got a little bit of confidence about ourselves. Some of our senior players are really standing up, leading the way and driving the squad forward. Obviously, we’ve got the challenges of having players away this week - as have Gloucester - but you get through that and get the result this weekend, you kind of look around and go how are we going to build this season?
“Whatever others say, it does feel different when you are in the top four, especially when you are there at this stage of the season. For us, that could be a really important thing for us to achieve and we’ll be doing everything we can to do that.”
In what has been largely a very productive January for the Chiefs, Baxter is looking for his side to wrap things up with another powerful performance against the Cherry & Whites.
“I think the lads have been very open about what they are doing, which is kind of refreshing in a lot of ways,” explained Baxter. “As a squad, I think they’ve come to terms with the fact that some of the senior players are leaving at the end of the season and they are talking about it openly as being a reason to work well and play well together. I think that’s really important.
“None of these things need to be kept in the dark, they happen. We just need to be open about them and use them as motivation and as a driver. On top of that, although we’ve got that driver of some older, very successful players leaving, who we want to give the best send-off possible too. Equally, look at the young players who are coming through and what they are learning from these experiences and how they are helping to drive us. Right now, it kind of feels we are getting both ends of the spectrum and we have to really work on that.
“Without doubt, Gloucester are a very ambitious club as well. They have been progressing in an upward direction for the last two or three years and they’ll be looking at this weekend and thinking ‘we’re not going to give up our top four spot’. It’s a big game for them as well and they’ll be wanting to cement their top four spot, so both sides will want it this weekend.”
Indeed, having battled it out with the likes of Northampton Saints, the Bulls and Castres Olympique in recent weeks, Baxter believes tomorrow’s tussle offers arguably his side’s biggest challenge of the past month.
“It was easy for us to get excited about going to South Africa,” he added. “It was also easy last weekend to get excited about booking home advantage in the last 16 of Europe. Now we need to get excited about this game which will help us down the line. The rewards might not be immediate, whereas the rewards in Europe can come to you quite quickly. In the Premiership, the rewards tend to come a lot slower and you have to work a lot harder for a longer period of time.
Right now, what we have to do is roll up our sleeves up and make sure we are ready to go now!”
With the Chiefs nicely poised to attack the remainder of the season on three fronts - the Premiership, Champions Cup and Premiership Rugby Cup - Baxter has outlined the importance of working hard and sticking to task over the coming weeks and months.
“Yes, we’re in a great position on all counts, but like anything, you can quickly shoot yourself in the foot,” he warned. ‘For us, it’s nice to be excited about the season and what it can bring. We have a lot of things in our own hands, so we need to stand up and take those opportunities.”
Team news for the Chiefs sees Baxter make four changes in the pack. Scott Sio and Harry Williams both return in the front-row, while behind Jonny Gray’s return to fitness means he slots into the Exeter engine room alongside skipper Dafydd Jenkins with Jannes Kirsten reverting to the back-row in place of Christ Tshiunza, who picked up a couple of knocks in the Castres win. The other change sees Greg Fisilau come in at No.8 for Sam Simmonds who, along with Henry Slade, have been kept in England camp this week.
Behind the scrum, there is a new centre pairing with Solomone Kata lining up alongside the recalled Ian Whitten, whose last appearance in the top-flight was in the away defeat to Newcastle Falcons at the end of November.
