Steeno wary of Falcons threat
By Mark Stevens
22/2/19
Gareth Steenson has warned no one at Exeter Chiefs is reading anything into Newcastle's position at the foot of the Gallagher Premiership table.
The Falcons fly into Devon tomorrow for their Round 14 encounter (2:30pm), five points adrift of next-best Worcester Warriors, and desperate to ignite their league season which has yielded just three wins from 13 starts to date.
In truth, it's a far cry from last season where Dean Richards' side were battling at the other end of the table, eventually securing a play-off place before the Chiefs defeated the Falcons 36-5 last May to seal a return to Twickenham for the third successive year.
However, Irishman Steenson knows all too well the threat posed by tomorrow's visitors and says the Chiefs will need to be on tip-top form if they are to bounce back from last week's away defeat to Gloucester at the first attempt.
"They [Newcastle] are a difficult side and we're expecting a tough game," said the 34-year-old playmaker. "We know where they are currently in the league, but they have performed very well in the Champions Cup this year and they've picked off some very good sides in that competition.
"We know they want be coming down here for nothing. They'll want to get at us and if you look at their squad, they've got threats all over the place. Toby Flood is a quality guy at ten, the two wingers can score pretty much from anywhere, and they've got a great pack of forwards who are pretty mobile.
"It's hard to put a finger on why it's not worked as well for them this season, sometimes it just happens that way. We went through something similar a while back, where we got to the final for the first time and then the next season we didn't really hit our straps for the first three months. Thankfully, we were able to turn things around and I'm sure Newcastle will do the same at some stage. Hopefully, though, it's not this weekend!"
With the Chiefs shy of six frontline stars away on Six Nations duty in the game between Wales and England in Cardiff, Chiefs Director of Rugby Rob Baxter has been forced to delve into his playing resources for tomorrow's test.
In the pack, Greg Holmes and Don Armand both return to the fray, while Steenson himself is one of four changes made to the Chiefs backline from that which took to the field at Kingsholm. He returns at fly-half in place of Joe Simmonds, while Ollie Devoto, Olly Woodburn and Alex Cuthbert are also handed starts.
Despite that loss, the Chiefs remain firmly on course for the end of season play-offs and Steenson says there was not too much to address in this week's debrief from the Gloucester game.
"Of course we were disappointed with the result in the end, but a bounce of the ball here or three and it could easily have been a different result for us," added Steenson. "Kingsholm is a tough place to go at the best of times, but we'll take the point from the game, as well as the learns and as a group we'll strive to be better this week."
With the Chiefs back on familiar footing at Sandy Park, tomorrow is their first run out on home soil in six weeks, Steenson is hoping home comforts can help provide the perfect foundations for a big performance from him and his team-mates.
"It's been a long time, but the lads are excited to get back out there again," said the Dungannon-born back. "I think it was Castres six weeks ago, but it's always special to play here at Sandy Park. Every time you run out you want to make the most of the occasion, so hopefully we can get the crowd behind us and give them something to really cheer about."
* Tomorrow's match sponsors are SW Comms & Watson Fuels *