westcountry challenge

Head coach Rob Baxter says he will use tomorrow’s final Westcountry Challenge Cup fixture at Bath as the ideal opportunity to fine tune his Exeter Chiefs squad ahead of the new 2015/16 season.

Having already collected three pre-season wins over Gloucester (home and away) and Bath at home, Baxter knows this latest encounter at the Recreation Ground (5.45pm) offers the final chance for his players to stake their claims ahead of the big kick-off.

With Bath also providing the opposition for Exeter’s opening Aviva Premiership game of the season next week, some may feel neither...

Having chopped and changed personnel for the first two fixtures in this year’s Westcountry Challenge Cup, Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter is promising a more settled approach for the final two games of the competition.

With Gloucester next on the agenda tomorrow at Bristol’s Memorial Ground (3pm), followed by Bath a week later at the Rec, Baxter hopes to use these subsequent away days as the ideal opportunity to ready his troops for the battles ahead.

Buoyed by home wins over both teams already in the new-look, three-team competition, Baxter is well aware the next two...

The waiting is over and rugby returns to Sandy Park today (Saturday) as Exeter Chiefs prepare to kick-off their 2015-16 campaign with the visit of Gloucester in the inaugural match of the West Country Challenge Cup (4:30pm).

After two months of gruelling work in the gym and the training field, Rob Baxter's side will at last be able to put into practice new ideas and fresh plans in the first of four warm-up fixtures for the Devon club.

With the forthcoming Rugby World Cup not only ensuring a later start to the domestic year, but also robbing clubs of key personnel for the...