City bar welcomes Exeter Chiefs supporters for crunch game
If you haven't got a ticket for today's crunch tie between the Exeter Chiefs and Toulon at Sandy Park, city bar The Hole In The Wall is the place to be.
Earlier this week, supporters kept alive the spirit of the Entente Cordiale by inviting their rivals from across the Channel to join them for a drink.
The two teams meet at Sandy Park this Saturday in the long-anticipated Heineken Cup group game.
As last season’s winners Toulon – who boast among their squad England legend Johnny Wilkinson – will be formidable opposition for the Chiefs.
One of the Hole In The Wall's partners, George Sloan, said: “Chiefs Chief Executive Tony Rowe has called this match one of the biggest the club has ever staged so naturally there’s a lot of excitement around.
“With the game sold-out we’re hoping to cater for fans who couldn’t get tickets on the day with three big HD screens .
“For those lucky enough to be making the return match in France a week later this will be a great chance to make friends.”
Meanwhile head coach Rob Baxter has described his side’s Heineken Cup campaign as similar to that of a 200m race.
After a flying start against Cardiff Blues, a slender dip against Glasgow Warriors, Devon’s finest are now bracing themselves for the middle part of the race against defending European champions Toulon.
Tackling the cream of Europe over the next fortnight – both home and away – will certainly challenge Baxter’s side to the hilt, but the Chiefs leader feels if his side can produce two high quality performances, it will offer them the perfect opportunity for a sprint finish.
“With every competition we play in, we look tokeep everything alive for as long as we can,” said Baxter.
“From the first whistle, we look to get after it all. I often say we tend to look at all competition as 200m sprints where we try and fly out of the blocks, hold on in the middle and then try to finish strong. “I think that is where we are with the Heineken Cup this year.
"We started well with Cardiff, Glasgow away was difficult, yet we still put in a performance, and now we are in this middle stretch and taking the bend to see what we can get out of it before for the home strecth.
"Our aim over these next two games is to make sure our last two games mean something, so I don’t care how we get points over these next few games, we’ll fight sand scrap whatever we can to get those points.”
With a sell-out Sandy Park crowd behind them, excitement has been building all week in and around the venue, Baxter knows the importance of the game and is equally excited by the challenge that lies ahead.
“I’ll be honest, we very much look at the Premiership as our bread and butter,” added Baxter. “In some ways, they are almost the pressure games and the games that get the pulse racing. However, this one is different, the Heineken Cup is just about pure excitement and really testing yourselves, so I really look forward to them."
CHIEFS SIDE TO FACE TOULON 15 Luke Arscott 14 Jack Nowell 13 Phil Dollman 12 Jason Shoemark 11 Matt Jess 10 Gareth Steenson 9 Dave Lewis 1 Ben Moon 2 Jack Yeandle 3 Hoani Tui 4 Dean Mumm (capt) 5 Damian Welch 6 Tom Johnson 7 Ben White 8 Dave Ewers 16 Chris Whitehead 17 Brett Sturgess 18 Alex Brown 19 James Hanks 20 Kai Horstmann 21 Haydn Thomas 22 Henry Slade 23 Ian Whitten
See more at: http://www.exeterchiefs.co.uk/news/chiefs-side-face-toulon/#sthash.Vx0gv...
Picture: Exeter Rugby Club/Pinnacle Photo Agency
