Chiefs settle for share of the spoils
By Mark Stevens
14/10/18
Two points gained or four points missed?
Exeter Chiefs Director of Rugby Rob Baxter was perhaps undecided as he watched his side kick-off their Heineken Champions Cup season with a 10-10 draw against visiting Munster Rugby at Sandy Park.
Luke Cowan Dickie’s try, plus five points from the boot of Gareth Steenson, helped give the Chiefs a 10-3 lead at the break against their Irish visitors, who countered with a penalty from Joey Carbery.
However, up against a storm force wind in the second period, the Devonians had to dig deep into their defensive reserves to hold off the threat of the two-time champions.
For much of the half they did just that, but a converted CJ Stander try allowed the visitors to draw level just past the hour mark.
It was nip-and-tuck until the final whistle for both sides, but the Chiefs could easily have snatched victory at the death when they were afforded one last chance. Try as they may, Baxter’s side could not quite hammer in the telling blow and it meant a share of the spoils for this two rivals in Pool 2.
Post-game, Baxter gave his assessment on the game, insisting he didn’t know whether his side had missed out on glory or that they were happy enough to take the two points.
“I’m not sure,” said the Exeter coach. “From half-time to the end of the game, it feels like points gained, having gone into the wind with only a seven-point lead. But if you look at the last two minutes of the game, with a couple of dominant scrums and the pressure we got on their line, we probably feel we missed opportunities there to ram in a win.
“Did we really grab the game by the scruff of the neck in the first 25 to 30 minutes? Probably not.
“Has that ultimately cost us? Potentially. But we then pinned together a really good second half of rugby. We made mistakes in that second half, but in those kind of conditions, to come through the second half as well as we did, probably shows as good a test of character and as good a half of Heineken Cup rugby we have played against good opposition who were genuinely there to win the game.
“There are work-ons and there are individual things to put right, but on the whole, we would still have had to go out and get three or four more wins after today to get out of this pool and that situation hasn’t changed.”
Like Baxter, Munster head coach Johann van Graan was pleased with his side’s showing on their first-ever visit to Devon.
“I am very pleased and very proud of that effort,” said the South African. “We spoke this week about an 80 minutes performance and it took 80 minutes to keep them out.
“I am immensely proud of all 23 guys, to come away from Sandy Park with two points is good, but the most important thing was to deny them four or five points, that’s incredible in the context of the group.
“We have to build into the Champions Cup. We gave it our best shot against the best team in Europe last week in Leinster, but it wasn’t good enough. I think we answered a few questions today.”
The men in red did have some forays into the opposition 22 before Stander crossed the line, but a combination of dogged Exeter resolve, inaccuracy kept the visitors at bay.
“There is a slight bit of frustration,” Van Graan admitted when asked about possible missed scoring opportunities, “but you also have to see it in the context that we are playing against one of the best attacking sides in the world in my opinion.”
For the Chiefs a first-ever trip to Castres awaits them next Saturday, whilst Munster will play host to Gloucester at Thomond Park on the same day.