EXETER captain Jack Yeandle insists records and the never-ending quest for silverware will ensure his side remain fully motivated until the play-offs.
With a home semi-final already bagged, Rob Baxter’s men might be forgiven for easing off.
However, Chiefs still have plenty to play for as they set their sights on beating the Premiership’s regular season record points tally of 87 set by Saracens in 2013/14.
Exeter also have four games to notch the 14 tries needed to overhaul the seasonal best of 89, jointly held by Wasps (2016/17) and Saracens (2017/18).
Yeandle told The Rugby Paper: “We’ve tasted success before, know what it feels like and what it takes, and you get those enjoyment levels when you put in good performances and achieve results.
“As professionals you’re there to win and we’re competitive players, even if it’s just playing ping-pong in the dressing room. We want to win and the previous success we’ve enjoyed, plus the disappointments, is a pretty big underlying driver.
“There’s no complacency, we want to keep building and building, not counting down the days until the regular season is over. We want to be going in as big, hard and fast as possible when it comes to knock-out rugby and the records are part of that.
“We have player meetings and we’ve mentioned the records, knowing they could be something that goes down in history and may not be beaten for years. It’s another key driver for us and it would be nice to go into the play-offs holding those.”
Exeter fly into today’s showdown with Wasps with the same 23 that served them so well in thrashing Leicester 52-20 at Welford Road last week.
The only change sees Baxter switching his entire front row, with Yeandle, Alec Hepburn and Harry Williams taking a turn on the bench while the allinternational trio of Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ben Moon and Tomas Francis headline the run-on XV.
“Wasps are always dangerous and over the last five years the games between us have always been competitive,” adds Yeandle.
“They’ve got nothing to lose now, so they’ll just go for it and it’s another reason why we must be on our game.”
Of the six Chiefs front rowers, Yeandle is the only uncapped player – anomalous given the consistency of the Devonian since joining from Doncaster in 2012.
Speaking at a Gallagher ‘Train With Your Heroes’ session at Crediton RFC, where Yeandle, 29, began his career, he said: “It would be lovely to have my name in the England mix and you’ve only got to look at Ben Moon.
“He just worked hard and got his chance in Test rugby.”
Wasps are also settled after last week’s win over Worcester, with Jake Cooper-Woolley’s promotion to the No.3 jersey in place of Will Stuart the only change.
TEAMS
EXETER CHIEFS: Cordero, Nowell, Slade, Devoto, Woodburn, Simmonds, White; Moon, Cowan-Dickie, Francis, Lonsdale, Atkins, Ewers, Armand (c), Kvesic
Replacements: Yeandle, Hepburn, Williams, Salmon, Capstick, Maunder, Hill, Whitten
WASPS: Le Roux, Watson, Daly, Lovobalavu, Bassett, Sopoaga, Simpson; Zhvania, Cruse, Cooper-Woolley, Launchbury (c), Gaskell, Shields, Carr, Hughes
Replacements: Johnson, McIntyre, Brookes, Rowlands, Morris, Hampson, Miller, de Jongh
The best betting sites
