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Luke Cowan-Dickie is targeting European Challenge Cup glory as Exeter prepare to wrap up their Pool 2 campaign against Bayonne at Sandy Park.
Luke Cowan-Dickie is targeting European Challenge Cup glory as Exeter prepare to wrap up their Pool 2 campaign against Bayonne at Sandy Park.
The Chiefs have already secured their place in the quarter-finals following their victory at Connacht in the fifth round of fixtures.
Rob Baxter’s men now have their sights set on securing a home tie in the last eight when they host their French visitors.
Exeter secured the first piece of major silverware in the club’s history when they won the LV= Cup last season, and front-rower Cowan-Dickie believes the Chiefs should be looking to add to their haul in Europe.
He said: “We won the LV= Cup last season and we like to go for every competition we enter in to. Last week against Connacht was a big fame for us to push forward in this tournament and we want to go as far as we can and try and get through the semi-finals and final to pick up another trophy.
“We knew what we had to do last week, we had lost a few league games but that was our biggest game in the pool and winning away from home was a big boost for us.”
Bayonne are unable to advance from the pool but young wing Pierre Sayerse is hoping for the chance to get some more first-team action under his belt.
He said: “For young players these are important matches because we do not often get the chance to stake a claim in the first team.
“These are a real opportunity to show our hand and you do not want to waste them. They are a different proposition and the players we go up against are very strong but it is a great experience.”
Match Facts
- Since losing their first home game in this competition against Montpellier back in 2012, Exeter have won all seven games at Sandy Park in the Challenge Cup.
- Bayonne's 14-0 win against La Rochelle in Rounf 5 was the third time they have managed to prevent the opposition from scoring in a Challenge Cup game (v Rugby Mogliano in 2003 and RC Toulon in 2006).
- Exeter have crossed for twice as many tries as Bayonne in this campaign (20 v 10) but have conceded just one fewer (11 v 12).
- Bayonne has lost all 11 away games against English opposition in this competition.
Face à une équipe bayonnaise éliminée et largement remaniée
Exeter Chiefs will go into the tournament quarter-finals as the No 2 seeds and with invaluable home advantage after a six try blitz of Bayonne at Sandy Park that took them to 25 points and the Pool 2 honours.
Since losing their first home game in this competition against Montpellier back in 2012, Exeter had won all seven home games in the Challenge Cup and they made it eight in emphatic manner with a try fest.
The Chiefs, through to the last eight courtesy of their Round 5 win against Connacht, took just four minutes to give the Sandy Park faithful something to cheer about as Jack Nowell celebrated his England squad selection in style.
The centre powered his way over from a slick Exeter attack, Henry Slade failing to add the conversion from wide out, but Bayonne suffered a double whammy with Saimoni Vaka injured and taken off on a stretcher.
Slade failed to add to the Exeter score when a penalty chance bounced back off the upright after some powerful scrummaging but he had more joy with successive penalty goal chances that opened up an 11-point advantage.
With the penalty count 6-1 against the French club Nowell almost got through again only to be called back for an earlier forward pass before smart work from Luke Cowan-Dickie kept the pressure on.
Ian Whitten and Matt Jess made inroads but it was something of a stop-start affair with the Chiefs unable to add to their tally before the break.
But they do manage that soon after the restart, a break by Slade coming to nothing when he is tripped up by Thibault Visensang, Slade dusting himself down and landing the penalty.
Martin Bustos Moyano finally got Bayonne off the mark with a long range penalty but the Chiefs hit back promptly as Jess went over in the corner after great work from Tom Waldrom and Phil Dollman.
Flood of replacements off both benches marked the point of the contest going into the final quarter with the Chiefs targeting a try bonus point after Waldrom went close before Dave Ewers powered over and for a third try with replacement Gareth Steenson converting.
More woe for Bayonne came in the shape of a yellow card for Simon Labouyrie and the Chiefs cashed in with the try bonus point in his time in the sin bin, replacement Carl Rimmer going over and Steenson adding the extras.
But the Chiefs were not finished, Kai Horstmann getting try No 5 and Dean Mumm
o 6 as they wrapped up their group stage programme in style and head into the quarter-finals with confidence.
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