Didn't know Caldwell was playing for them. Someone to keep an eye on from an Irish perspective. Waldrom is a pretty good player also.

Exeter Chiefs v Connacht – Sandy Park European Rugby Challenge Cup Pool 2 Round 2
Saturday 25th October 2014 Kick Off 15:00

After a comfortable 36 point bonus point victory over La Rochelle in Round 1, Connacht will hope to take a significant step towards the quarter finals of the European Challenge Cup when they visit Exeter Chiefs on Saturday. Exeter, flying high in the Premiership, fell to a last gasp defeat to Bayonne in Round 1 and will be keen to get back in contention in Round 2.

Other Match Stats
Connacht have met Exeter twice in friendly matches winning one and losing one.
Exeter have won 2 and lost 1 of their 3 home games to date, scoring 100 points over the three matches against Leicester, Harlequins and London Irish

Exeter Chiefs Stats
Website: exeterchiefs.co.uk/
Founded: 1871
Ground: Sandy Park
Capacity: 12,500
Coaches: Rob Baxter
Captain: Dean Mumm

Premiership League Position 2013/14: 8th P:22 Points:45
Premiership League Position 2014/15: 3rd P:6 Points:20
LV Cup 2013/14: Winners: Top of Pool 2 P:4 Pts:14 (Beat Northampton 15-8 in the final)
Heineken Cup 2013/14: 3rd in Pool 2 P:6 Points:12

Previous Fixtures
Bayonne 30-24 Exeter Chiefs (European Challenge Cup)
Exeter Chiefs 44-24 London Irish (Premiership Round 6)
Newcastle Falcons 29-24 Exeter Chiefs (Premiership Round 5)
Exeter Chiefs 36-13 Harlequins (Premiership Round 4)

Next Fixture:
Saturday 1st November 2014 Exeter v Gloucester Kick Off: 15:00 @ Sandy Park (Anglo Welsh Cup)

European Rugby Challenge Cup (Pool 2)
Connacht 5
Bayonne 4
Exeter 1
La Rochelle 0

Exeter Chiefs Ins and Outs 2014/15
Players In
Thomas Waldrom from Leicester Tigers
Moray Low from Glasgow Warriors
Tomas Francis from London Scottish
Mitch Lees from London Welsh
Elvis Taione from Jersey
Ryan Caldwell from Bath Rugby
Adam Hughes from Bristol Rugby
Chrysander Botha from Lions
Patrick Phibbs from London Irish

Players Out
Hoani Tui to Lyon
Craig Mitchell to Cardiff Blues
Romana Graham to La Rochelle
Jason Shoemark to Hawke's Bay Magpies
Chris Whitehead retired
Tom Cowan-Dickie to Plymouth Albion
James Hanks retired
Lloyd Fairbrother to Newport Gwent Dragons
Luke Arscott to Bath Rugby
James Phillips to London Scottish

Previous Meetings
Pre-Season Friendly August 2012
Exeter Chiefs 6-8 Connacht

Pre Season Friendly August 2011
Connacht 10-47 Exeter Chiefs

Banm wrote: Anyone know if any TV channel has it, not on sky

Nope, sadly not being televised anywhere!

Some good compliments from Exeter coach Baxter in here

www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Exeter-Ch...71-detail/story.html

clanman wrote:
Either way you go with Aki\McShazz or Aki\Poolman they are unfamiliar pairings, I meant McSharry 12 Aki 13 but Aki\Poolman would be more a symbiotic pairing, maybe, but Poolman is out of position and Aki not used to the way our 10 is playing yet, whereas McShazz offers the continuity in the key 10/12 relationship Poolman is more of a off the shoulder type play into space player than McShazz who is more a bish-bash-bosh player. Aki will create opportunities by breaking tackles and offloading to the 13 in space, Poolman is the man for that.

If we're going for a more defensive game then McShazz would work No "but", we're talking about Ospreys, the team which scrored around 90 points against us last season. So yes, defence, defence, defence but i want to see us scoring more tries and getting the fans involved. these low-scoring wins where we depend on our defense are starting to get on my nerves.on the long term ok, I'm just talking about Friday the 31th at the Liberty Std

clanman wrote:
If we're going for a more defensive game then McShazz would work but i want to see us scoring more tries and getting the fans involved. these low-scoring wins where we depend on our defense are starting to get on my nerves.

Against the Ospreys? If we were to get a one point win it would be a superb result imo. Whoever is picked at centre will end up doing an awful lot of tackling, I'd probably go with McSharry and Aki for that reason with Poolman and Healy on the wings and Ronaldson at 10, simply to get as many high/strong tackling players on the field as possible.

connachta wrote:

clanman wrote: Aki but maybe at 12 with Poolman at 13, healy and Niyi on wings

I Won't Sacrifice McSharry for a totally neophypte pair Aki/Poolman
Really prefer McShazz/Aki or Ronaldson/Aki or if the last one is jetlagged, McSharry/Poolman

Either way you go with Aki\McShazz or Aki\Poolman they are unfamiliar pairings, but Aki\Poolman would be more a symbiotic pairing, Poolman is more of a off the shoulder type play into space player than McShazz who is more a bish-bash-bosh player. Aki will create opportunities by breaking tackles and offloading to the 13 in space, Poolman is the man for that.

If we're going for a more defensive game then McShazz would work but i want to see us scoring more tries and getting the fans involved. these low-scoring wins where we depend on our defense are starting to get on my nerves.

clanman wrote: Aki but maybe at 12 with Poolman at 13, healy and Niyi on wings

I Won't Sacrifice McSharry for a totally neophypte pair Aki/Poolman
Really prefer McShazz/Aki or Ronaldson/Aki or if the last one is jetlagged, McSharry/Poolman

They generally release those not in match day 24 back to their province here and back to regions in Wales.

connachta wrote: So 5 questions for Ospreys :

1) Does somebody know if some flexibility will be allowed for those who're not due to play against S-Af, and are really needed by their provinces? (O'Donnell,one of Cronin or Kilcoyne, one of White or AhYou, Leader...)???

If not

2) who's chosen for 15 : Layden TOH or rush Muliaina into this: Mils

3) for 9 Cooney or Porter: Porter

4) for 3 Loughney, Dever, Bealham, JP Cooney? dunno but i expect one of White and Rodney to be released to play

5) for 13 : Aki Poolman or Finn

Aki but maybe at 12 with Poolman at 13, healy and Niyi on wings

Blade played much better than Cooney when he came on for Eagles, but id expect Porter to start and Cooney on bench.

Also with Porter starting means Ronaldson doesnt have to allowing McSharry to partner Aki in centre with Carty at o/h

So 5 questions for Ospreys :

1) Does somebody know if some flexibility will be allowed for those who're not due to play against S-Af, and are really needed by their provinces? (O'Donnell,one of Cronin or Kilcoyne, one of White or AhYou, Leader...)???

If not

2) who's chosen for 15 : Layden TOH or rush Muliaina into this

3) for 9 Cooney or Porter

4) for 3 Loughney, Dever, Bealham, JP Cooney?

5) for 13 : Aki Poolman or Finn

for me this week it's about resting our key players who are not missing next week. that means Muldoon and Faloon should be rested for the Exeter Game.

Well, with the news that 5 Connacht players have been called into the Irish squad and it being confirmed they will be unavailable for the Ospreys match I'm moving to the camp that is calling for naming a strong team if not the strongest team for the Exeter game. Bundee might be an able replacement for Henshaw but after that you worry about the drop off at scrumhalf and fullback coupled with the thinning at Prop. Ospreys do have 9 named in the Wales squad so they could be without their first choice halfbacks and the bulk of their pack but I think I'd rather take my chances against Exeter with a strong team and then rest some players for the game in Wales.

Referee: Pascal Gauzere (Fra)
Assistant Referee: Sebastien Minery (Fra)
Assistant Referee: Stephane Boyer (Fra)

clanman wrote: Just been reading the comments from baxter and he's talking about exposing last weeks players to a higher level intensity, reading between the lines it sounds to me like he wants the same set of players again for this week. That's good news for us as it's not the same set of players who have played the last few Premiership games. I did'nt realise Exeter had such a big squad of players.

yep, said it on the previous page, their fans anticipated it