Team News: One Change to Chiefs side to take on Quins
Rob Baxter won’t let his young side get carried away after their impressive performance against Saracens in the opening round of the Gallagher Premiership season.
After such a thrilling showing against the defending champions, the Chiefs head to the Twickenham Stoop this Sunday 22nd Oct (15:00) to face Harlequins and will be looking to right some of the wrongs of last season, and turn around a frustrating away record.
For Baxter and his coaches, the messages this week have been about consistency.
“You’ve got to decide that you move on, you don’t want to have too many highs and lows, you want to try and stay at a consistent level each week. We really want to avoid a situation where we perform well one week, poorly the next, and then have a reaction and perform well again. The thing with really good teams is they turn up, week on week.”
It’s hard to ignore the level that the Chiefs reached in their impressive performance in Round one, to score so dominantly against a championship winning team is a testament to a good pre-season and subsequent Premiership Cup Campaign.
“For everything to click as it did, and for us to keep backing up the scores in the way that we did is rare for any team, and it certainly hasn’t happened for us against Saracens before.
“We were on a really good emotional level, and that drove a good physical level; we looked sharp, quick, set-piece went well and we were communicating very well.”
A trip to London to face a Quins side which nearly took the spoils in a thrilling encounter with Gloucester in their opening fixture, will be another step-up for this developing Chiefs team, and Baxter was quick to note the challenge that awaits his young charges.
“They’ll be frustrated and disappointed by it (their narrow defeat away at Gloucester) but they’ll be pleased with how they went overall and they’ll have thought that performance wise they’re about where they need to be.
“It wasn’t vintage Quins by any amount but this’ll be their first home game and they’ll have been talking a lot about getting themselves ready for this, that’s what we’ve got to challenge ourselves to get do as well.”
There is only one change to the Exeter side that took the victory last weekend, with Ben Hammersley taking the starting shirt from Immanuel Feyi-Waboso who drops onto the bench. This is a battle between two young flyers which you sense will roll on as the season develops.
Elsewhere, the partnerships continue to develop. The front-row of Sio, Yeandle and Painter which has looked so dominant at scrum-time in the early exchanges this season will aim to continue their good form against a Harlequins pack that have developed a fearsome reputation under the tutelage of Adam Jones.
Lewis Pearson and Rusi Tuima pair up in the second row, and the combative back-row of Roots, Vermeulen and Fisilau will be looking to assert themselves over the Londoners.
After running in a hat-trick last week, Josh Hodge will be hoping to continue to cause chaos from the fifteen shirt, whilst the half-back pairing of Tom Cairns and Harvey Skinner keep their hands on the tiller after looking assured against the Champions.
Exeter Chiefs:
15 Josh Hodge
14 Ben Hammersley
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 Dan Frost
17 Billy Keast
18 Josh Iosefa-Scott
19 Aidon Davis
20 Ross Vintcent
21 Niall Armstrong
22 Will Haydon-Wood
23 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso