Exeter Chiefs vs Northampton Saints - the battle for the final AP play-off place

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From this morning's E&E:

Chiefs' top form irrelevant against Saints

BRETT Sturgess says Exeter Chiefs' form will count for nothing when they face Northampton on Sunday with a play-off place at stake.

Exeter have won seven of their last eight Aviva Premiership matches, a sequence only equalled by Leicester, to get themselves into the top four.

Saturday's 31-26 win at Worcester also saw them gain a place among Europe's elite in next season's Heineken Cup.

A victory against fifth-placed Northampton at a packed Sandy Park this weekend, while denying their visitors a bonus point, would see Rob Baxter's men secure a place in the league semi-finals.

That would mean their fate would not be riding on the last game of the regular season away to defending champions Saracens on May 5.

But with this weekend's game almost being a play-off to decide which side joins Harlequins, Leicester and Saracens in fighting it out for the title, Sturgess says recent results will have no bearing on the outcome.

"The form guide shows we have only lost one league game this year but it is almost knock-out rugby now, although we have got the Saracens game afterwards," said the prop. "Form goes out the window in games like this.

"Northampton had a loss at home against Leicester (35-21) which they'll be disappointed about so they'll come here hurting and, looking through their side, you can't take them for granted – they have world-class players."

Head coach Rob Baxter has been keen for his players to ignore the league table all season and not think too much about where a win could put them in the standings.

However, with the season drawing to a climax and the game against the Saints pivotal, the squad briefly discussed the permutations of this weekend's match when they got back together at Sandy Park on Tuesday.

Having got that out of the way at the start of the training week, Sturgess said the players have since been concentrating on what they have to do to beat Northampton.

"The guys aren't silly, if you look at the table you can see if we get a four-point win and prevent them getting anything it puts us in the semi-finals of the Premiership," he said.

"We spoke about that briefly earlier in the week to get it out the way and then just got on with preparing for Northampton.

"We have to close down Northampton and keep the scoreboard ticking over ourselves, not worry about points in the table.

"This is pretty much a winner-takes-all match and it's in our hands."

Sturgess made his return to action at Worcester as a replacement after Craig Mitchell was withdrawn from the team on Wednesday due to a shoulder injury.

As well as being his first match since breaking his right arm against Leicester Tigers in February, last weekend's game was also Sturgess' landmark 100th league appearance for the Chiefs.

And while he was always confident he could play again this term, the former Northampton loosehead admitted his return came a week earlier than even he had hoped for.

"When I went down against Leicester I was on 99 league games," Sturgess said.

"For me personally a massive goal was to get back and be involved in this latter stage of the season.

"It came a week ahead of when I wanted to put my hand up for selection so that was really pleasing.

"I told my surgeon I didn't want my season to peter out because I felt there could be some bigger games at the end of the season.

"It's by no means a given, we have some big games coming up and Northampton stand in our way at the moment, but to be in among it at this stage after the bad break I had, I'm really pleased."

BTW

Exeter have improved on last season - and have done pretty damn well. They are the only team so far (Bath can join them) to have done the double over Tigers. Not even Clermont or Ulster were able to do that. They also put on the best display from any visiting team to Welford Road this season (Sarries were good when they came too).

Yesterday they just weren't clinical enough to put the points on the scoreboard when conditions were in their favour. I also feel that (unless there was an injury doubt over Mitchell) Baxter made an error in the starting front row. Continue to improve of course and Top 4 is realistic - though sides liek Sale, Gloucester and Bath will all be seeking that sort of improvement as well.

It wont matter which team makes the play-offs, whoever Tigers play will be mullered.

Any idea on Tom Wood's omission? I know he came back from injury for two games or so, but now he's not even making the bench...?

Injured again.

is it a re-occurrence of his toe injury do you know tiger? or a fresh one?

LondonTiger wrote:Injured again.

Ah hello LT. Now tell me, how many points do you think Bath will put past Tigers next week in a rampant display that sees them dominate the home team from start to finish?

LondonTiger wrote:BTW

Exeter have improved on last season - and have done pretty damn well. They are the only team so far (Bath can join them) to have done the double over Tigers. Not even Clermont or Ulster were able to do that. They also put on the best display from any visiting team to Welford Road this season (Sarries were good when they came too).

Yesterday they just weren't clinical enough to put the points on the scoreboard when conditions were in their favour. I also feel that (unless there was an injury doubt over Mitchell) Baxter made an error in the starting front row. Continue to improve of course and Top 4 is realistic - though sides liek Sale, Gloucester and Bath will all be seeking that sort of improvement as well.

LT, Mitchell was just coming back from injury, hence starting on the bench altho he is probably our first choice tight head

Really enjoyed yesterday's game, despite the result - thought that some of the rugby we played in the first half was some of the best I've seen from us. We needed to make more of a couple of opportunities during that period, and had we done so, I think we might have stuck a large score on Saints. Fair play to Northampton tho, their first half defence was outstanding at times

I suppose its because Exeter gets relatively little TV time that I think they've crept under most peoples' radars this year. I've watched their results come in, but hadn't really paid much attention to them. I put their early season climb up the table down to the other big teams being denuded of first choice players due to the WC etc, and for some reason, got the impression that though they were doing very well, had somehow fluked it to a point.

Having watched them yesterday, its obvious that their league position is no accident. They played some very good stuff and I enjoyed the match. They were a bit naive at times and changed a perfectly good first half tactic of keeping hold of the ball to one of kicking posession away. But still, its not over yet and credit where credit is due, I don't think many would have expected Exeter to be challenging for a play-off spot this (or any) year.

Good assessment Equo, still can't work out why we changed tactics. Deserved win for Saints. Better team on the day!

If only any other Exeter player had caught that bouncing ball! It's those tiny margins that games can turn on and Exeter found that out the hard way. Still it's a learning curve and they're the better for it.

Equo Troiano wrote:Having watched them yesterday, its obvious that their league position is no accident. They played some very good stuff and I enjoyed the match. They were a bit naive at times and changed a perfectly good first half tactic of keeping hold of the ball to one of kicking posession away. But still, its not over yet and credit where credit is due, I don't think many would have expected Exeter to be challenging for a play-off spot this (or any) year.

I agree, it was a strange to change what had worked so well for them for the first 40 and all I could think was that they were hoping by kicking into the wind it would cause the Saints back 3 problems as the ball boomeranged back towards the kicker in the strong wind?

Good result for the Saints but still theink were a long way off the top 3 teams in terms of form going into the play-off's (providing things go our way next weekend of course).