Chiefs side to face Bulls
By Mark Stevens
13/1/23
Rob Baxter acknowledges his Exeter Chiefs will face a much different African beast when they tackle the Vodacom Bulls in Round Three of this season’s Heineken Champions Cup tomorrow (5:30pm).
Having landed in South Africa earlier this week, the Chiefs have quietly gone about their business preparing themselves for what should be a ferocious test against Jake White’s side at Loftus Versfeld.
With two bonus point wins from as many games so far this season, it’s been a perfect start for the Chiefs who kicked off their campaign with a 27-12 win in Castres, before following it up with a 44-14 success over the Bulls at Sandy Park.
This latest match-up, however, promises to be their toughest assignment yet. Not only is it up against South Africa’s most successful club side on their own turf, but summer heat and playing at altitude will just add to the things the Chiefs will need to process on the night.
Baxter, though, has been encouraged by what he has seen from his players this week. Despite the scorching overhead heat, the squad have not been afraid to test their limits, pushing themselves hard enough to ensure they are in prime condition come kick-off.
“Playing at 7:30pm over here, the temperature will be a lot cooler than what we’ve experienced at other times of the day,” explained Baxter. “Equally, we’ve been here a week now and again we’ve acclimatised to the conditions pretty well. For us, the focus is on coming over here and building on what has been a very strong start to our Heineken Champions Cup campaign.
“We’ve had two fantastic results against Castres away and then the Bulls at home, but now we have to build on that this weekend. It will be tough, there is no doubt about that, and we’re expecting a much different Bulls side that came to us last month. That was a pretty mixed squad they sent, but this will be pretty much full-on.
“For our lads, it’s a fantastic opportunity to create something special again. We’ve talked all week about what we will need to do, how strong we will need to be, plus the fight we will need to show. Getting a result would be fantastic, but equally anything positive we can take from the game will be very important. We’ve seen in the past that if you pick up bonus points, they can really mean something later in the competition.
“That means having that focus across the whole 80 minutes has to be there. If we do, it will give us the best footing into the game, and then we can start later and really impose ourselves on the Bulls.”
With returning forward Jannes Kirsten providing a detailed brief on the Bulls and Pretoria this week, Baxter says the long trek to the Southern Hemisphere has allowed his players to not only enjoy some quality time together, on and off the pitch, but create a bond that will be needed further down the line.
“It’s been a good trip,” added Baxter. “The senior guys have created like some mini tour rules which have helped to really pull the group together. As I said, we’ve had to train at different times of the day because of the heat, but the guys have been fine with that and we’re seeing some real quality in our training.
“The proof of the pudding, however, will come on Saturday night, but we’re in a good place and looking forward to the challenge of it all.”
Team news for the Chiefs sees Jack Innard come into the front-row in place of hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie. The England forward was forced off during last weekend’s Gallagher Premiership win over Northampton Saints with an ankle injury. He is due to undergo surgery on that injury shortly and will be sidelined for an unspecified period of time.
The remainder of the pack remains unchanged, as does the back division which includes Henry Slade, who will take on the captaincy duties in the absence of Cowan-Dickie. On the bench, Kirsten returns for the first time in months to face his former club in the only change.
