Chiefs side to face Bath

By Mark Stevens

A New Year maybe just days away, but Exeter Chiefs are intent on ending 2012 with a bang as they prepare to welcome Bath in the Aviva Premiership tomorrow (3pm).

Having seen their seven-game winning streak brought to a halt in a narrow 18-16 defeat at Gloucester last time out, Rob Baxter's Exeter side will be looking for an instant riposte against their Westcountry rivals at a packed Sandy Park.

Positioned sixth at the halfway stage of the season, the Chiefs are aware that the second half is where the top sides tend to flex their muscles in a bid to secure a spot amongst the division's top four.

Last season the Devon club narrowly missed out on the end of season play-offs, this despite a hugely encouraging campaign that brought a series of high points, together with the occasional lows.

Two of those setbacks occurred against this weekend's rivals who - in all three seasons the Chiefs have featured in the Premiership - have continued to hold the upper hand in each meeting between the two clubs.

The top flight record doesn't make happy reading for Baxter and his players, who have lost all five Premiership clashes, as well as an LV= Cup date also last term. It is, however, a statistic the Chiefs are keen to address, starting this weekend.

"It should be a great occasion, it's been a sell-out for quite a while now," said Baxter. "These local Christmas derbies are the best atmospheres of the season – not only are they big crowds but people are there to celebrate and have a good time.

"We have to get the crowd involved, play in a way that they want to get behind and get them cheering the guys on. We're hunting something very positive, a first win against Bath, and that's what we'll talk about.

"I've always said what's happening at Exeter has to be a relatively long-term thing and it's important to get a group of people learning from different experiences and different challenges and knocking them off one at a time. It doesn't matter when you knock them off, you've just got to keep knocking them off on a fairly regular basis.

"Beating Bath is one of the things we need to knock off down the line. Whether it's this weekend or another time, who knows? But what we've got to do is keep getting better and make sure, down the line, we are making things happen."

Although defeated by Gloucester a week ago, Baxter - who was left frustrated by a number of decisions awarded against his side - has reviewed the Kingsholm display closely and felt his troops deserved to get more than the losing bonus point from their toils in battle.

He added: "We were determined after the game on Saturday to make sure a loss away from home wouldn't be a defining moment in our season, that it would be a driver that would push us on and make us desperate to play well in the next few games.

"We have to use that bit of frustration to increase any motivation we may need to play Bath, but I know the players are raring to go.

"As they're our bogey side, things are in our favour because sooner or later we are going to beat them. All we have to do is go out there, stick to what we say we're going to do, keep pushing forward and that win will come.

"We always said these three games (against Gloucester, Bath and Northampton) could be three games that help us keep the end of the season really exciting. I still believe that.

"I hope the motivation for the players are the rewards down the line if they perform well now. I'd rather that was the motivation rather than the one-off thing of beating Bath – that's just a nice extra."

Team news for the Chiefs sees skipper Tom Hayes return in the second row in place of James Hanks, whilst behind Phil Dollman (pictured) - who missed last weekend's game because of illness - returns in the centre at the expense of Ian Whitten. The former Ulsterman and Hanks both drop down to the bench where they will be joined by returning England international Tom Johnson.

CHIEFS SIDE TO FACE BATH

15 Luke Arscott
14 Gonzalo Camacho
13 Phil Dollman
12 Jason Shoemark
11 Matt Jess
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Haydn Thomas
1 Brett Sturgess
2 Simon Alcott
3 Hoani Tui
4 Tom Hayes (capt)
5 Aly Muldowney
6 Dean Mumm
7 James Scaysbrook
8 Richard Baxter

16 Neil Clark
17 Ben Moon
18 Carl Rimmer
19 James Hanks
20 Tom Johnson
21 Kevin Barrett
22 Ignacio Mieres
23 Ian Whitten