Team News: Chiefs Premiership Debuts beckon for Roots & Painter

At least two of the new-look Exeter squad will make their Gallagher Premiership debuts in Chiefs colours tomorrow against Saracens.

Flanker Ethan Roots and prop Ehren Painter will mark their first foray into the league for Chiefs as the team takes on the reigning champions in front of Sandy Park crowd, kicking off at 1.30pm.

However, more Chiefs league debuts may await with Niall Armstrong, Ben Hammersley, Will Haydon-Wood and Ross Vintcent named on the bench.

With Exeter Chiefs poised to enter the regular season with a significantly altered squad, tomorrow’s match marks a milestone in the new direction the club is taking.

Director of Rugby Rob Baxter said: “It’s the start of a new story. Every season, this the start of a new process, but this one is a little different because we have had the biggest number of changes in our squad than we have had for a long, long time.

“We have two guys starting for us who will be playing their first game for Exeter in the Premiership, with four more on the bench. On top of that, we have got another group who have only played one, two or three Premiership games at the end of last season.

“I think that’s really exciting, and that’s how we want to play. We want to give our younger players lots of opportunities in big games. We have done that successfully in the past and we are very comfortable doing that again.”

And the games don’t get much bigger than playing the reigning champions in front of a home crowd, albeit Saracens will be missing many of their more experienced players who are on Rugby World Cup duty in France. Baxter, though, wants to continue playing the style of rugby that has seen them through to the semi-finals of the Premiership Rugby Cup.

“It’s great that we are starting the league at Sandy Park so we can create a good vibe at home with our supporters, so we can get them feeling that they are part of this team’s destiny,” Baxter continued.

“We want to play in a way that is easy to support. We started that way in the Premiership Rugby Cup and want to continue that style in the league.”

Exeter Chiefs:

15 Josh Hodge
14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso
13 Henry Slade
12 Tom Hendrickson
11 Tom Wyatt
10 Harvey Skinner
9 Tom Cairns

1 Scott Sio
2 Jack Yeandle (c)
3 Ehren Painter
4 Rusi Tuima
5 Lewis Pearson
6 Ethan Roots
7 Jacques Vermeulen
8 Greg Fisilau

Replacements:
16 Max Norey
17 Billy Keast
18 Josh Iosefa-Scott
19 Aidon Davis
20 Ross Vintcent
21 Niall Armstrong
22 Will Haydon-Wood
23 Ben Hammersley