Neil Back

Leeds Carnegie Head Coach Neil Back has made just one change to his starting line up to the side which lost narrowly at Sale Sharks last Friday for Sunday’s clash with Exeter Chiefs.

Skipper Marco Wentzel is set to make his comeback from injury in the second row and replaces Sean Hohneck. There is also a change on the bench with hooker Scott Freer ruled out with an arm injury so Phil Nilsen comes back into the squad.

In this week’s edition of Carnegie Call, Head Coach Neil Back looks ahead to this Sunday’s clash with Exeter Chiefs at Headingley Carnegie, kick off 3pm.

HOW IS YOUR SQUAD SHAPING UP?

Unfortunately we have suffered another couple of injuries this week with both Scott Freer and Warren Fury ruled out. Over a quarter of our squad is currently unavailable through injury which puts pressure on our resources. However, that bit of adversity has brought us together and we looking forward to the challenge of taking on Exeter this week.

HOW HIGHLY DO YOU RATE EXETER?

I have got a great deal of admiration for what they have achieved this season. We know how difficult it is to compete in the Aviva Premiership in your first season and they have now secured their place for next season with five games to go. They have a gameplan that suits their squad perfectly and whilst they are not the most expansive teams, they are a tough side to break down and they have the talent to make the most of any opportunities they can create.

IS THIS A VITAL GAME FOR YOUR TEAM?

We know that we need to win on Sunday to keep our fate in our own hands. We have got two more home games to go this season and travel to Newcastle next Saturday. If we can get the right result against the Chiefs it will set us up brilliantly for that game. However, we are not looking beyond Sunday’s game and we know that we need to produce our best performance. We are producing some quality rugby on attack having scored six tries in our last three games and that will give us confidence going into Sunday’s game.

The squad in full is:
15 Michael Stephenson
14 Lee Blacket
13 Henry Faafili
12 Luther Burrell
11 Peter Wackett
10 Adrian Jarvis
9 Scott Mathie
1 Mike MacDonald
2 Steve Thompson
3 Phil Swainston
4 Dan Browne
5 Marco Wentzel
6 Kearnan Myall
7 Hendre Fourie
8 Alfie Tooala
16 Phil Nilsen
17 Gareth Hardy
18 Juan Gomez
19 Danny Paul
20 Rhys Oakley
21 Dan White
22 Christian Lewis Pratt
23 Semi Tadulala