Chiefs side to face Saints
By Mark Stevens
24/9/21
Exeter Chiefs Director of Rugby, Rob Baxter, is confident he will see a response from his side when they play host to Northampton Saints in Round Two of the Gallagher Premiership tomorrow (3pm).
Having come unstuck at Leicester Tigers in their seasonal opener, Baxter believes a return to home comforts at Sandy Park can act as the trigger to get his side’s league campaign up and running.
For that to happen, however, the Chiefs leader knows his players must address certain aspects of their play, calling on them to get the basics elements in place from the outset this weekend.
“Last week was a funny game in a lot of ways and it wouldn’t have taken a lot for us to flip that result on its head,” explained Baxter. “When we broke it down afterwards, possession-wise, territory-wise, opportunity-wise, we were in control of a lot of that, but there were some moments that really flipped the game.
“The most obvious was just before half time where we are pressurising Leicester on their own line; we think we’ve scored a try; there is a long debate about it before it’s not awarded; then we mess up the resultant play and in 30 seconds they are scoring with what was a pretty soft play, which we should have defended.
“In the blink of an eye, we’ve gone from one end of the field to the other and suffered a 14-point swing. We then score first after the break and, all of a sudden, the game is the melting pot again, but from there we didn’t really kick on and we couldn’t see things through.
“If I’m honest, the game from our perspective was a tale of lots of little mistakes, which all added up in the end to us losing the game. The key thing this week is that we focus on our basics – and by that, I mean, that’s not us being unambitious, but our ambition has to come off having a strong baseline.
“We need to get our baseline and our foundations strong enough so that it allows us to push on. That’s what I have said to the players this week and if we improve on that, it won’t just make us tougher to bear, but if will offer us a lot more opportunities.”
With the Chiefs again minus a glut of star names due to injury and unavailability, Baxter sticks with a largely unchanged match-day 23 for the visit of the Saints, who opened their own account last weekend with victory at home to Gloucester.
England and British Lions star Jack Nowell is ruled out after picking up an injury in training this week, so Facundo Cordero comes into the back division; whilst up front Jack Yeandle is back to skipper the side from hooker in place of Jack Innard.
The two changes on the bench see a first-ever inclusion on match-day for summer signing Josh Iosefa-Scott, whilst Ian Whitten gets the nod over Tom Hendrickson.
As for the threat of the Saints, Baxter knows from past experience the challenge that awaits his side from Chris Boyd’s men.
“They look like a team that are enjoying their rugby,” warned Baxter. “You could see that towards the end of last season, including when they gave us a real challenge up at their place and we had to fight back, and they look like they have carried on into this season.
“As I said, though, it’s more our performance and what we do in the game that I am most concerned about. It was our decision to go into the new season with just one pre-season game, so we were a bit rusty and that lack of prep can hurt you a bit, but we can’t play game after game and expect to create new performance levels just like that.
“You need to have that rest and training period to reach a better potential and although it may not pay off early on, we believe it will pay dividends down the line for us.”
Tomorrow’s match will also mark the first time since March 2020 that Sandy Park has been able to welcome back a full match-day crowd.
It’s a sight Baxter, his players and the club as a whole have been dreaming about for some time – and the Chiefs boss hopes his players can deliver a performance fitting of the occasion.
“There are all kinds of reasons why Saturday’s game is important, but the primary one is I want to see Exeter Chiefs fans get emotionally behind their team again,” he added. “They will do that, not just on a good performance, but on one that obviously really important to us. That’s all we can ask of the players.
“Let’s make sure this game is really important to us as that is what the supporters want to see. They pay good money, travel a long way, come in early and they sacrifice quite a lot at the weekend to come here and support the side, so it’s only right we give them something to really get behind.
“It’s been one of our key strengths ever since we came to Sandy Park that we build that supporter base, all of whom know when they come here, we go out and produce something special for them. That’s what we talk about as a group and it’s what we try to deliver every day, every time we run out onto that pitch.”
