2nd with 5 to go!
Rob Baxter
By Moorsman
March 9 2015
Chiefs end the latest round of Premiership games with 4 from 4 and in 2nd place
2nd with 5 to play
Chiefs end the latest round of Premiership games with 4 from 4 and in 2nd place! Not bad for a side that many pundits suggested would struggle this season but the table doesn't lie:
| Position | Team | Played | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northampton Saints | 17 | 62 |
| 2 | Exeter Chiefs | 17 | 53 |
| 3 | Saracens | 17 | 52 |
| 4 | Bath | 17 | 51 |
| 5 | Leicester Tigers | 17 | 51 |
| 6 | Wasps | 17 | 48 |
| 7 | Sale Sharks | 17 | 43 |
| 8 | Harlequins | 17 | 39 |
| 9 | Gloucester | 17 | 37 |
| 10 | London Irish | 17 | 29 |
| 11 | Newcastle Falcons | 17 | 25 |
| 12 | London Welsh | 17 | 1 |
I guess many Chiefs fans are pleasantly surprised at our second place and in truth I was a little nervous before the season started. However my being nervous isn't out of fear but anticipation of what is possible. Rob Baxter and his coaching team have shown from the outset of our Premiership journey how well they recruit and manage the playing squad. The pundits who thought we would struggle this season were baseing a lot of their assessments on a perceived lack of quality players joining us. Well how wrong could they be with the likes of Thomas The Tank currently leading the try scoring chart with 12 tries and the Premiership quality performances from Mitch Lees and Tomas Francis who joined from the Championship.
Added to this our home grown Academy youngsters have been putting in more and more assured performances and our existing squad members continue to develop as their Premiership experience grows. All this adds up to make very happy reading for Chiefs fans and all associated with the club.
So, who have we to play in our remaing 5 games? Well it's a pretty tough set of games with every team in with a chance of a play-off place or at least top six! There's a halt in Premiership action before these games but I think there will be little change from current form.
Tigers (away), I'll be making my way to Welford Road with a good number of Chiefs fans hoping that we can reverse the early season result at Sandy Park. Had this been a few weels ago we'd have been looking at two sides going through a sticky patch but both at full strength and playing well this should be a cracking game.
Saints (home) live on BT Sport, it's never going to be easy against Saints and they are going really well this season. They'll be up to full strength and smarting over our last two meetings, our away win and of course the LV=Cup defeat. It's likely to be a sell out at Sandy Park and The Tribe will need to be at it's loudest to drive the team on.
Wasps (away) live on BT Sport, Wasps have really turned things around since moving to Coventry and as always their backs pose a huge threat. Chiefs will have to keep the ball away from them as we have done successfully in recent meetings.
Saracens (away) live on BT Sport, Chiefs have never really enjoyed playing on Sarries plastic pitch and it will be interesting to see how Rob Baxter approaches this one in terms of selection.
Sharks (home), this could be a massive game with loads at stake. There is likely to be a full house for this one and The Tribe will be lloking for the Chiefs to put last season's horror show to bed.
Just for good measure there's also an LV=Cup semi-final v Tigers and a European Challenge Cup quarter final v Falcons to attack
Whatever the outcome it will have been one heck of a season.
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When I look at the remaining five fixtures with my good eye I believe we can win all five but then when I look again with my bad eye then I can equally see us losing all five. Leicester is not the team they once were but it’s getting towards the end of the season and they become like a dog with a bone but we could just sneak a win or grab a losing bonus point.
Having watched Sarries and Wasps yesterday I believe we can beat both of them but will settle for one win out of two and a losing bonus point in the other. Saints is a whole different ball game because if they turn up with their A game it will be a long day but a point would go some way to help matters.
Then for the big one when Sale pay a visit to Sandy Park. Is all I want that day is a win because if we can pick up seven points from the previous four games a win will pretty much guarantee a top six finish and possibly top four? The only down side to this final match is whether I will enjoy it or not as Sale have played a very defensive and attritional game this season which has worked very well for them but it is not great to watch.
We will really need to dig deep because if we go all the way in the Euro and manage to make top four the team will have to play full on rugby week in, week out for a full two months and that’s mentally and physically challenging but with some key experienced players guiding the way and the exuberance of youth showing the way, you just never know.
What will be, will be and I am enjoying every minute of it.
Premiership has to be the main focus. Tigers, Wasps and Sarries away are going to be tough asks as will Saints and Sale at home.
Time for a pipe of Old Toby!