Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter thinks his side are in a “different place” to the team that lost last year’s Prem Rugby Cup final as they prepare for Sunday’s showpiece against Leicester Tigers.<\/p>\n
Chiefs suffered a 48-14 defeat<\/a> by eventual treble-winners Bath at Sandy Park last March, conceding 31 points without reply after half-time.<\/p>\n Exeter’s better league campaign this season has helped form the basis of another strong domestic cup run.<\/p>\n And after overpowering Northampton Saints<\/a> in the semi-finals at the weekend, Baxter is confident his side will put in a much better performance than they did 12 months ago.<\/p>\n “I just think we’re in a different place,” Baxter told BBC Radio Devon.<\/p>\n “On paper, we may not be able to pick as strong a team as we did for last year’s final, and yet I feel we are in a way better place.<\/p>\n “And that sort of shows the emotional energy and the vibe that surrounds the place at the moment.<\/p>\n “The guys have got smiles on their faces at just the right time.<\/p>\n “When you start to look forward to things, instead of being worried about things, it’s a total different environment.<\/p>\n “At different times this competition has been important to us in different ways.<\/p>\n “The first time we won this competition [2013-14], it kick-started that chat about winning things, and as the group grows and has more expectation on each other, that adds to everything you can achieve as a group.”<\/p>\n Baxter confirmed prop Jimmy Roots and back Zack Wimbush are out of the game at Mattioli Woods Welford Road due to injury.<\/p>\n “Jimmy Roots has a pretty bad injury, he has lacerations through and around his ear,” Baxter said.<\/p>\n “Zack Wimbush came off [at the weekend] due to a foot injury so we’re picking up injuries as we go.”<\/p>\n Baxter added back-row pair Richard Chapstick and Christ Tshiunza have returned to training and are available to be selected for Sunday’s final.<\/p>\n Wales international Tshiunza broke his foot<\/a> in Exeter’s opening day draw at Northampton, ruling him out of the Autumn internationals, and last month Baxter admitted the 24-year-old could leave in the summer<\/a> as his current contract expires at the end of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter thinks his side are in a “different place” to the team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-533526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}