Chiefs side to face Saints
By Mark Stevens
25/2/22
Rob Baxter insists his side will not go down without a fight in their quest to be part of the Gallagher Premiership play-offs again this season.
With just eight games of the regular season remaining, Exeter Chiefs find themselves outside of the top four – albeit by two points – but with work still to do ahead of Sunday’s trip to Northampton Saints (3pm).
Last weekend’s narrow 15-14 victory on the road at Newcastle Falcons ensured last season’s beaten finalists kept pace with the frontrunners, but the Chiefs Director of Rugby knows his side can ill afford to have too many more slip-ups between now and end of the season.
“Is it my biggest challenge since being in charge of the club?
“I don’t think so,” said Baxter when asked about the task ahead. “Right now, we’re fifth in the league, a couple of points off fourth place, with eight games of the season still to go.
“What probably represents the biggest challenge at the moment, compared to that of other years, is that there is now an expectation level around us. We have an expectancy amongst ourselves at the club, but it’s also outside of the club because for the last six or seven years we have been in and around that top four and contesting finals.
“If you say is this a bigger challenge than coming out of the Championship and staying in the Premiership, I would say ‘no’.
“For me, I am actually quite excited about what lies ahead – and I think the team are as well – because we’re not looking too much at the table and thinking we have to do this or that, right now we’re just scrapping for everything!
“It’s kind of similar to those first few years in the Premiership where we had to just go for it.”
Buoyed by recent form, the Chiefs will travel to Franklin’s Gardens looking to heed the words of their leader, who still doesn’t believe the top two is not out of his side’s own grasp.
“I don’t think the top two is gone, we’re only a couple of wins away from that,” he added. “Yes, we may have to win the majority of our games, plus hope other results go our way, but I wouldn’t say it has gone.
“If you were ask most of the sides in the top six or seven right now, none of them would be giving up hope. The difference for us at this moment of time is that things aren’t in our own hands and we have got to fight to get it back into our hands. That’s the message I have been drumming into our guys these last few weeks – and it’s the message we will continue to drum into them.”
Up against the Chiefs this weekend will be a Saints outfit, who themselves harbour top four aspirations. They lie ninth in the standings following their narrow loss at home to Sale Sharks, but are just four adrift of their opponents this weekend.
Baxter is aware of the threat Chris Boyd’s side pose, warning: “They are a good side and when you watch them they play real end-to-end stuff, which is very good. Equally, you look at them and there are times when you see them error under pressure and their game starts to break down a little bit.
“That means the key for us to create a game full of pressure – and one which gives us a real chance.
“Last week we did that at Newcastle, but no one really spoke about that. The game was overshadowed more about the comments from Dean [Richards] and how close the game was. In reality, Newcastle only got into our 22 three times in the whole game – and one of those was from an interception score.
“For that to happen, it takes a lot of hard work from a team and that’s exactly what we did. Yes, we made errors and we missed a few opportunities to score, but the focal point afterwards was more that we were a bit off and we got lucky with a few refereeing decisions.
“Anyone who knows rugby or watches enough games, they’ll tell you it takes a lot more than luck and a few refereeing calls to stop an opposition being in your 22 for a few times. We created pressure very well and had it not been for our line-out misfunctioning a few times, we could easily have come away with five points.
“As I said, big parts of our game are standing up really well at the moment. Our work-rate, our effort, our determination. If you have all those, they will give you stead in every game.”
Team news for the Chiefs sees Baxter go with an unchanged back division from that which faced the Falcons. However, up-front he makes two changes in the back-row where Dave Ewers replaces Sam Skinner, who is away on Test duty with Scotland, and Santiago Grondona starts at No.8 with Don Armand out with a knock.
