Exeter happy to use revenge as motivation for Saracens clash
Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter admits that his players could be fuelled by the injustice of Saracens’ salary cap saga.
The Devonians felt they missed out on the 2018 and 2019 Premiership titles due to the actions of the Londoners.
Although Sarries were punished for their indiscretion, resulting in relegation to the Championship, the Chiefs believed they were hit harder after Mark McCall’s men were not stripped of their victories.
The teams meet in a Premiership game this weekend for the first time since September 2020.
But, while Baxter does not dismiss the motivational element, he also believes the Premiership as a collective is moving on.
Grudge match
Asked if the Sandy Park encounter could be viewed as a grudge match, Baxter said: “It’s like anything in sport, you use anything you can.
“If some of the players are still feeling that’s an issue, then that’s great and they should use that as motivation.
“I don’t think by any means that is every player’s motivation. You have all got to find your own reasons. It will be exactly the same for Saracens.
“For us, for some players it will just be about collecting points and going on the way to having a really good season. For other guys, it might still feel a personal thing.
“I don’t think as coaches any more you build up any particular game as the grudge match of the year. It just doesn’t work like that.
“Saracens are above us in the league and we want to be further up the league than we are. There are lots of motivations for us to go out there and play well and we should be looking to use every one of them.”
Exeter could climb into the play-off zone if they topple Saracens and Baxter is well aware of the threat that they pose.
“It is a really big and exciting game,” he added. “You want to be involved in big fixtures – that’s what you want the games to be.
“Watching Saracens over any period of time, you know they are well organised, they are internally-driven, their focus on each other and as a team is very good, and within that they have got numerous good players.
“I don’t think anyone in the Premiership wasn’t expecting them to go well, and they have done that.”
‘Emotion got the better of McGuigan’ – Alex Sanderson
Byron McGuigan’s red card on Sunday was the result of sheer frustration, according to his Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson.
McGuigan was sent-off as the Sharks went down to a 25-14 defeat to Saracens at StoneX Stadium at the weekend – their fifth Premiership loss of the campaign.
“Byron trains at UFC on his time off so maybe he just had a flashback of some sort of ultimate fighting session he’s done. I haven’t spoken to him,” Sanderson said.
“He’s a great lad, one of the hardest workers. The emotion, the occasion, the fact we hadn’t scored – I was feeling that too – probably got the better of him.”
