Callum Reid (foot) and Ben Carson (calf) picked up injuries in Saturday’s URC defeat against Munster and are unavailable for selection. Eric O’Sullivan (back) was also injured during the match and he will have his fitness monitored this week.
Tom O’Toole (hand), Nick Timoney (hip) and Jude Postlethwaite (hand) have all reintegrated fully into team training and are available for selection.
Angus Bell (foot), James Hume (neck), and Bryn Ward (shoulder) have resumed elements of team training and individual decisions regarding their fitness for selection will be made later in the week.
Great to have O’Tool, Timoney and Jude back.
2 more LHs injured, but good to see Bell, Hume and Bryn might be back, if not for this game hopefully for the final 2 URC game.
No mention of Scott Wilson, so have to assume he’s on the long term injury list along with “James McNabney (knee), Rob Herring (calf), Robert Baloucoune (elbow), Rory McGuire (shoulder), Stewart Moore (knee)”
I’m divided should we go all in on this or not. If we win the Challenge Cup we get into Champions cup, but can’t see us beating Montpellier in the final. But I think Richie will just play the best team he’s got for the next 3 games.
Semi finals have been like hens teeth in recent times. We have to go all out to win this comp imo
I have read that Ward and Hume are back in full training, with bell still a doubt, but then I heard last week that Hume has shoulder nerve damage and could be out for a while, so take it with a pinch of salt.
I wonder will Exeter will go full strength for this game, they lost their last 2 games and are sitting 4th in the league, just one point above 5th (and 7 above 6th). So while they are safe for Champions cup for next year you think they would be wanting to be in the play offs in the league.
- Sam Crean (17)
- Tom Stewart (72)
- Tom O’Toole (139)
- Iain Henderson (C) (176)
- Cormac Izuchukwu (51)
- David McCann (88)
- Nick Timoney (180)
- Juarno Augustus (14)
- Nathan Doak (106)
- Jack Murphy (31)
- Jacob Stockdale (148)
- Stuart McCloskey (216)
- Jude Postlethwaite (44)
- Zac Ward (26)
- Michael Lowry (132)
Replacements:
- James McCormick (17)
- Eric O’Sullivan (135)
- Tom McAllister (3)
- Charlie Irvine (11)
- Bryn Ward (16)
- Conor McKee (20)
- Jake Flannery (37)
- Ethan McIlroy (74)
As strong as we could go I guess, Bell ( no surprise), Hume, Wilson ( i read that he was seen training, but wasn’t in the offical injury update) didn’t make it
Exeter Chiefs:
15 Ben Hammersley
14 Campbell Ridl
13 Henry Slade
12 Len Ikitau
11 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso
10 Harvey Skinner
9 Stephen Varney
1 Scott Sio
2 Max Norey
3 Bachuki Tchumbadze
4 Dafydd Jenkins (c)
5 Andrea Zambonin
6 Tom Hooper
7 Christ Tshiunza
8 Ross Vintcent
Replacements:
16 Joseph Dweba
17 Ethan Burger
18 Josh Iosefa-Scott
19 Rusi Tuima
20 Finn Worley Brady
21 Tom Cairns
22 Will Haydon-Wood
23 Nick Lilley
Strong Exeter team, as expected
That’s our best performance since the new year. Defence was really solid against a pretty decent team (although Exeter did unravel a bit in the second half). Some strong attacking play too with a good mix of forward power. Augustus was doing exactly what he was signed for.
I was quite a few drinks in when the game came and haven’t had a chance to look at it again, but yeah I agree best performance this year, but injuries are a worry