Bath will be "wounded animals"

Chiefs' coach warns players about opposition

Rob Baxter has warned his player to be wary of the ‘wounded animals’ of Bath at Sandy Park today. 

Bath lost against Newcastle in last week's first round of the new season. And they lost when they played the Chiefs in last season’s Premiership semi-final - the last game played at Sandy Park.

“Obviously, they’ll be a wounded animal,” said the Chiefs’ director of rugby. “They’ll be burning from losing the semi-final here and they’ll be hurting from last week too. That’s not taking anything away from Newcastle, but right or wrongly, there was an assumption they they [Newcastle] could be a little off the pace having not played for so long....I am sure Bath will be hurting with that. They will want to put things right as quickly as possible, so that’s why this weekend is an interesting challenge for us. Unlike them, we’re not hurting, we’re feeling good about ourselves, so it will be an interesting emotional challenge for both sides.”

With the Chiefs still without a number of frontline stars due to either international commitments or injury, Scottish internationals Sam Skinner and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne are available after being released from their national camp.

Both have featured for Gregor Townsend’s Scotland side in recent weeks, but their match minutes have been somewhat limited and he has granted them permission to play after their scheduled Autumn Nations Cup clash with Fiji was called off due to a covid-19 outbreak in the Islanders camp.

Skinner is brought straight back into the starting mix, replacing Will Witty in the second-row alongside Don Armand. Witty drops to the bench, where he will be joined by Hidalgo-Clyne. The other change in personnel sees Ben Moon come in at loosehead with Alec Hepburn on the replacements bench, alongside Jack Innard and Jack Walsh, both of whom are added from last week’s side.

Starters

15 Facundo Cordero
14 Tom O’Flaherty
13 Ian Whitten
12 Ollie Devoto
11 Olly Woodburn
10 Joe Simmonds
9 Jack Maunder
1 Ben Moon
2 Jack Yeandle (capt)
3 Harry Williams
4 Don Armand
5 Sam Skinner
6 Dave Ewers
7 Jannes Kirsten
8 Sam Simmonds

Finishers

16 Jack Innard
17 Alec Hepburn
18 Marcus Street
19 Will Witty
20 Richard Capstick
21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
22 Jack Walsh
23 Tom Hendrickson