Stuart Hogg offered to fly back south for his surprise Exeter start
Scotland fullback and captain Stuart Hogg is a surprise starter for Exter Chiefs after offering to fly back to Exeter for the Six Nations rest weekend.
Exeter play Gloucester and the non-compulsory return of Hogg gives the Devon side a welcome boost.
Hogg has had an up and down couple of weekends in the Six Nations. A fumble against Ireland cost the Scots dearly and another incident involving the fullback at the weekend that saw England score the winning try in Murrayfield has also come in for criticism.
He’s been welcomed back at the Premiership club who are happy to give the experienced operator the opportunity to get back in the saddle.
“We don’t know how Stuart deals with the country to club, country to club at the moment,” Exeter DoR Rob Baxter told BT Sport’s Craig Doyle. “That was why we felt it was important to put him in and fair to play to him: I actually spoke to him before the England game and he said he was more than happy to fly straight back and crack on with things.
“That kind of shows you the kind of guys you want to have around in the club. He wants to get back involved and get on with things.”
Baxter was asked does he feel he has to help Hogg get back on the proverbial rugby horse wiht an Exeter run out.
“I don’t think coaching is the way to it necessarily. I think that’s why you get him back involved with the lads.
“I actually think this weekend, a bit much has been made of him dotting the ball down over the line. I’ve watched it half a dozen times and I’m not really sure what he could have done. The ball rolls another six inches he puts it down and it would be fine. If you look at how you commit to that piece of play, I’m not sure what else he could have done.
“I think the week before with the dropping of the ball, he got over that with a fair bit of ribbing from the Scottish lads and probably a few texts from our boys. I had a chat with him, so he’s got a bit of stick all week.
“That’s what gets you over it. It will be good for him to get back into things.”
"Fair play to him, he was more than happy to fly straight back and crack on."
"That's the kind of guy we want around the club."
Stuart Hogg is back from Six Nations duty to play for @ExeterChiefs tonight ?
You love to see it. pic.twitter.com/uiIf8jhSQv
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) February 14, 2020
Refreshed and revived after their mid-season break, the Devonians will kick-off a crucial month ahead in the top flight determined not only to enhance their position at the summit of the division, but at the same time lay the foundations for what Baxter hopes will be a long and successful second half to the season.
“Both in the Premiership and in Europe, we have things in our own hands,” said the Chiefs’ Director of Rugby. “We’ve got a home quarter-final in Europe and if we out-perform Northampton on the day, that situation doesn’t change. And we have to look at it very much in the same terms when it comes to the Premiership.
“It’s in our hands to put together a series of quality games and quality performances that mean we collect the points that enable us to stay there. Right here and now, we don’t need another team to win or for someone to beat someone else. We can control our destiny by winning games of rugby.
“For me, that’s a fantastic situation to be in. However, it’s only fantastic if you are prepared to roll your sleeves up and make the most of it. We have done that in the past and it’s what we have to be prepared to do now.
“There is no magic ingredient to this. I have said to the lads I can’t sit here and give you some magic way to win the next four games, because there isn’t an easy way. You have to commit to them fully. If you do the hard work, the rest kind of falls into place.
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— Ross Mackay (@rbmedh) February 14, 2020
“It’s when you think you don’t have to work hard and want to take shortcuts, that’s where you tend to come unstuck and find yourself in a dogfight and trying to chase the scoreboard. Sometimes locking down and getting guys to look at each other and commit to each other about what they want to put into a game is what will control everything.”
Certainly, Baxter has been drilling that message into his team this week, particularly given their disappointing first-half display in their last league outing at home to Sale Sharks.
“I kind of think we let ourselves and our supporters down with that first-half performance. It wasn’t good but, at the same time, I can’t give the guys enough credit for their second-half display.
“Had we produced two halves like that, then we would have won the game. That said, Sale are a good side and if you don’t go out and pour everything into a game, you’re going to lose. It will be the same again on Friday and it will the same moving forward. We have got to expect to give everything against Gloucester if we want to win the game.”
Standing in the way of Baxter and his Chiefs will be a Gloucester team, who themselves will be looking for a return to winning ways having lost 34-16 to local rivals Bristol Bears.
Over the years, tussles between the Chiefs and the Cherry & Whites have proved fiercely competitive with the last six league meetings just favouring Baxter’s side 3-2 in victories with one draw.
“We are expecting a full-on game,” warned Baxter. “The good thing about being in and around the top of the Premiership is you know what to expect – and that’s a full-on challenge every time you play. Because you are top, people want to knock you off.
“Like ourselves, Gloucester have ambitions of being in the top four and wanting to win the Premiership. For them, we are one of the teams they are competing against, so there is every reason to say this is going to be a very tough game. That said, we’ve played in a lot of tough games, collected points from those games, and that’s the challenge we have got to want to face again.
“As I said, you lose games of rugby – and that’s fine, I have no issue with that. What disappointed me against Sale was that I don’t think we showed any of the top qualities we have as a team, particularly in the first half where we let them get some real momentum and we conceded what were a couple of very soft tries. Ultimately, that left us with too much to do in the second half, when we actually did roll our sleeves up and got on with things.”
As well as Hogg, Aussie scrum-half Nic White also starts for Exeter. Up front, England international Harry Williams was not needed by Eddie Jones for his latest training camp, so he starts at tight-head.
15 Stuart Hogg
14 Tom O’Flaherty
13 Ian Whitten
12 Sam Hill
11 Olly Woodburn
10 Gareth Steenson (capt)
9 Nic White
1 Ben Moon
2 Elvis Taione
3 Harry Williams
4 Jannes Kirsten
5 Jonny Hill
6 Dave Ewers
7 Jacques Vermeulen
8 Sam Simmonds
16 Jordon Poole
17 Billy Keast
18 Enrique Pieretto
19 Dave Dennis
20 Sam Skinner
21 Jack Maunder
22 Harvey Skinner
23 Phil Dollman
RugbyPass, additional reporting Exeter Chiefs
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments