Sale vs Exeter - Sat 5.30pm

[Puja]

Sale Sharks: 15 Joe Carpenter, 14 Tom Roebuck, 13 Rob du Preez, 12 Luke James, 11 Arron Reed, 10 George Ford, 9 Raffi Quirke, 8 Dan du Preez, 7 Ben Curry (c), 6 JL du Preez, 5 Jonny Hill, 4 Ernst van Rhyn, 3 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 1 Bevan Rodd
Replacements: 16 Tadgh McElroy, 17 Si McIntyre, 18 WillGriff John, 19 Ben Bamber, 20 Sam Dugdale, 21 Gus Warr, 22 Waisea Nayacalevu, 23 Tom O’Flaherty

Exeter Chiefs: 15 Tommy Wyatt, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Ben Hammersley, 12 Tamati Tua, 11 Olly Woodburn, 10 Henry Slade, 9 Stu Townsend, 8 Greg Fisilau, 7 Ross Vintcent, 6 Ethan Roots, 5 Franco Molina, 4 Dafydd Jenkins (c), 3 Marcus Street, 2 Dan Frost, 1 Scott Sio
Replacements: 16 Jack Innard, 17 Kwenzo Blose, 18 Jimmy Roots, 19 Richard Capstick, 20 Jacques Vermeulen, 21 Will Becconsall, 22 Will Haydon-Wood, 23 Josh Hodge

Venue: Salford Community Stadium
Kick-off: 17:30 GMT
Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe
Assistant Referees: Jack Makepeace, John Meredith
TMO: Peter Allan

[Oakboy]

Some interesting picks there, not least Hill's return.

Quirke/Ford ought to run the game, based on their skill-sets. Against them, Slade has hell of a task competing, especially with a low-grade SH. The back-row contest should be a major factor too.

Then, there's Roebuck v IFW. I am more convinced by Roebuck than Sleightholme in the national ranking so seeing the direct comparison with IFW is interesting.

[Captainhaircut]

IFW off with a shoulder injury today. Hopefully not serious.

[Mellsblue]

He looked in absolute agony at the time but then walked off and sat on the bench. Would guess it’s a dislocated shoulder

[TheNomad]

Shoulder popped out and then back again apparently. Nasty one.

Wonder what the means for that 6Ns? Would be a killer not to have him fit

[Mellsblue]

Hopefully he’ll be back for 6N. Yesterday was the first time I’d seen him in the flesh. He’s even more of a ridiculous athletic specimen than he looks on tv.

[TheNomad]

What amazing about him is his strength into contact and his ability to stay on his feet. Compare him to Cokonasiga - completely different level

[fivepointer]

Fingers crossed for IFW.

Exeter need their best players fit and firing, though its hard to see how they can arrest this slump. They look a shadow of the side that did well last season and show little signs of improvement.

[Oakboy]

Exeter's pack, as a whole, is just slightly sub-standard against every other club's. They field a competitive back-row, arguably, but the front and second rows are coming off second-best too often. Baxter needs to fix that or they won't win a single game the way they are going.

[TheNomad]

Exeter's pack, as a whole, is just slightly sub-standard against every other club's. They field a competitive back-row, arguably, but the front and second rows are coming off second-best too often. Baxter needs to fix that or they won't win a single game the way they are going.

I think this is right - not easy to fix

[twitchy]

Yep they need 9/10's as well. Grim situation.

[FKAS]

It's not like they've got bad players but there is a lot of squad level players there and no real stand outs to lead from the front. There's some good prospects coming through but they badly need an injection of quality in several areas. Could be a grim few months until the summer rolls around.

[Puja]

Exeter's pack, as a whole, is just slightly sub-standard against every other club's. They field a competitive back-row, arguably, but the front and second rows are coming off second-best too often. Baxter needs to fix that or they won't win a single game the way they are going.

I think this is right - not easy to fix

It's a strange situation, as Exeter have always had what looked like a weak tight five compared to other clubs, but they've always played above the sum of their parts.

Very hard to tell if this current iteration is genuinely significantly worse than previous ones, whether it's just that they're missing that little bit of star quality to bind the rest of them together that used to be brought by a Gray or an LCD, whether the standard of the Prem is just that much higher, or whether the run of form (which started with them being hard done by in some tight results) has poisoned the confidence of the group and broken the transmutative magic that Baxter usually imparts.

Puja

[FKAS]

Exeter's pack, as a whole, is just slightly sub-standard against every other club's. They field a competitive back-row, arguably, but the front and second rows are coming off second-best too often. Baxter needs to fix that or they won't win a single game the way they are going.

I think this is right - not easy to fix

It's a strange situation, as Exeter have always had what looked like a weak tight five compared to other clubs, but they've always played above the sum of their parts.

Puja

Baxter had a real run of success in finding future international props on the cheap Moon, Hepburn, Francis, Williams and he had some good locks come through as well. Those great bits of business are seeming to dry up a bit.

[Banquo]

Probably a cash thing tbh.

[FKAS]

Probably a cash thing tbh.

Definitely why they've struggled to bring in or keep star names, though the rumours that Baxter had a deal for Ben White sorted only for him to then renew with Toulon suggests there might have been a little more in the pot.

Cash won't be hampering Baxter's bargain bin brilliance though. He just seems to be struggling to uncover the gems he used to.

[Banquo]

Probably a cash thing tbh.

Definitely why they've struggled to bring in or keep star names, though the rumours that Baxter had a deal for Ben White sorted only for him to then renew with Toulon suggests there might have been a little more in the pot.

Cash won't be hampering Baxter's bargain bin brilliance though. He just seems to be struggling to uncover the gems he used to.

sends a vibe through the club tho

[FKAS]

Probably a cash thing tbh.

Definitely why they've struggled to bring in or keep star names, though the rumours that Baxter had a deal for Ben White sorted only for him to then renew with Toulon suggests there might have been a little more in the pot.

Cash won't be hampering Baxter's bargain bin brilliance though. He just seems to be struggling to uncover the gems he used to.

sends a vibe through the club tho

Fair point. A few top quality players raises the levels in training and the mentality.