Chiefs side to face La Rochelle

To date, all has gone decidedly well for Baxter’s side, including becoming the first side this season to defeat their French rivals 31-12 at the Stage Marcel Deflandre back in November. A home win against Glasgow Warriors followed a week later, before Premiership counterparts Sale Sharks were disposed of in the annual December double-header.

With 19 points out of a possible 20 already bagged, the Chiefs headed North of the Border last weekend knowing a solitary point would guarantee they advanced. Tries from Nic White, Matt Kvesic (2) and Jacques Vermeulen ensured that feat was achieved without too much issue - and the visitors almost snatched their fifth win when Stuart Hogg, up against his old club, cannoned a 60-metre penalty kick against the home crossbar with the very last kick of an absorbing contest.

As Baxter rightly pointed out, the Chiefs are perfectly placed. However, he is desperate to see his players complete the qualification process with a notable display against a La Rochelle side, who have certainly produced their best European displays this term on the road.

“We’ve talked all year, whatever competition it is, that we want to keep things in our own hands,” said Baxter. “We don’t want to be in a scenario where you want other people to lose, or you need another team to do you a favour and win to allow you to sneak through.

“As I said, you want to keep it all in your own hands. We are doing that in the Premiership, because when you are in that top four, like we are, it’s your results from now on in that will decide where you ultimately finish. It’s the same when you are top of your pool in Europe, it’s these last few weeks that decide if you get into the last eight and whether or not you get a home quarter-final.

“When I look back on last week, even if we had gone in with a perfect week’s training, had no withdrawals, it would still have a been a good result,” said Baxter. “Going to Glasgow, away from home in the Heineken Cup, against a side who even now are trying themselves to get into the quarter-finals, that was a fantastic performance from our guys.

“To turn up there, get three points like we did, you would take that in virtually any other away round in the Heineken Cup ever. There have been plenty of times when that kind of result would have been good enough to put us through, so I’m very keen not to turn round to the players - especially after getting the three points - and start talking disappointingly about the result.

“You have to be real and understand the situation. Last season Munster came here and got a draw against us and they were absolutely delighted with that result because they knew in a lot of ways that was going to play a significant part in how they would go about attacking the rest of the pool.

“Therefore, for us to go away, get the tries we needed and fight as hard as we did, I was very pleased. Yes, we had opportunities towards the end to win the game, but we got the draw and the three points and that was kind of the perfect scenario in a way. Of course, parts of our performance were very good and there were parts that weren’t so good. You never want to concede 31 points in a game, but we hung in there and we fought, And sometimes that’s the most important quality you want to see when it comes to the Heineken Cup.”

Team news for the Chiefs sees Baxter boosted with a number of his frontline forwards back in action. Harry Williams has served his two-week suspension and returns at tight-head, while behind Dave Dennis, Jonny Hill and Sam Simmonds also return to bolster the home pack.