European win delights Baxter

By Mark Stevens
18/12/16

Delighted Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter was full of praise for his side after they recorded a first-ever European Champions Cup win in France with a 20-12 victory against Bordeaux-Begles.

Having been undone by their Top 14 hosts the week previous at Sandy Park, the Chiefs gained sweet revenge courtesy of tries from Thomas Waldrom and Luke Cowan-Dickie, plus ten points from the boot of fly-half Henry Slade.

Three penalties from Lionel Beauxis, plus another from replacement Baptiste Serin, helped to keep the home side in touch for much of the contest, but they were left to rue not only the result, but also a red card for winger Nans Ducuing after an ugly tackle on Exeter’s Olly Woodburn.

At the final whistle, Baxter was quick to talk up his side’s latest success. He said: “I’m delighted for a lot of reasons, but mainly for the players, because we can dress it up as much as we like, but the last couple of losses, tight losses at that to Ulster and Bordeaux, it would be very easy for us to say the pool was over and all we’re really doing is fulfilling fixtures.

“That’s something we spoke about with the players before coming to the ground today. We said to them that they really had two options. One, was to come here and think we’re out of the competition, fulfil the fixture and move onto next week – or the other was we’ve worked very hard to be in the Champions Cup and we’ve worked very hard to come to places like Bordeaux, and play in big games like this, so you have to respect that and take the opportunity because there are not that many that come along in your career.”

Although it was not a contest that will live long in the memory, the fact the Chiefs showed their European credentials is something that will have helped to boost confidence ahead of the upcoming Aviva Premiership block, where Leicester Tigers, Bath and Saracens all lie in wait over successive weekends.

“It wasn’t a great quality performance, we made a lot of mistakes, and it got scrappy and ill-disciplined at times out there,” added Baxter. “However, we stayed in the fight and when you stay in the fight, good things can happen to you.

“For us looking at it in the bigger picture, it’s going to be another one of those Exeter Chiefs’ scenarios where we look back and say how did we lose last week?

Or how did we come up one drop-kick short at Ulster?

“Had we won those two games, we could easily be sat here now with 15 or 16 points in the bag and thinking we’ve got Ulster and Clermont to go so ‘here we go’.

“Sadly, it’s happened like that for us, but the one thing you can say about this pool is see how close we have been to really getting on top of things. We have come to France for the first time and forced a win in the Champions Cup, so there are some good measures for us.

“That said, the reality of where we are is we need to have a big next three weeks. We need to turn up to training on Monday, get this game out of system quickly, then train with a real intensity that can be the driver for us to perform really well against Leicester.

“The Leicester game offers a huge opportunity for us and whoever wins that game will go into Christmas feeling pretty good about being in the top four, so I’m expecting us to train well this week and use everything as a huge motivator for us.”

As well as praising his team, the Chiefs coach also paid tribute to the Travelling Tribe, who descended on Bordeaux in numbers yet again.

“The supporters were fantastic, especially in the stadium where they were massively outnumbered, but it was great to see them out and about in the town before the game and I’m glad we put in a performance like we did today because it’s a great reward for them as well.”