Saracens face a stern test in Round 2 of the Aviva Premiership this weekend when they face their opponents from last season’s final but this time at Sandy Park where the Exeter Chiefs will be a different proposition.
Exeter Chiefs Changes
Henry Slade keeps his place at outside-half for the Chiefs relegating Gareth Steenson to the bench once again but there are 3 changes to the side that grabbed a losing bonus point at the Ricoh last weekend with Greg Holmes coming in for Harry Williams in the front row and Geoff Parling replacing Mitch Lees in the engine room. Parling also skippers the side which Rob Baxter has urged to use home advantage to the full when the Champions arrive on Sunday.
Lachie Turner is also called up as a replacement for Ollie Woodburn who picked up a knock last week and is being rested.
Coaching Staff Relaxed for Big Game
“In a lot of ways this game is a low pressure game for us”, Baxter told exeterchiefs.co.uk. “I know that sounds a bit strange because we didn’t beat Saracens last season – they were the only side to win here at Sandy Park, we lost quite heavily at their place and then they beat us in the final – so in some ways, it’s a great opportunity to just go and challenge ourselves and see if we are a bit closer to them than last season.”
Although they suffered a first round loss to fellow contenders Wasps, the coaching have not been too downbeat about the final outcome and have taken the positives of being so close having made some mistakes executing chances that could have allowed them to win the game.
“When you lose by a score, you tend to look at every mistake and think is it the one that cost us the game?” added Baxter. “You look in detail at everything and there’s no hiding place for anyone”.
Saracens Prepared for Tough Contest
Saracens of course, may well be in the mood to put right their average (by their standards) performance last week against Worcester. This fixture though may not be the ideal one to rediscover your form and it may be more of a case of coming away with an away win, no matter how that happens. What is a given is that Mark McCall is weary of the Chiefs.
He told premiershiprugby.com “Exeter Chiefs are a quality outfit and Sandy Park is probably the toughest ground to visit in the Premiership. They have a strong home record and games between the sides in recent years have been closely fought affairs.”
“In terms of our performance, we need an improvement from the Worcester game but the group have trained very well this week and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
Alex Lozowski keeps his place ahead of Owen Farrell who had hoped to be back in the frame for the trip but is still out with a back strain.
Teams to face each other on Sunday:
Exeter Chiefs
15 Phil Dollman 14 Lachie Turner 13 Ollie Devoto 12 Sam Hill 11 Ian Whitten 10 Henry Slade 9 Will Chudley
1 Ben Moon 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie 3 Greg Holmes 4 Geoff Parling (capt) 5 Damian Welch 6 Don Armand 7 Julian Salvi 8 Thomas Waldrom
Saracens
15 Alex Goode 14 Chris Ashton 13 Marcelo Bosch 12 Brad Barritt (C) 11 Sean Maitland 10 Alex Lozowski 9 Richard Wigglesworth
1 Mako Vunipola 2 Jamie George 3 Petrus Du Plessis 4 Maro Itoje 5 George Kruis 6 Jackson Wray 7 Schalk Burger 8 Billy Vunipola
“Main Photo”
