Chiefs side to face Falcons
By Mark Stevens
24/11/22
Rob Baxter has challenged his Exeter Chiefs side to meet the threat of rivals Newcastle Falcons ‘head on’ when the two clash tomorrow night in Round 11 of the Gallagher Premiership.
In what is the longest domestic trip of the season for the Chiefs, the visitors will arrive at Kingston Park (7:45pm) looking to build on their victory against London Irish last time out.
That success ended a three-game losing streak for the Devonians, who sit sixth in the current standings having played eight games so far this term.
Tomorrow, however, they arrive in the North East to face a Falcons outfit, who themselves are flying high after claiming a notable scalp at Gloucester a fortnight ago.
Despite picking up four yellow cards at Kingsholm, Dave Walder’s side still had enough about them to secure the victory and Baxter is aware of the threat they will pose to his side, particularly on home turf.
“Whenever you go there, it’s always a tough test,” said Baxter. “Last season was close up there, I think we won with a penalty late on, and they beat us down here. We had a young side out that day – and we missed lots of opportunities to score – but equally they stuck in there and they got that win.
“That was a challenging time in the season for us and it’s a challenging time for us now as well. Watching them in their win against Gloucester, you can see they’ve got a confidence about them and that they are enjoying playing for one another, so it’s a big challenge for us.
“Equally, we’ve got to embrace that challenge, face it head on and look to make ourselves a better team for it. That’s what we will say to the team, not just today, but in the whole build-up to Friday night. We need them to be emotional; we need them to stick to things; and we need them to drive the game plan through.”
Although buoyed by the Irish victory, Baxter acknowledges there is still room for improvement within the ranks.
“The London Irish game was funny in a way,” he added. “We got out of the blocks very well, we got ourselves a decent lead, but then we got sloppy, started giving away some silly penalties and conceded what were two relatively soft tries considering how well we defended for the rest of the game. That meant it was a lot closer than it needed to be near the end, which was disappointing, but we’ve talked about them and we’ll look to better this weekend for it.”
Heading up the Chiefs that day was young lock Dafydd Jenkins, who just days after leading the side for the first time in the Premiership, followed it up by making his full Test debut for Wales in last weekend’s fixture against Georgia in Cardiff.
It’s certainly been a big few weeks for the 19-year-old, but Baxter has complete faith in the forward, who he acknowledged this week could well be a future, long-term captain of the club.
“Often I say to the young players here, don’t plot your careers around when you think you will get in, take every opportunity when you can,” said Baxter. “Don’t waste time thinking about things, make yourself the guy who we have to pick. If you’re the guy training well, playing well, then you’ll be the player who we pick.
“That’s the mantra we’ve always stuck to here at the club. It was the same when the likes of Nowellsy, Dickie and Sladey were coming through and it’s the same now. I remember years ago watching a few of Sam Simmonds’ games down at the Pirates and saying ‘he’s good to go’ and that’s what we did.
“For guys like Daf, Christ Tshiunza, Josh Hodge or any of the young players, they’ve got to take every opportunity afforded to them. With all of them, you can see they are getting better game by game, week by week, but there are going to be things that we need to work on with them and there will be frustrations along the way. That’s all part of the learning process, but from what I am seeing right now, we are getting better by the week and hopefully that continues this week up at Newcastle.”
Ahead of kick-off, team news for the Chiefs sees the visitors buoyed by the return of skipper Jack Yeandle to the front-row, as well as Tshiunza who is back from international duty to take his place at open-side. In the back division, Ian Whitten will run out for his 200th Premiership appearance for the club in the centre.
The Northern Irishman is the sole change to the Exeter backs, replacing Rory O’Loughlin who is out with a groin issue. On the bench, Tongan international Solomone Kata also returns after featuring in recent Autumn clashes against Spain, Chile and Uruguay.
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