Exeter believe they possess both the muscle and the mental strength to stop Saracens’ front-row tanks in their tracks when the top two sides in the Premiership meet at Sandy Park on Saturday afternoon. Saracens are top of the table and unbeaten in 22 games in all competitions but their forwards can expect a heavy-duty challenge from a rejuvenated Chiefs squad.
Exeter’s away win at Gloucester in the European Champions Cup last Friday has done much to enhance their confidence, not least the scrummaging power that helped swing the game their way. Once again they will deliberately deploy their England props Ben Moon and Harry Williams off the bench, with Alec Hepburn and Thomas Francis starting.
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“If you look at last weekend the front row were the key factor in the game,” said Ali Hepher, Exeter’s head coach. “The two best front rows in the league are on show this weekend. We’re more than happy with the quality we’ve got and chuffed to bits they’re getting the international recognition they deserve.”
Despite the presence of the South African Vincent Koch and two British & Irish Lions in Mako Vunipola and Jamie George in the visiting front row, the Exeter captain, Jack Yeandle, is confident the Chiefs’ prop star quartet of Hepburn, Francis, Moon and Williams will again make their collective presence felt and help atone for their side’s disappointing last home outing against Gloucester.
“We’re not a team who bicker at each other but you could sense the buildup of frustration in that first Gloucester European game,” said Yeandle, the man of the match at Kingsholm last week. “Everyone’s aware this is a big game but the important thing is that you don’t go in over-worrying about the result. If you start thinking: ‘This could have a big effect on the table,’ you’re getting it all wrong from the word go. You can fall into the trap of over-hyping the game and pile pressure on yourself.”
Hepher is also urging his team to give a better account of themselves than they managed in last season’s Premiership final, where Saracens’ defensive line-speed and superior tactical kicking made life increasingly difficult for Exeter in a 27-10 defeat. “The challenge is that we don’t just rest on last week and have the same desire to work hard. We’re not looking too hard at Saracens, we’re looking at ourselves. If we’re in the right state of mind, we’re a good side and we can beat anyone.
“There were lessons from the final last May and we’ll try and make those adjustments but ultimately it’s a simple game. We’ve got to win the work-rate battle first and foremost. That’s the state of mind you’ve got to get yourself into. It’s about who sticks at it and who breaks the quickest. We learned more from last Friday’s Gloucester game than almost any other game we’ve played.”
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The only change to the Chiefs’ starting XV sees Matt Kvesic return at No 8. With Stu Townsend out for the rest of the season with a serious knee ligament injury, Jack Maunder continues at scrum-half but Henry Slade is not risked after suffering a shoulder knock during the warm-up a fortnight ago.
Jack Nowell, meanwhile, is not due back from hamstring trouble until next month but Yeandle does not believe Chiefs will be outgunned by the Londoners. “They’ve got their names but I wouldn’t say they do anything massively flash. They’re just very consistent at doing the simple things well, which is what we’re trying to achieve. That’ll be the message from us at the weekend.”
Wasps welcome back Dan Robson to their matchday 23 for the first time since he was sidelined with an ankle injury in early October. Brad Shields and Jake Cooper-Woolley also return but for the second successive week Lima Sopoaga has to be content with a seat on the bench behind Billy Searle. Gloucester’s winger Charlie Sharples will make his 250th club appearance against Newcastle on Sunday.