\n<\/p>\n
Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter thinks his side are in a “different place” to the team that lost last year’s Prem Rugby Cup final as they prepare for Sunday’s showpiece against Leicester Tigers.<\/b><\/p>\n
Chiefs suffered a 48-14 defeat by eventual treble-winners Bath at Sandy Park last March, conceding 31 points without reply after half-time.<\/p>\n
Exeter’s better league campaign this season has helped form the basis of another strong domestic cup run.<\/p>\n
And after overpowering Northampton Saints in the semi-finals at the weekend, Baxter is confident his side will put in a much better performance than they did 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
“I just think we’re in a different place,” Baxter told BBC Radio Devon.<\/p>\n
“On paper, we may not be able to pick as strong a team as we did for last year’s final, and yet I feel we are in a way better place.<\/p>\n
“And that sort of shows the emotional energy and the vibe that surrounds the place at the moment.<\/p>\n
“The guys have got smiles on their faces at just the right time.<\/p>\n
“When you start to look forward to things, instead of being worried about things, it’s a total different environment.<\/p>\n
“At different times this competition has been important to us in different ways.<\/p>\n
“The first time we won this competition [2013-14], it kick-started that chat about winning things, and as the group grows and has more expectation on each other, that adds to everything you can achieve as a group.”<\/p>\n
Baxter confirmed prop Jimmy Roots and back Zack Wimbush are out of the game at Mattioli Woods Welford Road due to injury.<\/p>\n
“Jimmy Roots has a pretty bad injury, he has lacerations through and around his ear,” Baxter said.<\/p>\n
“Zack Wimbush came off [at the weekend] due to a foot injury so we’re picking up injuries as we go.”<\/p>\n
Baxter added back-row pair Richard Chapstick and Christ Tshiunza have returned to training and are available to be selected for Sunday’s final.<\/p>\n
Wales international Tshiunza broke his foot in Exeter’s opening day draw at Northampton, ruling him out of the Autumn internationals, and last month Baxter admitted the 24-year-old could leave in the summer as his current contract expires at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter thinks his side are in a “different place” to the team that lost last year’s Prem Rugby Cup final as they prepare for Sunday’s showpiece against Leicester Tigers. Chiefs suffered a 48-14 defeat by eventual treble-winners Bath at Sandy Park last March, conceding 31 points without reply after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}