Chudley enjoying flying start

Will Chudley says it’s vital Exeter Chiefs look to make the most of their encouraging start to the new Aviva Premiership season when they play host to Harlequins on Sunday (2pm).

The Chiefs have already secured away wins at London Welsh and Gloucester, whilst a star-studded Leicester Tigers were pushed all the way in their opening home game of the season before the Midlanders nabbed a narrow 25-22 victory.

Chudley knows all too well the Chiefs will need to be at their best if they are to maintain their position amongst the division’s frontrunners, but he says confidence is high within the home camp ahead of what promises to be a cracking encounter.

Since reporting back for pre-season training earlier in the summer, the feel-good factor has certainly been evident in and around Sandy Park and scrum-half Chudley admits it’s a joy to be part of a squad that is playing with so much enjoyment.

“It’s been really good – all throughout pre-season it’s been good fun, and it’s always good to get off to a good start, so winning two out of three has been great,” he said. “I think it’s been vital to make a good start – it’s certainly better to look at the league table and see yourself in the top half rather than the bottom half.”

Although personnel changes have been somewhat limited at the Chiefs, Chudley says those that have been added to the Exeter mix have helped to add a new dimension this season.

“We all know what we were getting with Thomas [Waldrom] when he first signed – he is an awesome player and we’ve got a really good back row with lots of competition for places,” said Chudley.

“But all the signings have been really good and they have all brought something different to the team.”

And having that added experienced within the ranks has already helped Exeter to show their steel during the opening weeks of the campaign.

“At the end of last season we did have a poor end to the season, but this year we won’t let that happen again – we will learn from our mistakes,” explained Chudley, who will start his first game of the season on Sunday after Haydn Thomas picked up a bang to the head in the win at Gloucester.

“We’ve talked about the fact that last year we had lost a lot of games when there were only a few points in it, but hopefully now we’ve shown that when teams push back we have enough to win those tight games.”

Indeed, one of those tight encounters came against Harlequins at Sandy Park when the visitors claimed a slender 30-29 win back in May.

Already this season there have been some big performances put in by a number of the Premiership big guns and the Chiefs are hopeful of adding the scalp of the Londoners to their list this weekend.

“There has been some strange results and some big results out there, and we’re just glad to be in the top half of it already,” he said. “Every year they [Harlequins] are around the top of the table, so they will be targeting this game, definitely. They’ve got a very good team and we will have to have our wits about us to combat that.”