Chiefs team to face Saracens
With the LV= Cup put on the back burner until the New Year, Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter says he and his team are relishing getting back into the "bread and butter" of the Aviva Premiership tomorrrow.
After seven rounds of action in English rugby's top flight, the Chiefs not only find themselves happily positioned within the division's top four, but with five victories already accrued following a promising opening to the campaign.
This weekend, however, Devon's finest will be up against this season's pacesetters in Saracens, whose sole blemish in a so far impressive block of league games was defeat to next best Northampton Saints.
Baxter is well aware the Londoners - who will welcome back a number of their star names from international duty - will be a tough nut to crack, but he is backing his own troops to replicate their success of 12 months ago when the visitors were sent packing 14-12.
"We know Saturday is tough fixture for us and we have great respect for Saracens," said the Chiefs' coach. "They have a great work rate, they enjoy being together, and those are great qualities to have. Over the last few years we've had some good and tough fixtures against them, so hopefully this will be the same as we tend to do OK in these types of games."
And with just one defeat in their last six Premiership games - that came against Leicester Tigers - the Chiefs will certainly head into this latest match-up in buoyant mood.
"We often enjoy the challenges of the top-four sides, but something we've probably been disappointed with this year is that our couple of games against the top sides, Leicester and Northampton, are the ones we feel we haven't really gone for in the way we'd like," added Baxter.
"It's an opportunity to really test ourselves and challenge ourselves at home against one of the top sides and make sure we get it right on the level of performance we want. You can't moan too much about results if your performance is right. That's what we have to concentrate on, getting a level of performance we're comfortable with."
Last week at Bath in the LV= Cup, the Chiefs were unable to build on their opening round success against Harlequins and were made to pay for a sluggish start in which the home side ran in two converted tries in the opening four minutes at the Recreation Ground.
Although the Chiefs were much improved after that early period, Bath still had too much in the tank for their Westcountry rivals, eventually running out 37-15 victors.
In both cup games, however, Baxter took the opportunity to rest a number of those who helped the Chiefs not only into the top four of the Premiership, but also the summit of their Heineken Cup. In their absence, a plethora of Exeter players who were in need of vital game time were brought into the fary and although results were somewhat mixed, Baxter admitted there were plenty of positives to take from the past fortnight.
"The cup games are always exciting and the LV= Cup offered us a great chance to look at the squad, share out some game time and get everyone up and running," explained Baxter. "As usual we have had some stand out performances and we have several players pushing to get back into the Premiership team, which is fantastic.
"For us, though, it's always good to come back into the bread and butter competition, which is the Aviva Premiership, so we are looking forward to it and what better way to get back into it against one of the top sides in the country in Saracens.
"What's good for us now is that we have a thicker squad to select from and that does mean that in some positions there aren't the shoo-ins there were before because of the injuries we had.
"At the same time, there weren't that many performances at Bath that really caught the eye and demanded selection on the quality of the performance. We'll select what we feel is the best from 23 based on what we've seen over the last four or five weeks."
As for selection, Cornishman Nowell was among those to impress in the LV= Cup and is rewarded with his first Premiership start of the season on the right wing; whilst Irishman Ian Whitten is handed his opportunity in the centre alongside Sam Hill.
The remainder of the line-up - which will be skippered by Aussie lock Dean Mumm - remains similar to that which has featured predominantly in the top flight this term.
15 Phil Dollman
14 Jack Nowell
13 Ian Whitten
12 Sam Hill
11 Matt Jess
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Dave Lewis
1 Brett Sturgess
2 Jack Yeandle
3 Hoani Tui
4 Dean Mumm (capt)
5 Damian Welch
6 Tom Johnson
7 Ben White
8 Dave Ewers
16 Chris Whitehead
17 Ben Moon
18 Alex Brown
19 Don Armand
20 Kai Horstmann
21 Haydn Thomas
22 Henry Slade
23 Luke Arscott
