European Cup draw excites Baxter

By Mark Stevens
13/6/17

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter believes his side have been handed a “fantastic” draw in this season’s European Champions Cup.

As one of the five top seeds for the 2017/18 competition, the newly-crowned Premiership champions have been pitted in Pool Three against rivals Montpellier, Glasgow Warriors and three-time winners Leinster.

All three opponents are familiar foes for the Chiefs, who will be looking to recreate their title-winning form onto the European stage when the competition gets underway in October.

“Every year you wait for the draw with both excitement and a bit of trepidation,” said Baxter. “Obviously we’ve come up against all three sides in the past in Europe, so we know a little a bit about all of them.

“Personally, I think it’s a fantastic draw for us and reward for what was an outstanding campaign last season, but whoever we had been drawn against we knew we would have been in a tough group. The standard of teams at this level is rising year on year, but at the same time we’re excited about the challenges it throws up.”

Those challenges will certainly come thick and fast, particularly as the Chiefs will be seen as a prized scalp for their rivals following last month’s triumph over Wasps at Twickenham.

“You always know that the Champions Cup will throw up some big tests for you,” added Baxter. “This year, though, we’ve got the added challenge that having won the Premiership you’ll be seen as one of the sides that everyone wants to beat.

“We showed last season in the Premiership that we were capable of backing up big performances on a regular basis. In Europe, however, I don’t think we could really say that. We got off to a disappointing start and never really recovered from it.

“Certainly, that will be an area where we will be looking to improve this season because we can’t afford another slow start, especially if you want to be one of those top sides who are pushing not only to get out of the group, but who are then pushing to get to the latter stages of the competition.”