Chiefs set for big kick-off
By Mark Stevens
28/8/18
Exeter Chiefs will kick-off the new 2018/19 Gallagher Premiership season on home soil against Leicester Tigers this Saturday (4:30pm).
It will mark the first time in six years that the Devon club have started a new season on home soil, the last time coming back in 2012 when they defeated Sale Sharks 43-6.
Rob Baxter’s side, however, come into the game on the back of back-to-back pre-season victories over Cardiff Blues (38-10) and Munster (12-0) and will be aiming to maintain an impressive sequence of results against the Tigers, who they have defeated on their last three visits to Sandy Park.
It will again be a tall order for the visitors, especially as the Chiefs have lost only once on home soil in the league since October 2016, that being last season when Worcester Warriors claimed a narrow 6-5 victory in Round 14 of the competition.
That was a rare setback for the Chiefs, who finished the regular season in top spot spot - eight points clear of Saracens - who then gained revenge by defeating them in the end of season final at Twickenham.
Renowned referee Wayne Barnes was in charge of that occasion and he will be the man in the middle for Saturday’s clash as he oversees his 201st Premiership encounter.
One man likely to line-up for the visitors is Tongan international full-back Telusa Veainu, who having missed Leicester’s last two visits to Devon with concussion and a broken jaw, is relishing the big-match atmosphere at the home to the Chiefs.
“We want to get out there and see where we are at not only physically but mentally as well and as a group," he said. "It has been a tough, long pre-season but the season is finally here now and we are glad it is so we can get on with it.”
Veainu had a run-out in Treviso and followed that up at home to London Irish in the last of Tigers' trio of pre-season matches last Friday night, which they won 46-17.
“Irish was a good workout for us and we can take a lot of learnings out of that game,” Veainu said. "The forwards laid a good platform for us to strike off.
“We know that Exeter are at a different level and we will have to be a lot more accurate a lot more physical and be 10 per cent better.”