Euro hopes still alive for Baxter
By Mark Stevens
13/1/18
Rob Baxter was full of praise for his Exeter Chiefs side as they kept alive their hopes of European Champions Cup qualification with a 41-10 victory over Montpellier at Sandy Park.
The English champions ran in six tries as they completed a European double this season against the current French Top 14 leaders.
Dave Ewers’ converted first half try was all that separated the two sides at the break, but the second half belonged primarily to Baxter’s side as they added further scores through Sam Simmonds, Olly Woodburn (2), Nic White and Don Armand.
Skipper Gareth Steenson and Joe Simmonds shared out the remainder of the points for the home side, who must now produce a similar outcome in their final outing of Pool 3 next Saturday away to Glasgow Warriors to stand any chance of making the last eight.
In reply, Montpellier claimed a late consultation score through former Exeter winger Nemani Nadolo, while All Blacks fly-half Aaron Cruden added the conversion, together with a second half penalty.
Post-match, a delighted Baxter was quick to salute his players as they helped net a record Champions Cup victory in the process.
“What we have done is we have given ourselves a fantastic opportunity to genuinely go after a game next week,” said Baxter. “Of course it will be a big challenge for us, Looking at Glasgow’s selection this week and what they are likely to go with next week, I think we’ll be facing a full-on side who are in preparation not only for them playing against us, but for a lot of their Scottish players heading into the Six Nations as well.
“I’ve just said to our guys moving forward, we can now ready ourselves and look like a mature side who want to go and fight for a place in the quarter-finals and get everything right.
“There is no doubt we were good today. I can run around and try to move on from the game quickly, but I also know we were very good. Tactically and emotionally, we got it right today, which is a massive positive and a massive reward for the players. However, now they have the hard bit which is to move on and do it again next week.”
Indeed, the final whistle had hardly blown by the time Baxter was addressing the assembled media and looking to the future.
“Normally we are a side that like to celebrate the good times and enjoy them, but we have to move on from them very quickly and get ourselves ready for a huge game next week,” he declared. “We’ve created a scenario which we have not had that often, which is we go into last round with something genuinely to fight for.
“The one time we qualified, we went into last game, but did we have something to genuinely fight for? Most people will have said ‘no’ because we were relying on others, but maybes there is a scenario after this weekends results where it will be in our hands, which would be a fantastic situation.
“It was a tough game for long periods out there today and once the game gets away from you, which it did for Montpellier in the second half, it’s difficult to dig in and stay strong because we did play well.
“We knew we had to be good today - which we were - and that was ultimately the deciding factor. Here at Sandy Park we are a very good side, we score a lot of points, and we’ve got a team who can play the conditions and the wind. Yes, a lot of things worked in our favour, but that happened because we turned up, performed individually and collectively, and when it’s like that, the final outcome tends to sort itself out."