Chiefs urged to just be themselves in Castres
EXETER forwards coach Rob Hunter has urged his side to show their true colours in Europe by blasting their way back into Champions Cup contention.
Just eight points gleaned from four pool games to date mean Chiefs have been widely written off ahead of this week’s home clash with Castres.
However, victory at Sandy Park, allied to a Gloucester win over Munster, will send matters down to the wire with a visit to the Irish province to come. Hunter told The Rugby
Paper: “Europe becomes a head-scratcher when you think you’ve cracked it and know what you must do, but then don’t do it.
“We’ve been criticised for our results in Europe and there’s frustration around that because you don’t want to keep rolling out the fact we’re learning.
“There must come a point where you go, ‘come on, let’s do this’, but they’re small margins that we’re dealing with here and we’re really not far away.
“Our pool is still relatively wide open and we’ve got to fly into that Castres game and be very excited about it because we’re not out of this at all.”
Hunter added: “A lot of it is about being comfortable about being yourselves and I’d be lying if I said we regularly went into Europe and did that.
“People think Europe is different but teams like Leinster, Saracens and Toulon have been successful in the Champions Cup by just being themselves.
“If other teams can cope with them and win, they say fair play. But we need to have confidence to be ourselves from the start of competitions.”
Exeter have drawn criticism domestically as well, with a variety of pundits ranging against the Devon side recently, accusing them of being boring.
However, the facts tell a different story, for not only have Chiefs amassed more tries and match points than any other side in the Premiership over the past five seasons, their tally of 50 try-bonus points in 99 regular season matches is astounding.
Hunter said: “People are entitled to their opinions and it’s interesting to see how we’re perceived by a few of the more vocal ones out there.
“You can’t take too much notice of it but if you’re not a fan of the Chiefs, then seeing us lose two or three games is probably quite exciting.
“That’s what makes the Premiership such a vibrant league, though, and when someone beats you, you just have to say well done and move on.”