Lewis up for derby battle

By Mark Stevens
30/10/16

Dave Lewis is banking on the derby day experience to help ignite the fires within the Exeter Chiefs as they prepare to tackle rivals Bath at a sold out Sandy Park today (3pm).

Returning to Aviva Premiership action after two testing weeks in the European Champions Cup, Rob Baxter’s side will be hoping the signs of improvement shown in last weekend’s narrow 19-18 loss at Ulster can be the springboard for a big performance against one of the division’s in-form teams.

Under the guidance of new Director of Rugby Todd Blackadder, Bath will arrive in Devon having tasted defeat just once this term - that was away to Leicester Tigers - and their improvement under the New Zealander is a marked difference to last season where they failed to live up to expectations, eventually finishing in ninth place.

This season the upturn in fortunes has been clear to see and the Chiefs - who lie fifth in the current standings - know they will be in for a testing assignment after their own spluttering start to the campaign.

“Obviously they are one of the form sides in the Premiership,” warned scrum-half Lewis. “There league position shows that and they’ve obviously got a few boys in the England set-up looking to impress as well. We know they will come down here with a good set-piece game and try and run the ball a bit, but at the same time we’re not to focused on them, we’re more focused on ourselves and what we want to do.

“We had an improvement in performance last weekend [in Ulster], now we’ll just try and knock that on a stage again this weekend.”

Certainly the Chiefs are in need of a pick-up after back-to-back European losses, the first of which was a 35-8 defeat on home soil by ASM Clermont Auvergne.

In the aftermath of that display, head coach Baxter admitted a few home truths had been aired amongst the group and there was a significant improvement in standards during last week’s match in Belfast.

“As a club we try not to get on any kind of emotional rollercoaster,” added Lewis. “Yes, we’ve been firm with ourselves because we know how good we can be. It’s frustrating for all of us because we know how much better it can be, so we’re always working hard to get that little bit better.

“Being honest, I think the biggest thing that has changed is just the intensity of everything, both in our defence and our attack. We saw the improvement at the weekend, so now we just have to try and get that going and hopefully add a few bits of detail here and there.”

And with a capacity crowd packed into Sandy Park, Lewis hopes he and his team-mates do enough to get the home fires burning and the supporters in full voice.

“It’s always good having a sell-out here because they like to raise the roof,” continued the 27-year-old. “The fact it’s a local derby adds to the occasion, so it would be nice to get one over them.

“As I said, it will be tough as Bath are in good form at the moment. We’ve looked at them this week and their tactics haven’t changed too much, they still have a lot of the same players from last year and they tend to do similar things, it’s just we have to combat that threat and look to impose ourselves on the game.

“A lot of what we’ve done this season has been good, it’s just those small margins that have cost us in a few games. We’ve either lost by a last minute try or a last minute kick, but if they go the other way all of a sudden we’re five or six points better off and we’re sitting in third place.

“At the same time, we know performance levels are down on last season, so it’s something we are trying to address at the moment and hopefully it will be another improvement this weekend.”