Whitehead's World: Smells like team spirit...

The latest instalment of Chris Whitehead's blog sees the Exeter Chiefs man bracing himself for a huge game again Leinster in the Heineken Cup...

On arrival at Sandy Park before venturing into what stands to be our biggest rugby test so far, there was a very different pre-match atmosphere than usual amongst the players.

Despite many attempts to play down the importance of this game within the squad to the media, for me there was no hiding from the fact that this game will be the biggest not only of this season but potentially of our careers.

To play in the Heineken Cup is special: to play against a team littered with over 30 international caps like Leinster in Dublin is epic - but not something we as a team are completely unfamiliar with.

Together as a squad over the last two seasons, we have played in big games week in week out, and as a team we take with us invaluable experience and lessons from each performances.

For me, the game that probably stands out the most is Stade Francais away last season in the Amlin Cup, a game that I suspect is no different to this weekend's fixture. We arrived as massive underdogs, yet our attitude the whole training week and throughout the 80 minutes of that match was that, regardless of the names we were up against, we would concentrate solely on what we could achieve as a team, providing we attacked the game and were not prepared to let the occasion pass us by.

We just came up short that day and lost by a narrow margin. However it is those games we can look back on and use the experience of to push forward as both ambitious players and an ambitious club.

I am writing this as we begin the descent into Ireland and the reality of game day is beginning to kick in. While we continue to write Exeter Chiefs' history, it is a great reminder that there has been a huge amount of hard work put in to enable us to play in these games and our biggest fear should be that it can all be taken away as quickly as it has been earned.

Until next time...