We’ve won nothing yet warns big
EXETER have been warned against the dangers of complacency in the Premiership play-offs after cruising to top spot in the regular season.
Twenty-two points ahead of the Falcons after 22 games, the defending champions go into a home semifinal with big guns Don Armand, Sam Simmonds and Henry Slade all back on board. It is a scenario which had one bookmaker yesterday placing them at 1-16 to win, but one which concerns Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter.
“We finished top of the Premiership. In five years will anyone talk about Exeter being top of the Premiership if we don’t win it?
“Of course not. It doesn’t work like that,” he said.
“Right now we don’t deserve to start talking about winning back-toback finals because we haven’t dealt with the next hurdle – and that is Newcastle at home.
“You can’t run away from it. There is a complacency amongst other people and there are bound to be people who look at it and think, ‘Exeter don’t lose a lot of home games and history suggests the home semi-finalists tend to win’. And there are other things that you can look at and say it puts us in the box seat.
“The reality is that most good sides and most grounded players deal with that pretty well and they understand what you have to lay on the field, the intensity and the individual commitment you have to bring.
“If we go onto the field and we are complacent, we deserve to lose and I would have no complaints with that. We certainly don’t look like a team who are prepared to be complacent.
“We look like a team who are prepared to go out there and give it a really good go and lay it on the line for the full 80 minutes.”
The Chiefs, whose Antipodeans Lachie Turner and Thomas Waldrom say goodbye to Sandy Park today, are in rude health with only prop Harry Williams and back row Dave Dennis sidelined. Slade’s return at centre after missing the win over Harlequins
a fortnight ago means that England team-mate Jack Nowell moves out to the wing, with flanker Armand back as captain.
“This is the third time in a row now we’ve been at this stage so it doesn’t feel too different,” admitted Baxter, whose side lost to Saracens in the final two seasons ago before beating Wasps last year.
“We’re used to being here, so it feels like part of our season.”