Parling prepared for French test

By Mark Stevens

Geoff Parling says he and his Exeter Chiefs team-mates need to target a fast start against visiting Bordeaux-Begles in tomorrow night’s Champions Cup encounter at Sandy Park (7:45pm).

Having come unstuck at the Ospreys in Round One last weekend, the Devon club know they must make the most of home surroundings if they are to stand any chance of advancing within the competition.

Parling - a season veteran in terms of European battle - is set to return to duty this week and be part of the Chiefs squad for the encounter against the French outfit, who themselves did not play a week ago against Top 14 rivals Clermont-Auvergne due to the shootings in Paris.

The England international last only five minutes on his debut for the Chiefs against London Irish last month as a pulled groin hampered his progress almost immediately,

However, fighting fit once more, the former Leicester Tigers lock says he’s keen to make up for lost time and be part of a Chiefs side aiming to record a crucial win in Pool Two.

“Last week was a good opportunity for us,” he said. “If you’re going to qualify from the group, you need to win at least one of your away games, so that’s an opportunity down for us.

“Now we’re at home this weekend and if you want to stand any chance of going through, you have to win your home games. It’s a big challenge, but the boys have pulled together this week and we’re looking forward to the game.

“We know we were not good enough last week and we made lots of unforced errors, but we’ve got a huge match this weekend, it’s our first home game in the Champions Cup, so it should be a brilliant occasion.”

Undefeated at home so far this season, having clocked up pre-season wins over Bath and Gloucester, then Premiership victories over London Irish and Leicester Tigers, the 32-year-old forward is hopeful his new club can maintain their Sandy Park ‘fortress’.

“We’ve had some fantastic performances already here this season,” continued Parling. “Hopefully we can carry that forward and keep progressing as well. At the moment, though, they are a little bit of an unknown quantity. As with French sides, you’re never quite sure what team they will bring or how they will turn up, so the key for us is to concentrate on ourselves, stick to our patterns and our structures, and back one another up and hopefully get a good win.”

Certainly the Chiefs have the personnel in place to do just that - and Parling admits he has already seen enough during his short time in Devon to suggest that Exeter can compete against the very best.

“We’ve got a huge amount of talent across the squad, particularly young, English talent,” he added. “The structures are in place, we’ve got a good culture and the lads drive one another on. All we need now is to get that belief that we can qualify in the Champions Cup.

“Saturday will be tough because they have a good group of players. They’ve signed Adam Ashley-Cooper and a few others, plus they play a good brand of rugby, so it’s going to be a big test for us. Hopefully, we can start well, get the fans behind the team, pin them back and look to score a couple of early tries.”

Tickets for tomorrow’s game are still available either online by clicking here or through the Trading Post, which is open from 9:30am to 4:30pm on Friday. The ticket office itself will open three hours before kick-off on match-day.