Chiefs name side to face London Irish
Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter has challenged his side to "back up" last weekend's Aviva Premiership win over London Wasps by inflicting a similar outcome on tomorrow's hosts London Irish.
Having come unstuck at Northampton Saints on the opening day, the Chiefs responded in fine fashion by seeing off Wasps 30-26 on their own Sandy Park turf thanks to tries from Tom James (2) and James Scaysbrook, as well as the boot of fly-half Gareth Steenson.
A week on from that triumph, Baxter has been preparing his troops for their latest top flight battle at the Madejski Stadium - and has warned that another big performance will be needed if they are to overcome the Exiles, who themselves netted their first win at Worcester Warriors.
And part of Exeter's pre-match preparation has been ensuring that mental attitudes are spot-on within the visiting ranks.
"It was great to get our season under way [against Wasps], get some points on the board and get off the bottom of the table, and the important thing now is to back that up," said Baxter. "I want to make sure that our attitude is not 'we've won a game of rugby, we can roll along now and everything's fine' because it's not.
"If we think we can roll into the London Irish game we'll put ourselves into a lot of problems. If we think we're on the move now and if we keep rolling the wins will keep coming, that definitely won't happen. We have to keep fighting and keep making things happen."
As has been the case ever since they arrived in the Premiership, the Chiefs are never a side that gets carried away by victories or defeats and Baxter is keen that philosophy remains intact as they push on this term.
"It was nice to get points on the board and get our season underway properly," added Baxter. "We often say we don't get on a rollercoaster of emotions, so after the Northampton defeat we didn't turn up on the Monday in a blind panic and start worrying too much about the way we were playing. We were pretty level headed about it all. It also means the Monday after you win, like this week, you need to be level headed again because the reality is we've not become a fantastic side overnight. We know what we did better [against Wasps] and we still know what we need to get better at. It's therefore important we work and focus on those points and make sure they are at the forefront of our minds going into this weekend."
Like the Chiefs, the Exiles are also on a high after their success at Sixways and having reviewed the opposition in depth this week, Baxter know the threat posed by their rivals in Reading.
"The Premiership is what it is," he said. "Every game is important and has something on it.
"After you have won at home, like we've just done, the teams that can then go away from home and pick up points are the teams that tend to climb the league because that is what you have to do. You have to try and put runs of points together. We are very aware London Irish are a very good side; they've just had a good win at Worcester; and there job is the opposite to ours, which is they've banged in that away win, now they'll be hoping to follow it up at home. Either way it's a good challenge for us both, so we need to be ready to meet that threat head on this week.
"Looking at things, we are both feeling a fair bit better this week than we were after week one, so it should be an interesting game. Also the conditions look good, so we both should be able to play how we want to play."
Although victorious last weekend, Baxter has been forced to tinker with his winning formula due to injuries sustained. No.8 Dave Ewers has been ruled out with a hamstring problem, so England international Tom Johnson shuffles over from the blind-side flank and Ben White is brought in for his first start of the season. White's void on the bench is filled by Kai Horstmann, whilst the other change is also on the bench where Carl Rimmer replaces Craig Mitchell, who picked up a knock in Monday's A League game over Wasps.
15 Phil Dollman
14 Ian Whitten
13 Jason Shoemark
12 Sam Hill
11 Tom James
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Haydn Thomas
1 Brett Sturgess
2 Jack Yeandle
3 Hoani Tui
4 Dean Mumm (capt)
5 Damian Welch
6 Ben White
7 James Scaysbrook
8 Tom Johnson
16 Chris Whitehead
17 Ben Moon
18 Carl Rimmer
19 Tom Hayes
20 Kai Horstmann
21 Dave Lewis
22 Henry Slade
23 Matt Jess
Words by Mark Stevens
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Pictures: Exeter Rugby Club / Pinnacle Photo Agency
