Welch looks to build on win

By Nick Warren

Damian Welch believes Exeter Chiefs’ win against Connacht has given them a ‘good foundation’ to build from in Europe.

The lock scored one of his side’s five tries in their 33-13 success against the Irish province at Sandy Park on Saturday.

That saw Rob Baxter’s men go top of Pool Two in the European Challenge Cup, with four more group games to go in December and January.

All four matches in the pool have been won by the home side so far, with the Chiefs’ losing bonus point in Bayonne and four-try bonus point against Connacht putting them top.

They face back-to-back matches against La Rochelle when they return to the continental competition in six weeks’ time and Welch thinks they will go into those games with confidence.

“It’s good to have had two hit outs and be top of the table,” said the 32-year-old. “It looks like everyone seems to be beating everyone in this group, which has helped us.

“When we revisit this we know we’ll be doing it from a position of strength so obviously we have a good foundation to build on.”

Welch crossed for the Chiefs on the stroke of half-time against Connacht as they turned around 19-6 to the good.

Scrum-half Will Chudley and centre Henry Slade had already dotted down, with Steenson converting two of the tries to take him past the 1,500-point mark in competitive matches for the club.

The fly-half also added the extras to tries from Dave Ewers and Ben White after the break, before Exeter dropped off in the final quarter and Fionn Carr crossed for the visitors.

Welch said: “I think we’ll look back on that and we’ll be very pleased with the first two-thirds of the game. I think we were fairly threatening with ball in hand and we looked pretty good in defence as well.

“Our performances this season are starting to come together into something, and we carried that on for at least the first 60 minutes on Saturday.”

Welch was one of 12 changes for Saturday’s match as head coach Baxter reverted to a more familiar-looking line-up, having handed a host of fringe players a chance in Bayonne.

And with Connacht boss Pat Lam making eight changes himself to rest some of his front-line players, Welch felt Exeter’s greater familiarity helped them record the win.

“There were a lot of changes in the team last week and it was more of a team that has played together this week,” he said. “There were a lot of guys out there who have a lot of experience of playing in the Premiership and also playing together.

“You saw the combinations working well again. There were also a few things we’ve worked on in training we tried on Saturday which seemed to come off.

“Your line-outs and things like that are going to be more solid when it’s a group of guys who have played a lot together. We benefited from that on Saturday and we’ve put ourselves in a good position to attack from.”