Baxter reacts to Saints win
By Mark Stevens
19/5/19
Rob Baxter says his Exeter Chiefs side must be prepared to work even harder when they lock horns with Northampton Saints in next Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership semi-final at Sandy Park (4:30pm).
In what we now know was the prequel to that encounter, it was the Devonians who ruled the roost in this final fixture of the regular league season, running out comfortable 40-21 victors thanks to tries from Henry Slade, Ben Moon, Don Armand, Matt Kvesic, Dave Dennis and Luke Cowan-Dickie.
With little to choose between either side at the break, the Saints were firmly in touch at the turn after tries from Piers Francis, Rory Hutchinson and Cobus Reinach, it was Baxter’s side who upped the ante in the second period to ensure they finished top of the table for a second successive season after 22 rounds of battle.
Quite rightly, Baxter was a happy man at the final whistle, but he insisted that the Chiefs could not afford to wallow in victory for long, instead prompting them to get even better for the upcoming last four showdown.
Having qualified for the play-offs in record breaking time, recent weeks have seen Baxter utilise his squad to the max, ensuring that his frontline stars would be available for these final few fixtures. It’s meant a difficult period for last season’s beaten finalists, but the Chiefs Director of Rugby believes it’s all for the greater good.
“I’m very pleased with the result,” said Baxter at the final whistle. “It looks like we’re out of that emotional vacuum which has hung around us a bit recently. I thought our second half performance, based on the way the first half finished with Saints scoring like they did, was fantastic from us.
“The way the guys rolled up their sleeves and decided how the game was going to go, it was fantastic and gives us a lot to work with.
“However, are there things that worry me? Definitely.
“The speed of some of Northampton’s scores, particularly on the counter attack, we will certainly need to have a close look at this week. They found some space on the edge pretty easily and we failed to shut it off in that first half.We did it in the second half and that allowed us to force more and more of our game on them.”
Baxter continued: “As always, there are some things for us to work on, like our match sharpness. There was a little bit of rustiness around a few things, but we worked our way through it under a lot of pressure, and I thought we grew in strength as the game went on, which is what I wanted to see.
“The first half was a bit of a stop-start affair, but once the game got going second half, I thought we really came to the fore. Our line-speed, our collision quality and our set-piece, there were so many boxes that we ticked off really well. However, that counts for nothing next week and we have to go again.
“Double-headers are among the hardest situations to deal with as players and coaches, so we have to make sure we are mentally bang on come Monday. We are going to have to go out there and fight for a final place and not think that the job is done, because it’s far from done. Northampton are a very dangerous side, they showed that numerous times today, and we are going have to be prepared to work as hard again, if not harder next week, if we want to get to the final.”
With a fourth consecutive final appearance the target for the Chiefs, Baxter is hopeful past experience, together with the hurt of losing at Twickenham to Saracens, can help inspire his players to hopefully go one better and repeat their success of 2017 against Wasps.
“Most of those players have played a lot of rugby this season - and most of these lads will be better and sharper again next week,” added Baxter. “I’ve no doubt they will take a great deal of confidence from this performance. Northampton have been one of the form teams in Premiership, yet we’ve just got a 5-0 win against them.
“When we were collecting these wins earlier in the season, everyone said it was fantastic. Today, it feels rusty and not quite where we want to be, yet it is still a performance we can be proud of and one that we can build on going forward.
“It means we have finished top of the Premiership and that doesn’t happen by accident. We’ve got a home semi-final, which again doesn’t happen by accident, and we have won an important game today, and that doesn’t happen by accident. All of that happens because the guys have prepared well, they’ve worked hard for one another, and they commit to things on a Saturday.
“We’ve been in these positions previously and we’ve been on both sides of what can happen in a final. After last year there was real hurt within the changing room. Guys were silent, upset, even a little bit angry, but now a lot of those same players who felt that way can stand up and produce the performances that will drive us through these next two weeks hopefully.”