Chiefs side to face London Wasps
Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter is confident he will see a response from his side when they return to Aviva Premiership action this Sunday at London Wasps (3pm).
Just a week after going down 22-6 to Harlequins in Big Game 6 at a packed Twickenham Stadium, Devon's finest will again be hitting the road in pursuit of vital league points.
Last weekend's loss in the capital saw the Chiefs slip to sixth in the current standings, a place above this weekend's hosts who themselves warmed up for this encounter with a hard fought 17-12 success at Newcastle Falcons.
Baxter is well aware of the importance of Sunday's showdown and says following a good debrief of the Quins' display, as well as decent training week, his team will travel to Adams Park in bullish mood.
"We were a little bit disappointed with our level of performance last week and we didn't quite deal with the day as well as we could have done," said Baxter. "We've talked about it all this week and we'll definitely learn from it. At the same time, we have had a good focus week - in what has been some testing conditions - and I get the feeling the guys are really looking forward to getting up to Wasps."
Having reached the halfway point of the season nicely positioned within the top six, Baxter is hoping his team will now crank up the gears during the second half to reach new and unchartered waters.
Asked of his assessment of the first half of the season, Baxter replied: "Pretty good. We are in the top half of the league, which is where we want to be, but now we have a very important game against Wasps which will probably play a large part in to what we are going to be fighting for at the end of the season.
"I think we like the fixtures we end the season with in our last third, but it's the quality that we put together now that is going to be equally as important. If you said to me we would achieve the level of performance we have over the last six weeks, I'd be very happy, but what we're disappointed about is that we haven't won a few more games.
"It is relatively easy to play quite well and lose games against quality opposition, but for us it's more about being confident in what we are doing. Looking at things, most of what we are doing works quite well and we feel we have had a successful start to the season. As I said, the most important thing is to knuckle down, gather some important points over this next period, and then make sure we can have a real run into things come the end of the year."
With this the last league fixture until Northampton Saints visit Sandy Park on February 8, the Chiefs would dearly love not only to notch up their seventh league win of the campaign, but at the same time record their first league double of the season - having beaten Dai Young's side 30-26 back in September.
"Points now are important because there will be a four-week break before we come back into the Premiership and you want to have the best chance of having a run of games that will really fire you up the league," explained Baxter. "In the past, we’ve always done that, we've always had a run in that final third of the season, and again we just want to make sure it means something. The more points we can accrue now, the more it will mean come the end of the season."
Ahead of kick-off, the Chiefs have made a number of changes to their line-up from that which took on Harlequins a week ago. Into the pack come Chris Whitehead and James Hanks ahead of Jack Yeandle and Damian Welch, whilst there is also a new half-back pairing with Dave Lewis recalled in place of the injured Haydn Thomas and Henry Slade handed his first-ever Premiership start ahead of Gareth Steenson.
Meanwhile on the bench, prop Brett Sturgess - injured in the final minute of last week's game - is replaced by Carl Rimmer and Sam Hill is preferred to Tongan international Fetu'u Vainikolo as the outside back replacement.
Pictures: Exeter Rugby Club/Pinnacle Photo Agency
