In their last pool match of the PREM Rugby Cup, the Exeter Chiefs 23 are battling to secure a semi-final spot in the competition with a win against Bath Rugby.<\/p>\n
One week on from a Valentine\u2019s Day bonus-point win over Gloucester, a five-point win for Rob Baxter\u2019s side against the reigning champions at Sandy Park will be pivotal to Chiefs\u2019 knockout hopes. The side is boosted by the return of Greg Fisilau and Henry Slade from the England squad.<\/p>\n
Chiefs\u2019 director of rugby Rob Baxter said: \u201cWe weren\u2019t intending to use our England boys but we\u2019ve had a couple of late withdrawals from our original line-up, so we\u2019re fortunate that they\u2019ve been released back to us to select.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted game-time and Henry specifically can cover multiple positions, so they were kind of no-brainer decisions for us when the opportunity arose to draft them in.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is just a single change in the pack as Lewis Pearson recovers from a knee knock to start in the second row with Rusi Tuima. Will Goodrick-Clarke and Josh Iosefa-Scott prop up the front row with hooker Max Norey.<\/p>\n
Ethan Roots captains the side from number eight for a second week with Martin Moloney and EURFC captain Finn Worley Brady at blindside and openside flanker.<\/p>\n
Scrum-half Tom Cairns rotates back into the starting XV alongside fly-half Harvey Skinner. Ollie Batson and Zack Wimbush line up in the midfield. There are two changes in the back three as alongside Paul Brown-Bampoe this weekend, Dan John will line up at full-back with Olly Woodburn rounding out the trio on the wing.<\/p>\n
Baxter added: \u201cThe competition isn\u2019t completely in our hands is the reality of it, but I\u2019d like to think a decent performance and decent result would give us a very good opportunity to advance in the competition. Ultimately, every team wants to play more games.\u201d<\/p>\n
The replacement front row of Julian Heaven, Khwezi Mona and Jimmy Roots is joined by one of Chiefs\u2019 latest re-signings, Joe Bailey and the returning Fisilau.<\/p>\n
Will Haydon-Wood rotates back into the matchday side as he is named alongside Charlie Chapman and Slade in providing cover for the backline.<\/p>\n
The Chiefs game kicks off at 16:30 in Devon with the England v Ireland Guinness Six Nations match being shown in the Powderham Bar pre-match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In their last pool match of the PREM Rugby Cup, the Exeter Chiefs 23 are battling to secure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-436330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436330","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=436330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}