Chiefs side to face Gloucester
By Mark Stevens
27/10/22
It’s a case of ‘Lights, Camera, Action’ for the Exeter Chiefs tomorrow night as they prepare to tackle rivals Gloucester in Round Eight of the Gallagher Premiership (7:45pm).
Just days after coming unstuck at the death to league leaders Saracens, Rob Baxter’s side head to Kingsholm looking not only to get their season back on track at the first attempt, but at the same time claim yet more bragging rights across the Westcountry.
Having already seen off near neighbours Bristol Bears on a Friday night, the Devonians will be hoping to replicate that performance with another big performance on the big stage.
Gloucester, however, are themselves in a rich vein of form and buoyed by their own late victory at London Irish last time out, they will head into this latest tussle with real confidence according to Chiefs head coach, Ali Hepher.
“It’s always a great place to go, especially on a Friday night,” said Hepher. “It’s a traditional rugby club and one of those fixtures you always look for at the start of the season. Look, it’s going to be two good sides really going at it. They’ve only lost once this season and, a bit like us, they’ve been involved in a couple of tight finishes this season.
“When you look at them, they have a clear way of playing. Their maul has always been a threat and it provides them with a platform to score tries and create space. The jackal threat as well gets them penalties, which they go to the corner with, so we’ve got to make sure we’re right on our game.
“At the same time, there are things we can exploit and it will be up to us to make sure we make the most of our opportunities.”
The Chiefs showed last weekend that they are more than capable of going toe-to-toe with the very best sides and, on another day, could easily have been the team that took the first scalp of Saracens this season.
“Tough margins, they always are in the top games,” added Hepher. “Looking at the game, we started very well, but we needed to be a bit more clinical in what we did. Also, the fightback we showed – especially when we were nine points down in the second half – playing into the wind and rain, was again very good.
“A lot of what we did out there was pleasing and we wouldn’t have had to do much more to have won that game. Like any game, there are learns to take from it, especially for some of those younger players and the new guys, but overall the guys put in a lot of effort and the attitude was right up there, which is all we can ask for as coaches.”
Ahead of kick-off, the visitors have been forced into change. England duty means they are denied the services of Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jack Nowell, Sam Simmonds and Henry Slade, the latter of whom was called up on Monday having initially missed out on Eddie Jones’ selection plans.
However, fellow internationals Christ Tshiunza (Wales) and Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray (both Scotland) are available and will take their place in the match-day squad, which includes a starting debut for Australian international Scott Sio. He is one of three changes to the Chiefs pack, joining skipper Jack Yeandle in the front-row and Lewis Pearson, who is added to the back-row in place of Tshiunza, who is named on the bench.
Behind the scrum, Rory O’Loughlin comes into centre in place of Slade, whilst the absence of Nowell is countered with the return to fitness of Josh Hodge, who has happy memories of scoring at Kingsholm back in March 2021. On the bench, Dan John is also included for the first time in a Premiership squad this season.
