Armand poised for trip to the Toon

By Mark Stevens
4/2/21

Don Armand insists he and his Exeter Chiefs team-mates will be looking to build on last weekend’s Gallagher Premiership victory over Worcester Warriors with more away-day joy at Newcastle Falcons this Sunday (1pm).

Having surrendered top spot following back-to-back losses to Wasps and Bristol Bears, Rob Baxter’s side rediscovered their winning formula at Sixways with a hard-fought 21-17 success.

Converted first half tries from Jonny Gray and Ian Whitten helped set them on their way, only for the home side to hit back with a try of their own from Oli Morris and five points from the boot of replacement fly-half Duncan Weir.

Ollie Devoto’s score early in the second half helped stretch Exeter’s lead out more, only for a converted Weir score to pull the Midlanders back into contention and set up a tense final quarter to the match.

Thankfully, the Chiefs had enough in the tank to see out the remainder of the match and secure the points, which moved them back into the top two, five points adrift of leaders Bristol Bears, who 24 hours earlier had inflicted a record 48-3 loss on local rivals Bath at Ashton Gate.

Armand was used as a second half replacement against the Warriors and he is again likely to be part of the Chiefs squad who will travel to Kingston Park this weekend for another testing trip on the road.

The England international knows from past experience that any trek to the North East is never easy and he’s expecting a formidable challenge to come from the Falcons, who themselves were undone 31-22 at London Irish last time out.

“It’s always a big test when you go up there,” warned Armand. “Newcastle are a quality side, they have some very good players and they are always tough to come up against at their place. For us, it’s going to be a long drive up there, but at the same time it’s a game that we’re very excited to get stuck into.

“Winning today [against Worcester] has given us a great foundation to use for going up to Newcastle. Whether you win pretty or ugly, you always take the win. Like always, we’ll take the moments as they come. Before this game we had two losses, but there were elements today which were good and there were others that were not so good. That’s how rugby goes.”

Echoing the sentiments of Baxter, the club’s Director of Rugby, Armand said the Chiefs were aware after last season’s double-winning success that not only teams would be hunting them down, but that their own expectations would have been raised in their quest to secure further silverware.

“Inadvertently, you put pressure on yourselves as well as what comes from elsewhere,” added Armand. “With what we did last season - and the standards we set ourselves - of course you want to stick to them. Sometimes those standards are way higher than they should be, but you also know you have got to those places by setting them high, so it’s something you do have to work on.”

The Chiefs will go into Sunday’s game minus Scottish duo Gray and Stuart Hogg, as well as Tomas Francis, all of whom featured against the Warriors. Also missing will be the England quartet of Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jonny Hill, Henry Slade and Harry Williams.

On the plus side, however, Alex Cuthbert and Facundo Cordero are both back in full training and could well come into Baxter’s thinking ahead of the big game.