Chiefs help launch new season
By Mark Stevens
24/8/17
The new Aviva Premiership Rugby and Anglo-Welsh Cup seasons were launched in grand style at Twickenham Stadium today in front of more than 200 members of the media.
Just eight days before Exeter Chiefs kick off the defence of their Aviva Premiership Rugby title at Kingsholm, Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter spoke of the size of the task ahead to complete back-to-back wins.
Last season was a record-breaking Aviva Premiership Rugby campaign with significant rises in both tries scored and points registered on the field while off the pitch attendances were up by 11% and there were higher live TV viewing figures on BT Sport.
BT Sport opens the 2017-18 campaign with four live matches next weekend including the London Double Header at Twickenham Stadium.
This year Premiership Rugby celebrates its 21st season with matches being screened live on terrestrial television on Channel 5 while the tournament’s weekly highlights programme will on Channel 5 every Sunday at 8pm.
Baxter said: “I think everyone at the club is genuinely excited about starting the new season. What we achieved last season was fantastic and the culmination of a lot of hard work put in throughout the season, but now we have to start all over again and prepare ourselves for another big challenge ahead. The scary thing, when you look at the table now, is that everyone is back on zero points and you have it all to do again.
“We’ve talked about learning lessons from last season, but at the same time we have challenged the players in different ways.
“The biggest thing we’ve tried to challenge the guys on is a change of intensity during sessions, but that’s more to try and push our game on in a global sense, rather than making any major technical changes.
“Yes, we’ve made one or two technical changes and worked on the odd tactic here and there, but I guess our main focus has been more on building on our strengths and turning them into super strengths because the truth is we won a lot of games last season, particularly when we really concentrated on ourselves and what we do well.
“As I’ve said before, we want to be playing at the top end of our capabilities and the guys I will feel most comfortable with heading into the new season will be the guys who are ready to play at the high end of both their physical and mental capabilities.”
