Sale Sharks host Exeter Chiefs on Friday night at the CorpAcq Stadium in Round Four of the 2025/26 PREM Rugby Cup pool stagesBen Coen of Exeter Chiefs offloads (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

England U20s fly-half Ben Coen will captain Exeter Chiefs on Friday away at Sale Sharks in the PREM Rugby Cup.

Rob Baxter has handed four players their club debut, with hooker Louie Gulley, loosehead prop Khwezi Mona, University of Exeter back-row captain Finn Worley-Brady and centre Ollie Batson all set for their first run-outs from the bench.

Chiefs’ director of rugby Rob Baxter said: “We’ve got a nice combination of some good young players who are training well and a group of senior players who, because the PREM group have played well and been consistent, are now getting their opportunity to play. It’s going to be an interesting mix, a good group.”

“The one thing I know is that we’ll go up to Sale with good energy. We know when you play them, you’ve got to get a lot right tactically.

“The challenge for us is to temper our enthusiasm to play with playing in the right way. If we get that balance right, we could create an exciting evening for ourselves.”

With Scott Sio called up to the Manu Samoa squad for their World Cup qualification competition and Will Goodrick-Clarke recovering from an AC-joint injury, Ethan Burger is handed the starting loosehead shirt. Julian Heaven packs down at hooker while Jimmy Roots prepares for his first appearance of the season at tighthead.

The second row is an experienced one as Rusi Tuima pairs up with Lewis Pearson. Richard Capstick returns from a pre-season injury to start on the blindside with Martin Moloney at openside and Kane James rounding out the pack at number eight.

Charlie Chapman starts at scrum-half with match captain Coen on his shoulder. It’s a new centre partnership for Chiefs as Will Rigg, fresh from returning from a brief loan spell at Cardiff Rugby, starts alongside new signing Harry Ascherl who was handed a contract at the Devon club after a successful trial period. The back three is formed by Ben Hammersley and Dan John on the wings with Will Haydon-Wood at full-back. Paul Brown-Bampoe is named on the bench.

Sale Sharks have opted to field a close to full-strength side from those available to them, making 11 changes from the side that narrowly lost 28-29 at home to Gloucester last time out.

Club captain Ernst van Rhyn returns alongside Rob du Preez and former Chiefs favourite Jacques Vermeulen. Forwards James Harper, Tom Burrow, Ethan Caine and winger Alex Wills remain from the side that lost narrowly to Gloucester in round three of the competition.

The game kicks off at 7.45pm.

Sale Sharks: 15. Luke James, 14. Tom O’Flaherty, 13. Joe Bedlow, 12. Marius Louw, 11. Alex Wills, 10. Rob du Preez, 9. Gus Warr, 8. Dan du Preez, 7. Sam Dugdale, 6. Jacques Vermeulen, 5. Tom Burrow, 4. Ernst van Rhyn ©, 3. James Harper, 2. Ethan Caine, 1.Simon McIntyre.

Replacements: 16. Tadgh McElroy, 17. Tumy Onasanya, 18. Patreece Bell, 19. Patrick Hogg, 20. Tristan Woodman, 21. Nye Thomas, 22. Tom Curtis, 23. Jos Gilmore.

Exeter Chiefs: 15 Will Haydon-Wood, 14 Dan John, 13 Harry Ascherl, 12 Will Rigg, 11 Ben Hammersley, 10 Ben Coen (c), 9 Charlie Chapman, 1 Ethan Burger, 2 Julian Heaven, 3 Jimmy Roots, 4 Rusi Tuima, 5 Lewis Pearson, 6 Richard Capstick, 7 Martin Moloney, 8 Kane James.

Replacements: 16 Louie Gulley, 17 Khwezi Mona, 18 Bachuki Tchumbadze, 19 Joe Bailey, 20 Finn Worley-Brady, 21 Tom Cairns, 22 Ollie Batson, 23 Paul Brown-Bampoe