Bath vs Exeter Chiefs - The Wreck

After two brutally bruising encounters, away to Leinster and at home to ASM Clermont-Auvergne, Exeter Chiefs travel to The Rec to meet the one side in the prem (London Welsh aside) that they have never beaten, Bath. The moment of the 5 try victory over Quins is but a distant memory, and Exe must regroup - against them are ranged a Bath side coming off two victories in the Amlin, a comfortable win over Bucuresti and a last-minute snaffler over Agen (in France, so no mean feat). Will Rob Baxter need to rest some tired bodies, with the core of his XXIII having played virtually every minute of the season so far? Will we see the players from both sides that have returned from the Rugby Championship in the southern hemisphere (Gonzo Camacho for Exe, Agulla and Luow for Barf) involved at the weekend? Where will the key match-ups?

vs

This is the biggie, every thing else has been a warmup - if Exe doesn't beat Barf this season then progression has been stalled. It's literally a season-definer, and I ain't confident.

Key for Bath is Donald starting to set a style to the Bath game. We should never have let Scaysbrook leave but Louw, Fearns & Skirving are a marauding back row for him to contend with. A good time to be playing Exeter, as they will be questioning their style having been thumped at the weekend - admittedly by my favourites for the HC this season.

With Barkley gone, The big lad Williams needs to move from being a prospect to a permanent feature at 12 and carry the ball up and offload to any of Hipkiss, Biggs, Eastmond or Abendanon - all strong mazy runners, not sure when Banahan or Agulla will feature. I would like to see Cook coming on at SH who is also relatively big and quick with a bullet pass off either hand.

I missed last season's fixture but will be there Saturday - hopefully we can maintain our record.

CHIEFS SIDE TO FACE BATH

15 Luke Arscott
14 Gonzalo Camacho
13 Phil Dollman
12 Jason Shoemark
11 Matt Jess
10 Gareth Steenson
9 Haydn Thomas
1 Brett Sturgess
2 Simon Alcott
3 Carl Rimmer
4 Dean Mumm
5 James Hanks
6 Tom Johnson
7 James Scaysbrook
8 Richard Baxter

16 Chris Whitehead
17 Ben Moon
18 Chris Budgen
19 Aly Muldowney
20 Dave Ewers
21 Kevin Barrett
22 Ignacio Mieres
23 Ian Whitten

Bath Rugby team to face Exeter Chiefs

15. Nick Abendanon
14. Kyle Eastmond
13. Dan Hipkiss
12. Ben Williams
11. Tom Biggs
10. Stephen Donald
9. Michael Claassens

1. Paul James
2. Lee Mears
3. David Wilson
4. Dominic Day
5. Dave Attwood
6. Carl Fearns
7. Francois Louw (c)
8. Ben Skirving

Replacements
16. Brett Sharman
17. Nathan Catt
18. Anthony Perenise
19. Stuart Hooper
20. Will Skuse
21. Mark McMillan
22. Sam Vesty
23. Horacio Agulla

Have a feeling bath are coming into a rich vein of form, the team is looking strong and massively excited to see agulla get 20 minutes..bath by 7 points.

Pleased that Rob Baxter has kept changes to a minimum, with rests just for Tommy Hayes and Ian Whitten who have both given their all so far this season - but happy that we can bring in Dean Mumm and Gonzo Camacho as fantastic replacements. Very excited about this one, just hope that we can keep playing with the same panache that we've brought to the field this season

Due to a very poorly timed stag do I shall be at the Wreck tomorrow instead of being at Kingsholm, it does mean however that Chiefs will have one more supporter there

For SuperBru I've gone with a 3 point win for Exeter. If I still have the power of sight I'm hoping the game should be a fiercely fought game.

HKC, good to see that you have seen the light, even if it's as a result of AnyoneButBarf syndrome!

Interesting game...bath playing some good rugby.

Eastmond will provide some competition to Wade for a wing spot...unless as might appear he will be moved in to centre or even FH.

One player who always impresses me for Exeter is Scaysbrook.

Wasnt really interested in who won this game but after the Hipkiss red...

Come on Exeter!!!

Great second half from Exter though...Johnson and Scaysbrook at the forefront.

Hipkiss serving ten mins...and during it has been sent off...ha ha

Not sure if Exeter are going to make this, Bath defending well but Exeter attack one dimensional, side to side.

Yeah...game over...

Bath won it on their first half performance and decent second half defence...

As Evans said,
" a haoooogely captivating game".

Not clever rugby by Exeter at the end there, they should have taken the points sooner just after Hipkiss had gone off or gone for a scrum on one of the penalties later on, particularly after Mieres had tried to get the right decision from his captain in front of the posts allowing the Bath defence to fully reorganise.

Congrats Bath Not one of Exe's better performances, still hungover on Heino as far as I could tell

The engine on Johnson is incredible. In fact Exeyer as a team are incredibly fit but maybe the workload told today.

Unlucky Chiefs, deserved a LBP there, but if you don't take the chances when they're on offer...

PJHolybloke wrote:Unlucky Chiefs, deserved a LBP there, but if you don't take the chances when they're on offer...

PJ, very true, plenty of missed kicks, no excuses given tho. Bath defence was v good at the end mind. Way too many missed tackles in the first half - uncharacteristic of Exe, but symptomatic of a team that's been thru the mill in several back2back weeks

I predicted that the back-to-back Leinster and Clermont games would have left Chiefs with too little in the tank, As.

Bath played a week last Thursday so also had an extra couple of days rest, Bath should have made sure of the game in the first half, but to the Chiefs credit, they were never out of the game, even after their recent efforts against much better opponents than Bath.

Do you think Chiefs will start to rest players in the HC bud? After losing the first 2 games they're unlikely to advance, and don't yet have the squad to compete in the AP and the HC.

If I were Baxter, I'd be looking to making the top 6 in the AP again and strengthen the squad for next term.

Well I thought that was a great game, plenty of running rugby and no aimless kicking. As always exe fans were good fun, I do enjoy the he knocked it on song!

I thought after a great first half we let exe back into it, by which I mean exe raised their game and really went for it. The change at fly half helped I thought but I was very pleased with the bath defence, if not hipkiss' actions...
I thought bath were a bit sloppy in the first half, we should have been further ahead at half time, you have to take your chances when you're up against the top sides.

Still all in all, it was a good win and I think exe deserved at least a lbp, good luck for the rest of the season, I'm going to try and make it to the return fixture too.

Pleased to see Williams play alongside Hipkiss. That has to be our midfield combination going forward, good defensively and potential attack wise. The front row took on a very competent Exeter 1-3, but not much prominence in the loose. Attwood tackled everything and hit the rucks with some venom. Fearns was quiet but Louw & Skirving did their marauding - have to say very impressed with Johnson who was involved in pretty much most things Exeter and was glad to see the back of Hadyn Thomas when he was subbed.

Donald was solid but didn't impose himself on the game which first half was disappointing but the back three looked constantly dangerous and with Banahan and Agulla to get a look in at some point?

Need to win again next week against LW to consolidate a top six position.

PJHolybloke wrote:I predicted that the back-to-back Leinster and Clermont games would have left Chiefs with too little in the tank, As.

Bath played a week last Thursday so also had an extra couple of days rest, Bath should have made sure of the game in the first half, but to the Chiefs credit, they were never out of the game, even after their recent efforts against much better opponents than Bath.

Do you think Chiefs will start to rest players in the HC bud? After losing the first 2 games they're unlikely to advance, and don't yet have the squad to compete in the AP and the HC.

If I were Baxter, I'd be looking to making the top 6 in the AP again and strengthen the squad for next term.

Baxter has said that he won't rest players for the remaining Heini fixtures, but I would expect to see a much changed side for the upcoming LV= Cup games, with the wider squad players and the academy lads getting much needed first team experience

Ah well ASBO bummer of a result v your SW rivals. Good win for The Warriors in Italy though !

Recwatcher wrote:Fearns was quiet .

Fid he actually come back after he went off in the 10th minute? Certainly he was temporarily replaced at that point then permanently replaced on 24 minutes. Might explain why he was quiet.


Wonder what the precedent, ban wise, is for hipkiss?

I think Fearns only played about 20 mins of the game? Will skuse was on for most of it, hence when louw got a knock he was replaced by a prop not a backrower.

It was interesting to see eastmond stand at 1st reciever, clearly a plan to get the ball in his hands as much as possible.

From and England point of view, TJ seemed to be everywhere, such a hard working player.

What did Hipkiss do? I must have passed out when his red card happened.

Yappy while in the sin bin he volley ball style punched the ball away into the crowd from a clearance kick, thereby stopping Exeter from taking a quick throw in.

Wasn't a Quins replacement done for that in the match at Toulouse last season?

Looks like it was Will Skinner - got 2 weeks.

http://www1.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12546/7392073/Skinner-banned-for-two-weeks

Yes. And how come Bath can turn perfectly competent Tigers into either complete morons or rubbish players. Can we have Vesty back for free? A good utility player for bit-part/stop-gap emergency bench roles.

greytiger wrote:Yes. And how come Bath can turn perfectly competent Tigers into either complete morons or rubbish players. Can we have Vesty back for free? A good utility player for bit-part/stop-gap emergency bench roles.

I didn't see any moronic behaviour, Hipkiss knew exactly what he was doing and why. Vesty IS a good utility player and has performed as such on a number of occasions this season as well as having a few starts under his belt. Agulla hasn't played yet, so which Tigers are you talking about?

greytiger wrote:Yes. And how come Bath can turn perfectly competent Tigers into either complete morons or rubbish players. Can we have Vesty back for free? A good utility player for bit-part/stop-gap emergency bench roles.

I think you will find that bath have provided a home for your players which have been thrown on the scrap heap after years of loyal service and putting thier bodies on the line.

1) Sam Vesty, no game time with tigers, no contract renewal, bath have given him regular 1st team action and he has put in some great shifts at flyhalf.

2)Lewis Moody, one of our worst signings ever in the mould of robbie fleck but we gave the england captain a contract after this one club leicester legend was cast off a year before the world cup. He had ruined himself in the tigers shirt and never strung more than a couple of games together for us without being injured or on england duty.

3) Horacio Agulla, loved by fans and players alike... a star winger cast off by tiggers because of his national commitments, his performances for bath begin properly in January.

4)Dan hipkiss - no game time at Leicester, no contract renewal, bath gave him a home but like moody this abrasive centre has smashed his body in the leicester shirt then was cast aside, after a season on the side lines getting patched up by our world class physios he is our no. 1 outside centre and is starting to show his worth.

sirtidychris wrote:

greytiger wrote:Yes. And how come Bath can turn perfectly competent Tigers into either complete morons or rubbish players. Can we have Vesty back for free? A good utility player for bit-part/stop-gap emergency bench roles.

I think you will find that bath have provided a home for your players which have been thrown on the scrap heap after years of loyal service and putting thier bodies on the line.

1) Sam Vesty, no game time with tigers, no contract renewal, bath have given him regular 1st team action and he has put in some great shifts at flyhalf.

2)Lewis Moody, one of our worst signings ever in the mould of robbie fleck but we gave the england captain a contract after this one club leicester legend was cast off a year before the world cup. He had ruined himself in the tigers shirt and never strung more than a couple of games together for us without being injured or on england duty.

3) Horacio Agulla, loved by fans and players alike... a star winger cast off by tiggers because of his national commitments, his performances for bath begin properly in January.

4)Dan hipkiss - no game time at Leicester, no contract renewal, bath gave him a home but like moody this abrasive centre has smashed his body in the leicester shirt then was cast aside, after a season on the side lines getting patched up by our world class physios he is our no. 1 outside centre and is starting to show his worth.

Just as well it wasn't cap pressure then. 1,3 and 4 would have been (as usual), well-managed and nurtured). Moods was given an opportunity to cash in as England skipper in his dotage.

I've heard many comments that Bath fans feel that Sam (the 4th generation Tiger) is more of a pain than the hard, brown concrete that you find in the bottom of a toilet bowl. Good utility back that man.

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about GT.

Have you been re-hydrating by any chance?