Chiefs side to face Montpellier
By Mark Stevens
21/1/22
Rob Baxter has warned his Exeter Chiefs side to prepare for a “backlash of sorts” from hosts Montpellier ahead of Sunday’s Heineken Champions Cup at the GGL Stadium (5:30pm).
Whilst Baxter’s own side were strengthening their own qualification hopes with a 57-12 victory over Glasgow Warriors last Saturday, the Frenchmen suffered a record European loss as they were trounced 89-7 by Leinster in Dublin just 24 hours later.
It was Montpellier’s second defeat in three European games this season and leaves them knowing that nothing less than victory this weekend will be enough if they want to stand any hopes of advancing in the competition.
Baxter is acutely aware of that threat and has used this past week to underline to his own players the importance of not only backing up their success over the Warriors but, more importantly, giving their own progression hopes an almighty boost.
“The big thing for us is that we stay on this upward performance cycle that we have created,” said the Chiefs’ Director of Rugby. “What I want from our guys is to go over there and try and get as much as they can from the game, just because there are real benefits for us later in the competition if we can do that.
“As I said to the guys, we have been performing well recently and I’m keen for us to keep that momentum going. Equally, I’ve been around this game long enough to know that there will be some kind of response from Montpellier this week. I’ve never seen a frontline team from any country not respond in a way to what happened to them last week against Leinster.
“As I said to the guys, we have been performing well recently and I’m keen for us to keep that momentum going. Equally, I’ve been around this game long enough to know that there will be some kind of response from Montpellier this week. I’ve never seen a frontline team from any country not respond in a way to what happened to them last week against Leinster.
“I know there are all kinds of reasons for what happened, whether that’s rules and regulations; where we are with Covid currently; even front-row issues, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see a backlash of sorts this week. I’m sure there will be a reaction and we have to be ready to meet that.
“It’s one of those weird ones where we will go over there feeling pretty good about ourselves, especially coming off a good victory here against Glasgow, whilst they will be there licking their wounds and wanting to put things right. Normally when the situation is like that, it doesn’t tend to mix very well, so we have to make sure that we go after the game flat out from minute one.”
Certainly, the Chiefs have shown in recent clashes against Montpellier that they know how to produce the winning formula, but Baxter says he is taking nothing for granted in this latest match up.
“I don’t think we’ve ever been to France and had an easy game,” he warned. “We’ve been there and won games, but equally we’ve been there and we’ve lost as well. What past experience tells us is that we should expect a blood and thunder game and that’s what we have to prepare for if we want to give ourselves the best chance of coming home with a victory.”
Indeed, the Chiefs will be looking to pick up from where they left off against the Warriors last time. Although they edged a tight first half, it was not until the final 25 minutes of the game that the Devonians really cut loose, adding a plethora of scores to sink Danny Wilson’s men.
“With 30 minutes left in the game we were trailing,” said Baxter. “Sometimes people have to realise that teams are not going to simply roll over and die, it takes time to break them down and make those significant impressions. If you look at what you would call a lot of our good wins in recent years, quite a few of them have been tight at half time, even with us trailing in some of them.
“Last week it was more what we did in that first 20 minutes that really impressed me. Our physical performance in that period was a level beyond our average this season and when it’s like that, it’s hard for a team to stop that and stay in front for an extended period. What I’m seeing from our guys currently is that we are challenging teams in a variety of areas and eventually the wall will break, which is exactly what happened in the second half last week.”
Team news for the Chiefs sees Baxter stick with a largely unchanged Chiefs starting line-up. Up front, Sam Nixon comes into the front-row in place of Josh Iosefa-Scott, while behind there is a first-ever European start for Sean O’Brien in the centre alongside Henry Slade. On the bench, there are also recalls to the first team ranks for Christ Tshiunza and Olly Woodburn.
