Chiefs wary of Quins backlash
Exeter Chiefs wing Gonzalo Camacho has warned his teammates to expect some sort of response after his former club Harlequins suffered their first Premiership defeat of the season on Tuesday.
The table-topping Quins were undone 19-11 by defending champions Saracens in front of 82 000 spectators at Twickenham, this just hours after the Chiefs had themselves gone down 29-22 to London Irish at the Madejski Stadium.
Now the two teams are set to go head-to-head at a packed out Sandy Park on New Year's Eve and Camacho is expecting Conor O'Shea's side to pose a creditable threat to the Chiefs on home soil.
"Psychologically it can be interesting when you lose for the first time," said Camacho, who last season helped the Londoners to lift the Amlin Challenge Cup. "It is a double-edged sword – you don't known how it will go.
"They will want revenge very quickly but if they are feeling negative after the game they may not come into the game the way they wanted. If they are okay with Tuesday's match and see where they can improve, they might bounce back up and double their efforts and double their skill level.
"We have got to be ready for a very hard game and a very physical game. They gain momentum in games through the battle up front and getting the back row running hard and we have to be ready for that," he warned.
Like Harlequins, the Chiefs had to contend with defeat in their first fixture after Christmas - a result which brought to an end the club's impressive run of five successive victories.
Remarking on the loss at Irish, the Argentine international added: "We were very disappointed because we could have won the game. We were only four points away late on but couldn't do it. It was, however, a tough game. They have a very good backline and their forwards made it very hard for our forwards."
A slow start from the Chiefs meant Rob Baxter's side were always chasing the game and Camacho is hopeful the Chiefs can start brighter this weekend.
"In the first half we have to wake up a bit earlier and do better. We slipped off some tackles, gave them momentum and after that we were under pressure," he said. "We played well at times but they were giving away penalties in their own 22 and we could only improve our score by three points by kicking penalties.
"After Luke Arscott's try we felt pretty confident, we were playing good rugby but these things happen. Looking back through the game, we had several chances to score in the second half and we could have built a bit more pressure. We need to concentrate more in the first half and be spot-on in the first 10 minutes. That cost us," he explained.
That said, the Chiefs on home soil are always a tough nut to crack and they will head into this latest tussle buoyed by the fact that they defeated Harlequins 20-6 in the corresponding fixture at Sandy Park last season.
Another positive for Baxter's side is the fact that in ten of the club's 11 Premiership fixtures this season, they have managed to gain some kind of reward for their endeavours.
"The table is so tight it's very good for us to keep collecting points," explained Camacho. "It's always better to win but, if you don't, losing bonus points can be very helpful. Every point we win helps us move up the table and our main objective is to improve our position in the table from last season."