Exeter Chiefs confirm 2022/23 pre-season away day opponents

Exeter Chiefs will tune-up for the new 2022/23 campaign with a pre-season friendly away to United Rugby Championship side Ulster Rugby.

Rob Baxter’s side will fly to Belfast for the fixture at the Kingspan Stadium on Friday, September 2 (7pm ko).

Exeter’s trip will be the first time the two sides have met since the pool stages of the 2016/17 Heineken Champions Cup, losing 19-18 on the road but winning 31-19 at Sandy Park.

Chiefs confirmed ticket details for this game will follow in due course.

Exeter are understood to in discussions about organising a second pre-season friendly but as things stand this will be the first chance to see Chiefs in action before the Gallagher Premiership kicks off again on the weekend of September 9.

Reflecting on pre-season plans, director of rugby Baxter said he is looking forward to having some quality time with his squad after the disruption caused by Covid and busy schedules over the last couple of years.

Speaking to Devon Live earlier this month, he said: "We came out of our double season [2019/20] with a week and half of pre-season, the guys had two weeks off and we had a week and half of training and we were off again. Last season [2020/21] we got to a final so had a relatively short pre-season.

"We will be able to refresh, restyle and realign ourselves this summer. We are going to spend as much time having fun this season as we are working hard. That is really important and we haven't been able to do as much of that as we would have liked in recent seasons.

"We are going to come out of pre-season with plenty of stories about everyone from our social events, good and bad, the last thing they are going to talk about is how we are going to play because they will all know that."

Chiefs