Exeter ready to renew rivalry with Saracens

Exeter boss Rob Baxter says he still sees Saracens as his side's biggest rivals as the Chiefs travel to the StoneX Stadium on Sunday.

Exeter lost to the London side in three Premiership finals between 2016 and 2019 - shortly before Saracens were found to have breached the Premiership's salary cap rules.

Despite being relegated for a season for their offences and many of the players from both sides moving on, Baxter says the game (15:00 BST) is a big one for his side.

"If you'd say 'is there still a rivalry?' I would say 100% there will be," Baxter told BBC Sport.

"If you asked Saracens 'would you love to beat Exeter at the weekend?' I think the answer would probably be 'well it's not different to any other Premiership game'.

"But the reality is, it is. I think it is and I think our players think it is."

Exeter made six successive Premiership finals between 2016 and 2021 but never got the better of Mark McCall's side as they lifted titles in 2017 and 2020 with victories over Wasps.

Many question what might have been for the Sandy Park side had Saracens complied with the salary cap at the time and been unable to compile such a strong side.

"Is there a team that we would prefer to beat than Saracens? Probably not," added Baxter

"Saracens may not feel like that, that's entirely up to them. For us it would be a fantastic result to go to Saracens and win, and not just because of things like past history, but because they're top of the Premiership, they're clearly playing very well."

Exeter come into the game having lost their first two matches - an error-strewn 17-14 opening day defeat at home to Leicester Tigers before a bonus-point loss at champions Northampton Saints.

Baxter says he is not panicking about his side's start to the new campaign.

Exeter sit second-from-bottom of the Premiership and are one of just two sides yet to win a match as they head to last season's beaten play-off semi-finalists.

"Losing is not going to define our season by any means, but I also understand it creates a little bit of pressure," he said.

"The pressure it puts on us going to Saracens and not getting anything is the week after when we host Bristol at home, it puts pressure on that game.

"But right here and now much I'm actually pretty comfortable with how we're playing.

"I know that might surprise a few people, but the Leicester game was in some ways a bit of an anomaly, although we've got to take responsibility for not winning it.

"But outside of that I actually think we're ticking along OK at this stage of the season.

"We've had weirder patches than this over three or four weeks where I've looked and thought 'we're not playing well' and we've had to shake things up to try and come out of it. It's not like that at all."