Maunder banking on home comforts
By Mark Stevens
7/1/23
If he had his way, Sam Maunder would happily have taken to the field on Sunday, such was his frustration at events that had unfolded just 24 hours earlier at Saracens.
In what was a disappointing conclusion to 2022 for Maunder and the Exeter Chiefs, the 35-3 drubbing at the StoneX Stadium meant New Year’s celebrations were distinctly mooted as the Devonians made their way back from the nation’s capital.
Come Monday, however, the chance to put things right was already well in progress as the Chiefs did a thorough dissection of their ‘video nasty’ before quickly switching their attentions to today’s visit of Northampton Saints in the Gallagher Premiership.
This afternoon’s clash marks the first of four home fixtures in the next five weeks for Rob Baxter’s side. It is - according to the Chiefs’ Director of Rugby - a defining period in the club’s season and that message has been spelt out to the squad throughout this week.
Like Baxter, Maunder acknowledges the importance of the block, starting with the visit of the Saints today.
“Last week was tough and as players we took it pretty personally,” said Maunder. “Saracens is always a tough place to go, but we just didn’t perform on the day. Looking back, we learned a lot from it, not just the way they played, but they way they operated and the way they went about different things.
“The coaches had their say this week, but they then flipped things on its head and outlined how we can learn from the game and how we can look to move forward. From a personal point of view, I wanted to play the next day. I wanted to put right the wrongs.
“Now, we’ve got a chance to put things right with Northampton coming here at the weekend. It’s a massive game, not just for us, but for them as well. It’s our chance to get things back on track and put ourselves right back in the competition.”
Whilst Baxter and head coach Ali Hepher faced the media in the aftermath of last week’s performance, Maunder said internally the Chiefs themselves looked from within to address certain issues that arose from the game.
“That was the key message in the players’ meeting at the start of the week,” added Maunder. “We had a pretty honest chat with ourselves and training this week has been good. You could see we’ve made strides and now we want to put that into practice and get a result at the weekend.”
Maunder will line-up in a Chiefs side, which shows a number of changes from the Saracens game. Up front there are returns for Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jack Dunne, Dave Ewers and Sam Simmonds, while on the bench there is a return for the first time in weeks of his brother, Jack.
“It’s good to see him back,” added Maunder. “We’ve got a great group of nines here at the club, all of whom are supporting each other and looking to get the best out of one another all the time. Obviously, I have that family link with Jack, but we’re also deeply competitive in terms of wanting to play.
“Personally, the past 12 months have been really good for me. Towards the latter stage of the year I’ve been playing more regularly, which is what I want, but I need to keep building and developing my game.
“We’ve got a young squad here at the club and days like last week are going to happen every now and then. It’s how we react to them and what we learn that will be the difference. Equally, we’ve got those senior guys in the squad, some of whom are leaving at the end of the season, who can really help guys like myself.
“As a group, we all want to do well and it would be awesome if we could send those guys off with some great victories and some great memories. Right now, everything is still in play and we’re not down by any means. We have the players who want to win and that’s going to be our aim each week.”