Investec Champions Cup: Exeter will not heap pressure on young side in Toulon, says Rob Baxter

A number of Exeter's young squad could make their European debuts against Toulon

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter says he will not put too much pressure on his young side for their Investec Champions Cup trip to Toulon.

Exeter have won just one away game in 13 months in all competitions.

They travel to a star-studded Toulon side who are second in the Top 14.

"For me this is a great opportunity for the team to learn and gain a fantastic experience about the kind of games that, in the future, we will have some expectation of winning," Baxter said.

"Right here and now I'm not saying we don't have an expectation of playing well, that's our expectation, and what will be on the back of that will be.

"But I'm certainly not going to run before I can walk and not going to try to put too much pressure on the guys.

"I want them to go over there and enjoy the experience and enjoy playing well together to take everything out of the game they can, but I'm definitely keeping it that simple."

Henry Slade is one of two Exeter players, along with Jack Yeandle, who played at Toulon when the sides were last drawn together a decade ago

Baxter's new-look side have just a handful of players left that were part of the squad that won the 2020 Champions Cup, while many of the side will be making their European debuts in the south of France on Saturday.

Exeter go into the game having registered some excellent home wins over the likes of Saracens and Sale, while having struggled away from home - they were beaten 41-24 at Bath last weekend.

But Baxter hopes the trip to face a side that boasts the likes of Dan Biggar, Charles Ollivon and Melvyn Jaminet will help his side grow.

"We want everyone to experience it, we want everyone to learn from it," he told BBC Sport.

"I'm pretty confident every player will improve from the experience and we'll give it our best shot.

"I'm not going to talk about it being like a shot to nothing because it's not, it's a very important part of the process about where we want this team to go.

"So our expectation is to go there and be absolutely flat out physically, and see where that takes us in the competitive side of the game.

"We're not going there to just throw the ball around and smile and laugh in the sun, we're going there to play a serious game of rugby and take everything out of the game we can.

"Hopefully that'll be some points, but if not it should be some very good experience and some very important things we can learn from."

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