{"id":207078,"date":"2025-10-17T18:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/207078\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T18:15:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:15:10","slug":"exeters-wallabies-recruits-come-straight-into-start-against-quins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/207078\/","title":{"rendered":"Exeter’s Wallabies recruits come straight into start against Quins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exeter Chiefs<\/a> boss Rob Baxter is set to unleash the Wallabies duo Len Ikitau<\/a> and Tom Hooper<\/a> in front of the TNT Sport cameras when Harlequins<\/a> visit Sandy Park on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Centre Ikitau wasn\u2019t considered for last weekend\u2019s defeat to Bristol<\/a> Bears, and back-rower Hooper didn\u2019t arrive in Devon until Sunday, but both have impressed director of rugby Baxter with how they have settled in.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth boys have been great, fitting in really well and have been keen to get involved as soon as possible. Len\u2019s been here a little bit longer, so has had more of a chance to get acclimatised, but Tom has rocked in and is fully ready to go.<\/p>\n

\"VideoRetired again Nic White on the best players he\u2019s played with | RPTV <\/p>\n

Freshly retired Wallaby legend Nic White joins the KOKO show to discuss retirement, what\u2019s next, and the game\u2019s best players. Watch the full show on RugbyPass TV now<\/p>\n

Watch Now<\/a><\/p>\n

\"VideoRetired again Nic White on the best players he\u2019s played with | RPTV <\/p>\n

Freshly retired Wallaby legend Nic White joins the KOKO show to discuss retirement, what\u2019s next, and the game\u2019s best players. Watch the full show on RugbyPass TV now<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve both done everything they can do since minute one of turning up, so fair play to them. Lads have embraced them and we\u2019re all excited to have them here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ikitau partners Henry Slade<\/a> in the centres with Immanuel Feyi-Waboso<\/a> and Paul Brown-Bampoe<\/a> on the wings, while Josh Hodge<\/a> returns from suspension to start behind them at full-back.<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Gallagher Premiership<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Exeter Chiefs <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Harlequins <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hooper starts at blindside flanker, Ethan Roots<\/a> on the openside, and Greg Fisilau<\/a> in the No.8 berth in the absence of Ross Vintcent<\/a>, who failed a HIA at Ashton Gate.<\/p>\n

Baxter also recalls Springbok hooker Joseph Dweba<\/a>, who missed out on the West Country derby with a knee injury, with Jack Yeandle<\/a> moving to the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have a way of building through a season and not lurch from result to result. We\u2019re frustrated we didn\u2019t see off the game last weekend at Bristol.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe move forward now into two home games and look to collect more points. We\u2019ve collected points from each game. Building on that will get us where we want to be by the end of the season,\u201d added Baxter<\/p>\n

Exeter Chiefs<\/a> XV: Josh Hodge<\/a>, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso<\/a>, Henry Slade<\/a>, Len Ikitau<\/a>, Paul Brown-Bampoe<\/a>, Harvey Skinner<\/a>, Stephen Varney; Will Goodrick-Clarke, Joseph Dweba, Josh Iosefa-Scott<\/a>, Dafydd Jenkins<\/a> (c), Rusi Tuima, Tom Hooper<\/a>, Ethan Roots<\/a>, Greg Fisilau
Replacements: Jack Yeandle<\/a>, Scott Sio<\/a>, Bachuki Tchumbadze<\/a>, Andrea Zambonin<\/a>, Lewis Pearson<\/a>, Kane James<\/a>, Charlie Chapman<\/a>, Ben Hammersley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter is set to unleash the Wallabies duo Len Ikitau and Tom Hooper in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-207078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}