Chiefs side to face Bath
Frustrated by a last-gasp loss at home to Northampton Saints last weekend, Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter is hopeful his team will not suffer a similar fate when Bath Rugby rock into town for tomorrow's sold-out Aviva Premiership encounter (3.15pm).
George Pisi's converted score two minutes from time left the Sandy Park faithful - including Baxter himself - licking their wounds as they came within a whisker of claiming a prized scalp.
Not for the first time this season, it was yet more late heartache for Devon's finest to deal with in the top flight.
However, Baxter acknowledges that his squad can ill afford to let such opportunities go begging and he has spent this past week instilling into his troops the importance of producing for the whole 80 minutes of battle.
"Of course we were disappointed with the end result and it's easy to look at all the negatives and a get a little bit carried away with things," said Baxter. "But the reality is we were again very close to beating a very good Premiership side.
"It does sometimes feel like it is excuses, but I don't think it's an excuse to say you are literally minutes away from winning the last two Premiership games. Right now we are sitting in a relatively good position, but it can always be better.
"Historically and looking at previous years where we have finished fifth and sixth, right now we are just two points behind where we were at this stage in those two seasons. Interestingly, if we beat Bath this weekend, we would then be two points ahead of where we have been after 14 rounds in last two seasons.
"Right now it's all pretty close, but I think it just feels even more like we are getting very close to doing something. As you get very close to getting results, a good run of games or good reward for your Premiership games, it gets more frustrating when you slip away and start to lose by one point, one score or a last minute drop-goal.
"That is where we are right now, but we have to fight that frustration positively and you do that by training hard and being open and honest enough to address the things you need to move on with."
Baxter added: "I think from the weekend, it was not a terrible first half from us because it was 9-10 at half time, but the truth is in a game which you want to win - especially with the elements behind you - you shouldn't go in behind. We did and we were a little bit off.
"To give up one of those scores in the first half as easy as we did in such a tight game - in hindsight it was a killer moment for us because ultimately despite playing well into the elements in the second half, and drawing the half, we have come up short.
"In some ways the closeness of the games over the course of the season, I know it sounds a little bit strange to say this, in some ways it's probably a mark of steady improvement that we are making.
"I look at the season and I go from game to game to game and the only game where I would hold my hand up and say we were not in it with say half an hour or 40 minutes to go was Northampton away on the opening day. You look back at other seasons, there are normally quite a few games where you can pull out and say we were well beaten.
"Instead I look at it now, when we've gone through a whole Heineken Cup campaign, an LV= Cup campaign, and where we are in the Premiership and other than the opening game of the season, every game was there for the winning. Now ultimately we've not won all those games, but is that us going forward or backwards?
"To be within one score of beating Toulon in a Heineken Cup game, to then get a lot closer to them away from home, to be within one score of Glasgow both times, and then add in the TMO decisions against both Saracens and Wasps, if you start to look at the performances as a whole, so many games have been very close.
"Our view is that if the same level of improvement happens over the next 12 months, you will start to see a lot of those narrow losses turned into wins, which is the most important thing. However, to do that, we have to work hard and pin things together for longer periods of time.
"Basically that is what every team sport is about. You work on all the bits and pieces and individual skills and the ones that come through are the ones who stick it all together for the longest in whatever situation comes along. Personally, I don't think there has been a game this season where we have not been pleased with at least 75% of what we have done, the key for us is to look at it all and pin it all together and make the win happen."
Standing in the way of the Chiefs tomorrow will be Westcountry rivals Bath, the only side they have yet to triumph against since their elevation into the Premiership four years ago. The closest they have come to victory was in December 2012 when they battled out a 12-12 draw at Sandy Park.
Hopes are high, however, that this weekend's tussle will at last bring an end to that hoodoo.
Ahead of kick-off Baxter has tinkered slightly with his line-up, drafting in Hoani Tui into the front-row in place of Alex Brown; whilst a new-look back-row is made up of Tom Johnson, Ben White and Dave Ewers.
Johnson starts having been released for duty by England earlier this week, whilst fellow flanker White is also back having recovered from a bang to the head. Ewers switches from the blindside to No.8, meaning Kai Horstmann is relegated to the bench.
15 Luke Arscott
14 Matt Jess
13 Ian Whitten
12 Phil Dollman
11 Tom James
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Dave Lewis
1 Ben Moon
2 Jack Yeandle
3 Hoani Tui
4 Dean Mumm (capt)
5 Damian Welch
6 Tom Johnson
7 Ben White
8 Dave Ewers
16 Luke Cowan-Dickie
17 Carl Rimmer
18 Alex Brown
19 Don Armand
20 Kai Horstmann
21 Haydn Thomas
22 Henry Slade
23 Fetu'u Vainikolo
