Sunday's 34-19 win over Nottingham may not have been the prettiest at times, but Leeds director of rugby Andy Key saw enough to leave him in confident mood for tomorrow's trip to Devon to take on Exeter Chiefs.

While it is far too early at this stage to place too much emphasis on just one game, the battle set to take place at Sandy Park is one Leeds need to win to give themselves, if nobody else, the belief that they might have what it takes to get out of this division.

All teams facing Leeds this year will have ambitions of upsetting the pre-season promotion favourites, but Exeter, like
Nottingham showed in patches last weekend, are one of a small handful of clubs who could deliver on that threat.

Their 46-8 win at part-time Esher came as no surprise and, although they struggled at times at Molesey Road, it was in the pack where Exeter were able to dominate and guarantee a bonus point victory. Key is well aware Exeter possess threats in other areas of the pitch.

"I think it was the kind of result most people expected," said Key.

"We've had an opportunity to look at the tape of the game and what's interesting is that Esher were not scared to run the ball, they certainly took them on in certain areas, but I think where Esher struggled was in the forward battle.

"Their forward line is where their main strengths lie – they've also got a good centre in Matt Cornwell, who we know from our Leicester days, and they've got a couple of wingers who are pretty sharp who, when given space, could be dangerous.

"I think it's more about their forwards dominating and controlling the ball and creating the space for the backs.

"But there's always a danger that you can get too bogged down in what other teams are capable of and you forget about what you need to do."

Key will be looking for the Leeds players to improve on last weekend's opening performance against Nottingham, where it was felt they played well only in patches.

"Our focus this week has been about how we turn a 30-minute performance from last weekend into a 60-minute or so performance this weekend because that's what we are going to need down at their place," he added.

"Last week, we were a bit silly in areas where we turned over ball and gave away silly penalties. But for 25 to 30 minutes of the game – 20 minutes in the first half and 10 to 15 minutes in the second half – we played some smart rugby and showed that the outcome of smart rugby gets you tries.

"If we could have planned it, we probably wouldn't have had Nottingham and Exeter as our two opening games," added Key.

"But having said that, once we knew, everything about pre-season was about making sure we went into these first two games with confidence high and that the way that we wanted to play would be a way that we can beat these sides."

Hooker Rob Rawlinson, in his testimonial year, is expected to be fully recovered and in contention for a place in the starting line-up in Devon, but Leeds escaped picking up further injuries last weekend.

Exeter have made three changes to their starting line-up, with back-row Chris Cracknell and scrum-half Kevin Barrett swapping places with Tom Johnson and former Leeds No 9 Clive Stuart-Smith. Flanker Andy Miller also comes into the starting line-up, while Richie Pugh will be looking to make his first appearance for the club from the bench.

LeedS'S Calum Clark, Dan White, Phil Swainston and Jacob Rowan have been named in England's 32-man squad for this season's Under-20 international programme. The squad, coached by Mark Mapletoft and Martin Haag, will play RBS Under-20 Six Nations games before travelling to the IRB Junior World Championship (JWC) in Japan.