Baxter: Our biggest game

The Chiefs currently hold a one-point advantage on their French opponents in Pool Four of the Amlin Challenge Cup and know a win will guarantee their place in the knockout stages.

Despite losing to Perpignan 15-12 in their first round match, Chiefs boss Rob Baxter is excited to host the visitors and expects his side to rise to the occasion.

"I think next Saturday will be pretty special, it will be one of the biggest fixtures we've staged as a club, but how great is it to stand here now and say we are battling for a place in the last eight of Europe," he told the club's official site.

"An Anglo-French clash at our place, I just think it has all the makings of something special, so it will be great to see all our supporters turn out in force for the game.

"If we can beat Perpignan, every point scored, every try we gained, that will count for something and it could well be that the result we got in Italy that gets us a home quarter-final.

Attack

"We have a big 80 minutes to get through against Perpignan, but we know we can attack that game and look to get something out of it.

"We know, regardless of what happened in the other game, if we win next week we will top the group and that's a fantastic position to be in."

Despite this campaign being only their second season in the European competition, the Chiefs have already made progress from their position last year where they only managed to win three matches.

"The endeavour of the team was fantastic."
Rob Baxter Quotes of the week

"We've now got a larger group of players available for selection and all those involved on Saturday have pushed their claims for a place again this week," he continued.

"At the same time, we've been able to rest up a few of the others guys who needed a break, so again we will be strong next week, attack it full on and get what we can out of the game.

"If we can keep progressing in Europe that would be great, we often say to the guys we want to try and go into that last game with something to play for. Well, we are going into that last game with something to play for, so let's go for it.

Endeavour

Exeter enter their last group stage encounter on the back of a 50-10 victory over Cavalieri Prato which impressed Baxter, despite a slow start.

"The endeavour of the team was fantastic. Everything went pretty much to script; we controlled long periods of the game and scored some good tries," he added.

"The disappointment for the boys at half-time was that maybe they hadn't turned more of the possession into points.

"But as a coaching staff we told them we were pretty much on schedule and if they carried on as they were, they would pretty much get the benefits of their efforts later in the game and that's how it proved.

"And our fans were fantastic, they kept going throughout the game and, a bit like us as a team, they are enjoying the experiences of Europe and we are very much in it together."