Dollman relishing festive battles

By Mark Stevens
23/12/16

Phil Dollman insists he and his Exeter Chiefs team-mates are relishing the opportunity to tackle three of English rugby’s elite over the festive period.

In what is a pivotal block of Aviva Premiership fixtures for Devon’s finest, it all begins on Christmas Eve with the visit of Leicester Tigers to a packed out Sandy Park (3pm).

A week later Rob Baxter’s side make the short trek up the road to face Bath at the Recreation Ground, before defending champions Saracens lie in wait for the first game of 2017 on January 7 at Allianz Park.

As Dollman explains such games are what playing in the top flight is all about and the Welshman says he cannot wait to get stuck into the action as the Chiefs look to build on a decent run of form in the past few weeks.

"We've got three massive games over the Christmas period and into the New Year, so we've got to get as much out of those as possible and hopefully we'll be in a strong position after that,” said the versatile back.

"Leicester is always a tough game but we look forward to those types of game and bringing them to Sandy Park. Trying to put in a memorable performance against Leicester is something we're striving to do – we've obviously got to perform well to get a result, but hopefully we can."

Certainly the Chiefs will head into the game buoyed by the confidence gleaned from last weekend’s first-ever European Champions Cup success in France - a game in which Dollman marked his return to fitness after suffering a knee injury in the home win against Worcester Warriors last month.

“The knee is good," he said. "I got some good rehab and got over it quite quickly – I was glad to play 80 minutes on the weekend and get the win, so happy days.

"We've really kicked on a bit and we've had two good performances and a big result away in France. It's a good place to be and we're playing good rugby, so hopefully we can carry that through Christmas and into 2017.

"We don't want to look over the fact Saturday was a big result and I think it gives us big confidence and a big high going forward, as we'd never won in France in a top competition. So to go out to Bordeaux, who have a strong home record, and get a win there was really big for us.

"We'll concentrate on what we did well there but, again, there are areas we can still improve, going into this week, and hopefully we can put in a good home performance against Leicester at Sandy Park."

Three successive Premiership wins over Newcastle Falcons, Worcester Warriors and Sale Sharks have helped to lift the Chiefs to within a point of the fourth-placed Tigers, who themselves warmed up for this weekend’s encounter with a Champions Cup home win over Munster.

Dollman says momentum has been building within the Chiefs camp for several weeks and that certain issues which were seeing them come unstuck earlier in the season had now been eradicated.

"I think the start of the season was very tight and one win would bump you up,” added Dollman. "We were on the wrong end of a few close results but I don't think we were too far away from them.

"It was a bit gloomy looking at the form but we weren't too displeased with it and how things were going, and we knew that a few good performances would really push you up the league, so I suppose, especially that early in the season, you can't worry too much about dropping down the league.  Now is the time when you come out of Christmas and trying to launch the season.”