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Baxter’s side begin their season at home to Gloucester on Saturday – the start of a five-game block of league matches and one European Champions Cup game before the Autumn internationals. <\/p>\n
Baxter said it was crucial for any side with title ambitions to get off to a good start with such a large part of the season being played before the end of next month.<\/p>\n
“Over a quarter of the Premiership season is going to be gone,” Baxter added.<\/p>\n
“There’s only 18 games, once that five games has gone if you’re not established in the top half of the Premiership it’s going to be tough to chase it back down again, you’re going to have to put quite a lot of back-to-back wins together.<\/p>\n
“So starting well across this first block of three games before Europe is going to be a massive part of building a successful season.<\/p>\n
“There’s no point running away from it, you’ve got to hit the ground running and that’s what all the teams have been planning on doing, nobody more so than Gloucester, so we’ve got to make sure we get ourselves ready.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n