Whitten demands fast start against Bath
Irishman Ian Whitten insists Exeter Chiefs can ill afford a slow start when they tackle local rivals Bath in Saturday's Aviva Premiership derby at Sandy Park (3.15pm).
Last Saturday it was Exeter's first half display which ultimately came back to bite them as they went down narrowly 17-16 against league leaders Northampton Saints.
And not for the first time this season, 26-year-old Whitten and his team-mates were left bemoaning a disappointing first 40 minutes as a key fault in their game plan.
“It seems to be a repeat thing against the top sides, we seem to sit back and wait for them to come at us instead of going out and attacking them,” said Whitten. “It’s happened two or three times this season – Saints away it happened, Leicester at home and Sarries here was the same thing.
“We need to flick the mindset and really start these games well, score a couple of tries or bang over a couple of penalties to get some points on the board early on. We don’t seem to be able to do that against the top teams this year so far.”
And with Mike Ford's Bath side currently sitting third in the Premiership, having only lost one of their last 18 matches in all competitions, Whitten knows the Chiefs face another big test again this weekend against their nearest and dearest who they have yet to defeat in a first team fixture since their promotion into the top flight back in 2010.
“We should be angry about Saturday and I hope we show that anger against Bath,” he said. “It’s disappointing to lose against these top teams this way. Bath again are a top team, I hope we can let a bit of anger out in the first half against them.
“We just need to bang in a really big performance and let it all out in every action we do and in the physicality we show.”
While a lot of attention focused on the late try Exeter conceded against Northampton to remain eighth in the league, Whitten felt it was the first-half showing that cost them dearly.
They improved in the second period, but by then the damage had already been done.
He said: “It was another tough one for us to take. We fought hard in the second half but we didn’t really give ourselves much of a chance in the first half.
“Playing with the wind we needed to get more points on the board – our first-half performance wasn’t good enough. We fought hard in the second half and we needed to, we were playing into the wind. We carried well and showed a bit of fight.
“In the end it was heartbreaking to lose the way we did, but I think if we’re honest with ourselves we didn’t really turn up in the first half. That was when the game was really lost.”
