'Let's end on a high' - Hayes

 

By Mark Stevens

Tom Hayes says Exeter Chiefs are looking to finish their first-ever season in the Heineken Cup on a high note as they prepare to welcome reigning champions Leinster to Sandy Park.

Having seen their own aspirations of advancing in Europe come to an end with defeat to Clermont Auvergne last Saturday, the Devon club could potentially inflict a fatal blow on the holders with success this Saturday.

The Irishmen ideally need to claim maximum reward from their travels to Devon if they are to advance into the last eight of the competition as one of the two best runners-up for the competition's six pools.

Back to back defeats to Clermont have put Leinster in a precarious position entering into the final round of this season's tournament and Hayes knows the visitors will come fully loaded with an array of international talent at their disposal.

"It is a going to be a huge occasion for us," said Hayes. "They have won the Heineken Cup in each of the last two seasons, and they are not in as strong a position in the group as I think they would have liked to have been. They have obviously got a lot of quality about them, so they are not going to come to Sandy Park just to make up numbers.

"They are going to be scrapping for what they can, and it is up to us to stand up to that really and try and end our European season on a high."

Having honed his early rugby skills back home with arch rivals Munster, Hayes will be relishing tackling the Dubliners in such a grand occasion.

"As an Irishman, there is maybe a little bit of added spice to the fixture for me, but it is all about the club and the squad really, and we want to try and get as much out of the game as we possibly can."

Back in October, the Chiefs threatened to pull of one of the biggest shocks ever in the tournament as they pushed Leinster all the way at a packed RDS.

In the end, a late Jonny Sexton penalty nudged the home side to a narrow 9-6 win. However, Rob Baxter's side showed enough that day to ensure this weekend will be no walk in the park for Leinster.

The Chiefs, though, will have to pick themselves up from a hefty beating by unbeaten Pool 5 leaders Clermont Auvergne.

The French club ran in six tries during a hugely impressive 46-3 victory at the Stade Marcel Michelin - a performance Hayes himself admitted afterwards was on "another level".

He added: "The level of rugby we were exposed to was probably up another notch from what we have experienced in the Premiership over the last couple of years, and that is certainly not to knock anything in the Premiership.

"The same as when we got up into the top flight from the Championship, we knew we had to kick on, in terms of what we do as forwards and backs, how we work together, our kicking game, and in every element of our game.

"In Clermont we came up against a team who are probably favourites to win the competition, and who have just exposed us to a higher level right across the board – their kicking game, how the forwards pick and drive, their momentum building, taking the chances given to them, their offloading game and their work in contact.

"All is not lost for us though. We were in a fight, and in some ways the scoreboard does not reflect how much we were in the game, because we had our periods ourselves when we didn't finish off, but they certainly took their chances, and that was probably the main difference."

Exeter started both halves of the game well, and had opportunities to score which they did not take, whereas Clermont were ruthless in the finishing department and ran in another six tries, just as they had done at Sandy Park in October.

"That was where their quality shone through in the game," explained Hayes. "We created chances and had a couple of line breaks and a turnover from our own line which we didn't manage to turn into points, whereas if they got an opportunity like that, they took it."

Hayes is confident, though, the Chiefs will learn from the experiences of this season and hopes a bumper crowd at Sandy Park will in turn help to reignite their seasonal charge.

There are still a number of tickets available for Saturday's clash, these can be bought either online by clicking here or through the Trading Post, which is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 4pm.