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Man of the match Vermeulen missing from Exeter's semi-final XV
By Online Editors
Exeter Chiefs will be without last Sunday's quarter-final man of the match Jacques Vermeulen when they host Toulouse in this Saturday's Champions Cup semi-final at Sandy Park.
Vermeulen was a constant thorn for Northampton, running in tries and energetically making his presence felt, but the South African back row misses out this week for reasons that Exeter failed to clarify in their team announcement.
Vermeulen's place is taken by Scotland international Sam Skinner, a sub last weekend, while on the bench Dave Dennis and Don Armand are included with Jannes Kirsten making way.
Exeter boss Rob Baxter told his club's website: “The key thing this week is that we don’t get too excited about the game too quickly.
"For a game like this, you have to expend a huge amount of emotional energy, but not in the build-up. Our aim has to be to have those emotional batteries full for kick-off, then release it all from the outset.”
Toulouse make one change to the XV that defeated Ulster last Sunday, Julien Marchand taking over from Peato Mauvaka at hooker.
EXETER: 15. Stuart Hogg; 14. Jack Nowell, 13. Henry Slade, 12. Ian Whitten, 11. Tom O'Flaherty; 10. Joe Simmonds (capt), 9. Jack Maunder; 1. Alec Hepburn, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. Harry Williams, 4. Jonny Gray, 5. Jonny Hill, 6. Dave Ewers, 7. Sam Skinner, 8. Sam Simmonds. Reps: 16. Jack Yeandle, 17. Ben Moon, 18. Tom Francis, 19. Dave Dennis, 20. Don Armand, 21. Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 22. Gareth Steenson, 23. Ollie Devoto.
TOULOUSE: 15. Thomas Ramos; 14. Yoann Huget, 13. Sofiane Guitoune, 12. Pita Ahki, 11. Cheslin Kolbe; 10. Romain Ntamack, 9. Antoine Dupont; 1. Cyril Baille, 2. Julien Marchand, 3. Charlie Faumuina, 4. Rory Arnold, 5. Joe Tekori, 6. Jerome Kaino (capt), 7. Francois Cros, 8. Selevasio Tolofua. Reps: 16. Peato Mauvaka, 17. Rodrigue Neti, 18. Dorian Aldegheri, 19. Alban Placines, 20. Louis Madaule, 21. Alexi Bales, 22. Zack Holmes, 23. Matthis Lebel.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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