Baxter set for Euro challenges
By Mark Stevens
22/8/17
Rob Baxter says he and his Exeter Chiefs side can expect to embrace some “great challenges” during this season’s European Champions Cup campaign.
Exeter’s Director of Rugby was speaking in the wake of today’s announcement of the Pool 3 fixtures, which will see the reigning Premiership champions lock horns against Glasgow Warriors, Leinster Rugby and Montpellier-Herault.
After a somewhat disappointing campaign in Europe’s top club competition last season, Baxter is targeting a much-improved display this time around, starting with the club’s opening clash against Glasgow Warriors at Sandy Park on Saturday, October 14.
A week later, the Chiefs will head across the English Channel to face French hosts Montpellier at the Altrad Stadium on Sunday, October 22 (2pm), before locking horns with Leinster in two mouth-watering encounters just prior to Christmas. The first of those will take place at Sandy Park on Sunday, December 10 (5:30pm), before the two meet again at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday, December 16 (3:15pm).
Rounds five and six will follow in the New Year, but as yet dates and kick-off times have yet to be confirmed by EPCR.
For now, Baxter’s thoughts on Europe focus largely on the opening two fixtures, both of which he says he is relishing.
“Obviously it’s nice to start at home, just because it gives us an opportunity to come out and lay down a marker in the pool,“ said Baxter. “We’ve said before that one of the areas where we let ourselves down last season was in the first two rounds. Having the opportunity to start at home gives us the best opportunity to make the kind of start we want.
“After that, we then go over to Montpellier a week later and again that will be a fantastic challenge for us, especially when you see how well they have done and the quality of players have recruited in the last few years. I think for our supporters, these are two fantastic games and great games that you will want to go along and watch.”
Following October’s opening two games, the competition will take a brief break before it re-ignites itself again in December with the Chiefs set to face three-time winners Leinster, the same side they tackled in their first-ever Heineken Cup game at the RDS back in October 2012.
“To have a double header against Leinster leading into Christmas, it’s probably about as good as you get,” added Baxter. “As I said, we’ve known for a while who is in our group, but now we have the fixtures I think it makes it all very real and very interesting for all of us.
“To have games like this is what is Champions Cup is all about. This competition should be about champions in their home competitions going out and trying to become champions of Europe. As a side, this is how we have to embrace it, we have to attack it with everything that we’ve got - and go after it as hard as we can, for as long as we can.
“These six games will be great challenges for us. We’ve already had a bit of a look at Leinster because they played Gloucester recently and we’ve been using that footage to prepare for our upcoming game. Already you can see they are flying and look very strong in a lot of areas.
“Montpellier, we know, are a big, physical side who have done very well in the Top 14, while Glasgow have been one of the high performing teams in the Pro 12 for a number of years. All in all, they will be big tests for us, but that is what we want as a club - we want to be putting ourselves on the same level as all these other top sides.”
For sure the highlight in all of today’s fixture announcement has to be that of Exeter’s trip to Dublin and an appearance at the Aviva Stadium.
“It’s a fantastic fixture in the run up to Christmas,” continued Baxter. “It’s the kind of fixture you strive to do as well as you in the Premiership for as these are the types of games you want to be involved in. It’s the next step towards our players proving they are capable of playing one-off game close to that of international level.
“What we have to make sure, however, is that we don’t think it’s a challenge to our game plan and that we have to do something completely different to what we do in Premiership, because we don’t have to do that. What can be successful in a high end Premiership game can be in Europe as well, you only have to look at what Saracens have done to see that it can happen. I think what we have to do as a club is be more prepared to stick at what we do well in the Premiership and to force good foundations in Europe.
“Sometimes we have been guilty of making mistakes in earlier rounds because we felt Europe was a lot different. In some way it is, in other ways it’s not. At the end of the day, it’s still a game of rugby that we play and we need to believe in the good things we do will still work. That’s the key message we need to reinforce leading into the Champions Cup.”