Exeter’s coaches have challenged their Chiefs team to ‘make memories’ and they certainly did that with their statement 27-12 win over Castres in last weekend’s opening fixture of this season’s Heineken Champions Cup, writes Mark Stevens.

Tomorrow, Director of Rugby Rob Baxter will be calling for more of the same from his players as they prepare to welcome South Africans visitors, the Bulls, to Sandy Park for the first time (1pm).

Like the Chiefs, the Bulls also began with a bang, marking their tournament debut with a 42-36 success over Lyon in the heat of Pretoria.

Fast forward a week and Jake White’s visitors have touched down in Devon to temperatures of below zero and wary of the threat of a Chiefs outfit who won Europe’s top prize just two years ago.

That success remains the club’s biggest memory to date, but Baxter is hopeful that further reward can be claimed this season - and has challenged his players to use last weekend’s result as the springboard for another powerful display tomorrow.

“All of last week we looked at past memories of trips to Europe, montages of games and hearing from past players talking about their experiences,” explained Baxter.

“The theme throughout was that Europe offers that massive opportunity to make great memories. 

“As a group, it will be something you can always look back on and talk about in years to come. Winning last week was one of those memories and it was great that we stayed the extra night and that the lads could go out, let their hair down and build some memories together. 

“In a way, I think it helped bring the best out of us. It was a great night in Europe, a great win and, hopefully, it has provided the foundation for us to kick-start what we can achieve again this weekend.”

The Castres threat a week ago was certainly sizeable and the Chiefs can expect more of the same this weekend from the Bulls. 

“There are similar challenges again this week in terms of physicality and around the set-piece,” warned Baxter.

“That said, we’ve tried to focus more on ourselves, rather than too much about them. What was good last week was that we had a real alignment in everything we did. That’s not necessarily been there all the time over the last 18 months or so, but we saw it last week and it shows that when we have it, we’re a very powerful team.

“This week, the focus has been a lot on just rediscovering that alignment again and getting ourselves ready for the weekend. If we do that and we get it right, then we give ourselves a great chance of getting something from the game.

”Team news for the Chiefs sees Baxter make just one change to his starting line-up with England and British Lions hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie recalled after injury to start at hooker and also captain the side.

He takes the place of Jack Yeandle, who drops to the replacements' bench.

Exeter: Stuart Hogg, Jack Nowell, Henry Slade, Rory O’Loughlin, Olly Woodburn, Joe Simmonds, Sam Maunder, Scott Sio, Lukę Cowan-Dickie (capt), Harry Williams, Dafydd Jenkins, Jonny Gray, Dave Ewers, Christ Tshiunza, Sam Simmonds. Replacements: Jack Yeandle, Alec Hepburn, Josh Iosefa-Scott, Ruben Van Heerden, Santiago Grondona, Will Becconsall, Solomone Kata, Josh Hodge.

Bulls: W Simelane, S Novuka, S Gans, C Smith, S Jacobs, M Steyn, B van der Linde, D Smith, B Du Plessis, J van Rooyen, R Ludwig, J Swanepoel, N Carr, W Steenkamp, M Uys. Replacements: J van Zyl, L Gqoboka, S Lombard, C Hanekom, P Maqondwana, K Johannes, C Banes, J Mostert.

Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France).