Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter expressed satisfaction with the performance of his young backs in their 38-26 pre-season victory over Ospreys.
England Under-20s centre Nic Lilley and fellow youngster Campbell Ridl started the match against the United Rugby Championship side, with Ridl scoring two tries. With Tamati Tua likely to miss the season due to injury, and Henry Slade, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, and Len Ikitau representing their countries over the summer, Exeter’s youngsters could see more playing opportunities, particularly at the beginning of the season.
“That’s a great sign for us in the strength through the side,” Baxter told My Newspaper Radio Devon. “You’ve talked about breeding that next generation coming through, and that showed today that we kind of made the right decision going with our younger academy EQP [England Qualified Players] type lads. They did very well for us there in the first half, especially when we gave them some really hot ball. That’s the bit I’m pleased about — we looked crisp, and we looked like we could move at pace with hot ball, which has been a bit of an Achilles heel for a couple of years. We’ve worked very hard on it in pre-season, and the lads really bought into it, producing those kind of pieces of hot ball that allowed us to look dangerous.”
Exeter will begin their season on Friday night, traveling to Kingsholm to take on Gloucester in the Prem Rugby Cup.
