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Rob Baxter's coded warning for Sale Sharks
By Online Editors
Sale Sharks have been warned that trips to the AJ Bell Stadium bring out the best in Exeter Chiefs as the English rivals step-up their pursuit of a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final.
The Gallagher Premiership title contenders clash on Sunday with the Chiefs travelling north as the nation’s standard bearers in the competition after posting bonus-point wins against La Rochelle and Glasgow.
Sale lost their Pool Two opener against the Warriors but will be confident of putting a dent in Exeter’s knockout ambitions – despite the Chiefs’ director of rugby Rob Baxter sounding a note of defiance.
“It’s often a place that brings the best out of us. We’ve had some tough games up there, ones that we’ve won and others that we’ve lost,” Baxter said.
“But when I think of those games that we’ve won, a lot of our success has come from the attitude and the desire – particularly in defence – that we’ve been able to show.
“Sale are a good, attacking side and they have an ability to come at you in a variety of different ways.
“They can score tries which a lot of other teams cannot do, so it’s going to be down to us to make sure we have our defensive systems in place from the off.
“It’ll be a great challenge, as it always is when you go to Sale, but we’ve been there before and we’ve won there before.
“With the excitement of it being a Heineken Cup game, I’d like to see us go there and put in one of those big Exeter Chiefs-type performances.”
Even in round three Gloucester’s showdown with Connacht has the look of a dead rubber, while Pool Five’s other two teams Toulouse and Montpellier battle it out for top spot.
- Press Association
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Latest Comments
Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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