Skipper looks for a response

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs captain Tom Hayes insists he and his team-mates have already banished the disappointment of Sunday's Aviva Premiership defeat to London Welsh to the back of their minds - and are now focusing their thoughts firmly on this weekend's visit of Saracens to Sandy Park.

Having kicked off their league campaign with a stunning opening day victory over Sale Sharks, the Chiefs have since slipped to successive away-day defeats against Northampton Saints and league newcomers Welsh.

Devon's finest looked on course for victory at Oxford's Kassam Stadium last Sunday, but Seb Jewell's conversion, following a try by Ed Jackson, condemned Rob Baxter's team to a narrow 25-24 loss.

Next up is fourth-placed Saracens at Sandy Park - and the Irish lock says the Chiefs are determined to get their campaign back on track.

"It is a tough game, but all games in the Premiership are tough games," he said. "We enter a tough block of games now over the next five weeks starting with Saracens at home. We will just prepare as well as we can and be as positive as we can going into the game and control as much of it as we can.

"It will be good to get back to Sandy Park for us. There is always a good atmosphere down there and we are looking forward to next week and, hopefully, we can do enough to get the Sandy Park crowd to spur us on."

Like head coach Baxter, Hayes is refusing to be too downcast about Sunday's setback, which ensured Welsh of their maiden victory in the top flight.

"It proves that, no matter how good a start you make, a game of rugby is not beyond you until 80 minutes are up," Hayes said. "We learnt that pretty quick when we came up to the Premiership and it hasn't really changed.

"This is our third season in the Premiership and, no matter who you are up against, it takes an awful lot for a game to be put out of your reach and Sunday proved that.

"Rob always talks about not getting on emotional roller-coasters. You win games, you lose games. We lost by a point and if we had won by a point, nothing much would have changed from the other 79 minutes of the match because we would still have played just as well or just as badly.

"We won't get too carried away by it, although it is very disappointing and there is no denying that. We will put it behind us and move on and try and be as positive as we can next weekend."

Although disappointed with Exeter's display against the Exiles, Hayes was quick to praise the work put in by Lyn Jones' side in only their third Premiership fixture.

"You have to give credit to London Welsh. They never dropped their heads," Hayes said. "They were 14-0 down fairly early, but they came straight back into the game, started putting pressure on and capitalised on any errors that we made. That is what you have to do in the Premiership.

"I think a lot of it is about controlling momentum and controlling the pressure, and they have won a lot of games in their back yard.

"They will take a lot of confidence out of the win. The first two games were not the best of starts for them, but they have got a few points on the board now and, sometimes, getting over that first hurdle can be the hardest thing. We'll have to see if they can kick on from here."