Exeter Chiefs v Leicester Tigers – LV=Cup Preview
Exeter Chiefs are looking forward to prove themselves lucky third time in a row against Leicester Tigers, when the two rivals will be meeting each other in a LV=Cup fixture on Saturday at Sandy Park. Leicester Tigers have an advantage because they have already
won two games against Exeter Chiefs this season. Although both of the matches turned out to be a tough call for either sides and Leicester had to struggle to earn that victory.
The gutsy Chiefs came really close to smash a shocking victory at the start of the match at Welford Road, before really surrendering at 37 – 27. Chiefs had also pushed Leicester Tigers the defending champions hard as a reply, in the next fixture on home
soil, but could not get complete hold of it and ended up with a 22-15 score line.
Rob Baxter, the chief executive for Exeter Chiefs said, “You learn some hard lessons in the Premiership and against Leicester we have learnt two hard lessons.” He added, “We put an awful lot into both those games, but only came away with one point. This
week we know we have to be more clinical.”
Baxter has worked hard on his team and freshened up his boys from the ones who were in starting line at last week’s tie at Amlin Challenge Cup’s fixture. Only Andrew Higgins on the wing and Neil Clark and Ben Moon in the front line have been kept. Baxter
understands the importance of the game as the tournament is moving towards its last stages.
He said, “For us, Saturday's game is very much about us using the fixture to get a few guys up to speed again and some others who need game time.” He believes that this development will be important fixture before Chiefs get into the next phase of the Premiership.
Daniel Hipkiss and Boris Stankovich will be making their first starting line appearance since October 2010 for Leicester Tigers at Sandy Park. Since his comeback from a facial injury he suffered in a match against Bath in Aviva Premiership, Stankovich the
loosehead prop has only appeared two times for Tigers. Hipkiss played his last match against Ospreys in late October and has been sidelined since then.
Dan Hemingway and Matt Everard will be joined in the back row by Myburgh, who has played for Western Province and has ample experience of Super 14. Ben Woods after his return from wrist injury has also been named into the Tigers’ squad. Leicester Tigers’
ten international players are off for international rugby, while Geoff Paling, Lucas Amorosino, Georodan Murphy, Ben Pienaar and Tom Croft are all ruled out due to knee, hernia, ankle, Achilles and shoulder injuries respectively.
On the other hand Rob Baxter has hopes high after narrowly losing to Tigers twice, he believes this time Chiefs will have a heavy and positive impact. He said, “We're expecting a good crowd, it's a tough test and with the squad we have picked, we are expecting
a good game of rugby.”
Talking about the performance eof the selected players he added, “The guys are aware that they are being looked at very closely and if you look at a few of them, the likes of Bryan Rennie, James Phillips, Gareth Steenson, Hoani Tui, Neil Clark, and Haydn
Thomas, it's guys who have started a lot of rugby at times this season.”
Following this match Chiefs have a LV=Cup match against Newcastle Falcons next week. Baxter has surely a lot on mind, but for now it’s Tigers that have occupied every inch of his focus.
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