Exeter Chiefs travel to Rodney Parade on Sunday Evening at the top of a massively competitive Pool 4 at the halfway stage of the Amlin Challenge Cup – but they are only one point clear of Newport Gwent Dragons and Perpignan, with bonus points possibly critical in determining the group winners and quarter-final qualifiers.
Last Sunday’s 18-6 win over the Dragons at Sandy Park took the Chiefs top but Dragons’ Wales flanker Danny Lydiate promised the Chiefs a much sterner test in the return match, declaring: “We are definitely a home team – we will be going into the game full of confidence.”
“We are bitterly disappointed not to get a bonus-point. We started to build pressure and get ourselves into the game but we fell away from it again so we only have ourselves to blame.”
“But there are positives and some of our defence in the second half was good. We have to cut out the errors and penalty count and if we can do that it will be a really good game and we are looking to get one back.”
Danny recognised the potential significance of bonus points in this group, “We should have done better and at least got a bonus-point so we definitely have to get the win at home. We have to pick ourselves up from the loss and focus on next week.”
“We are disappointed but to be fair to Exeter they played the conditions a lot better than us, they punished us with their kicking and deserved to win. We didn’t turn up in the first half and they had a lot of defensive pressure which forced us into mistakes."
“They have a really strong set piece pack and we have to compete with them and then try to unleash our backs without making too many errors.”
Chiefs captain Tom Hayes is aware that the Dragons will pose a tougher challenge in the return match at Rodney Parade.
“We have not gone through the figures but it’s good that it’s in our own hands,” said the former Ireland Under 21 international forward and brother of Munster’s John Hayes. “But we can’t look beyond Sunday because we know what a quality side the Dragons are.”
“They are a rising region and improving massively from where they were a couple of years ago so that is something we have to combat.”
“It won’t be easy on Sunday but we have something positive to build on. I wouldn’t say they were slow out of the blocks and we have to take credit for the way we started because we played intelligent rugby.”
“But they won’t be feeling that they are out of it in anyway and, although this win provided a blueprint to some extent, the conditions dictated a lot of what we did and in Newport it might be on to spread the ball and stretch them a bit more.”
“Denying them the bonus-point could turn out to be crucial but, as there are still three games to go, it’s hard to know how important. However, it was something we aimed for while the bonus point in Perpignan could also be massive for us later on – only time will tell.”
“We knew we had to start well because the Dragons play with a lot of physicality and tempo so we had to front up and steal the momentum of the game but we know there is more to do next week.”
