Thursday 11 September 2014 16:10, UK
Thomas Waldrom says Exeter Chiefs cannot afford to take a backward step when they face former club Leicester Tigers on Saturday.
Waldrom marked his Chiefs debut with two tries during last Sunday’s 52-0 hammering of London Welsh, but he knows a much stiffer test awaits them when the Tigers visit Sandy Park.
"They pride themselves on winning away from home and trying to get as many points as possible and we've got to take the same approach,” said Waldrom.
Leicester pride themselves on winning away from home and trying to get as many points as possible and we've got to take the same approach.
"It was nice to get five points away from home first up, but we've got a big block of games coming up so we need to get some more points.
"We've set ourselves some goals and we got off to a good start on Sunday.”
Although only a few months into life with Exeter, Waldrom admits he has settled well to his new surroundings and believes the Chiefs have what it takes to compete against the very best in the Aviva Premiership.
Indeed, he says he and his team-mates are keen to prove a point to the pundits who wrote them off before the start of the term.
"It was interesting to see people saying we were going to be off the pace and not in the top six,” said the New Zealand-born England international.
"We can't worry about what they think; we can only worry about what we do on a rugby field.
"You want to prove people wrong but we've taken one step forward, we don't want to take two steps back and have everyone writing us off again.
"We've got to keep building and taking bits of the game we're very happy with. There were bits in the game we weren't happy with but we've talked about them and we're heading in the right direction.”
Waldrom, who spent four years with the Tigers and made 115 appearances, thinks he will thrive in his new surroundings.
"It's good when you've got a licence to go out and play and enjoy yourself,” he said. "That suits me down to a tee. It's heads-up rugby which I really enjoy and it paid off on Sunday.”
With Saturday also marking the grand re-opening of the expanded Sandy Park, Waldrom expects there to be a terrific atmosphere inside for the visit of the 10-time English champions.
He said: "Everyone's buzzing to get back to Sandy Park. We've been away from it for a while but now we're back there and it doesn't getting any bigger than Tigers coming down.
"It's going to be a big occasion and one I'm definitely looking forward to.”
