All Black Dallas McLeod will have to play the waiting game at Exeter

Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter admits that new signing, All Blacks centre Dallas McLeod, who arrived in Devon at the end of last week, won’t make his debut in the PREM Rugby Cup visit of Bath to Sandy Park this weekend.

McLeod, 26, won his only Test cap with a 41-minute cameo off the bench for Braydon Ennor in a 23-20 Bledisloe Cup win over Australia in Dunedin in August 2023, and is in full training with the rest of the Chiefs squad.

But Baxter says that he is holding him back for at least another week after playing non-stop this year for the Crusaders in Super Rugby and then helping Canterbury win the NPC Final against Northland at the end of last month.

“He’s in now, but obviously, he played a lot of minutes right through to the end of the NPC. So we’re not rushing to get him on the field. So we’re just slowly building up his training time.

“But our anticipation is that he will be available through the Prem Cup period, whether that’s week two or week three. But what we don’t want to do is fly the guy in for 24 hours, a bit stiff, a bit sore, and play a lot of rugby.

“We’re not rushing to throw him on the pitch and injure him. We are trying to get him up to speed in the correct manner, and then we can let him go,” said Baxter

Baxter says that winger Paul Brown-Bampoe will make his first appearance of the season on Saturday after a heel injury, while late summer signings like Obinna Nkwocha, André Goedhals and Carwyn Tuipulotu could also feature.

“Paul’s in full training now. You know it’s a bit of a shame, we could have used him a few weeks ago, but he’s back hitting all of his markers.

“Ehren Painter’s been injured and out for a long, long time now. And although he played in pre-season, this is a proper game for him to get involved in, and we can see exactly where he is.

“Obinna Nkwocha, we are really looking forward to seeing him, and André Goedhals.”