Baxter led Exeter to promotion from the Championship last season

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter is refusing to let his side's strong start to the season diminish the importance of Saturday's clash with Leeds.

Bottom-club Leeds are without a win all season and trail ninth-placed Exeter by 12 points in the Premiership table.

Baxter told BBC Devon: "The fixture is still as big as it would have been regardless of any other scenarios.

"If you look at the table now, we can put some distance between ourselves and the bottom of the table with a win."

He added: "The distance to the bottom of the table narrows considerably with a loss."

Having picked up wins over Saracens, Newcastle and Gloucester so far, the Chiefs have proved more than capable of competing in their debut Premiership season.

Baxter continued: "For us it's about getting ourselves in the correct frame of mind mentally and getting through the right preparation.

"The boys have worked very hard on their analysis and preparation this week, we've now have to get ourselves 100% in the right frame of mind.

"It's all about the Premiership for us and there's no point in running away from that."

Exeter's last outing saw them held to a 23-23 away draw at Cardiff Blues in the LV= Cup, despite leading for most of the tie.

606: DEBATE Exeter will need to control the set piece, play the territory game and take all their opportunities Username1001

Baxter said: "The more I've thought about the Cardiff fixture, the more I can understand the scenario.

"If the truth of the whole thing was that at the back of our minds we were a little bit off because we had Leeds coming up then I can forgive a little bit.

"The truth of it was that this weekend was always going to be more important in the course of the season."

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