Euro win delights Baxter
By Mark Stevens
15/12/18
Rob Baxter hailed his Exeter Chiefs side as they returned to winning ways with an impressive 29-17 victory over Gloucester in this season’s Heineken Champions Cup.
Exeter’s victory - their first in Pool Two this season - not only avenged a home defeat by the Cherry & Whites just six days earlier, but put the Devonians back on course in their attempts to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition.
The Chiefs pack laid the foundations for the triumph, producing a powerful display - particularly at set-piece time - that yielded tries for forwards Sam Skinner, Don Armand, Jack Yeandle and Harry Williams.
Fly-half Gareth Steenson completed the job, slotting three conversions and a penalty, while in reply Jason Woodward scored two tries for the hosts, alongside another for replacement Tom Hudson.
Post-game, however, Baxter was quick to salute the efforts of his players, who had come in for some criticism in the wake of the Gloucester win at Sandy Park.
“I think it just shows what a funny old game all sport is, especially rugby,” said Baxter. “It’s interesting how the pressure has flipped week on week. Last week it was us losing at home and Gloucester looking like strong contenders to get out of the pool, now all of a sudden, we did some things that created pressure, it was almost like a polar opposite of last week’s game where we were fighting and going nowhere to get a losing bonus point, and that happened to Gloucester today.
“What we did today, though, was that we stuck to sound basics, we worked hard, we stuck more to plan and, the biggest thing, we didn’t get hurt by mistakes. Yes, we made plenty of mistakes out there, but we bounced through them so much better than last week. Last week it was as if every mistake we made drained the life out of us. Whereas today, it almost enriched us and enlivened our performance. We weren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but our desire to get on with the game was perfect and that was what was able to see us through in the end.”
Having drawn with Pool Two leaders Munster in their opening European fixture, successive losses to Castres (away) and Gloucester (home) had left the Chiefs bottom of the pile and with seemingly very little to fight for.
However, Baxter was defiant in the wake of the Gloucester loss that there were “still 15 points to play for” and that his team would be doing everything in their power to try and achieve each and every one of them.
The response at Kingsholm on Friday night underlined that message, much to the admiration of the Chiefs’ Director of Rugby.
“These five points certainly mean there is now real value in the Castres home game, which is fantastic for us as a club,” added Baxter. “Now the supporters can come and there is a glimmer for them because at the end of the day, if we can go to Munster with something to play for, it’s almost like you’ve qualified for the last 16 and you’re fighting to get into that last eight.
“That would be a fantastic thing to look forward to, if we can get there. For now, we have just got to accept a few lessons that probably - and I have to hold my hand up here - that were dripping into our levels of performance for probably four or five weeks. It’s like anything, when you’ve won every Premiership game, you have drawn with Munster and only lost by four to the French champions, it’s so easy not to want to over-react to things.
“I think in hindsight, we never really hit our straps coming out of that Premiership Rugby Cup period and with the internationals away. We scrapped a win in the last few seconds up at Bristol, it was a weird game against Gloucester in the Premiership where se scored two long-range tries in a bit of a slugfest, and then we weren’t great at Harlequins and then we lost to Gloucester at home in Europe.
“It wasn’t really until we sat down this week, just a few little things have dripped away from maybe our focus, but the interesting thing is by talking about those two things - and I’m not going to tell you what they are - but it wasn’t our scrum, wasn’t our line-out, it wasn’t our maul, it wasn’t our pick-and-go, it was other Exeter Chiefs qualities. Then, what happens?
“All of a sudden, we get a couple of pick-and-go scores, our scrum looks dominant, our line-out maul is functioning, it really is one of those things that shows how rounded the game is. However, there is never one answer to one thing. If you get two or three of your basic qualities right, then the fundamentals of your game start to stand up again and that’s what happened tonight.”
Baxter’s hopes last week’s re-focus will now act as a driver for the rest of the season, which continues next Saturday with their top-of-the-table clash against Saracens in the Gallagher Premiership at Sandy Park.
“The key now for us is to move on,” said Baxter. “Just because we won tonight doesn’t mean all of a sudden we’re a dominant side in the Heineken Cup. We weren’t last week and we weren’t a couple of months ago over in Castres. Nothing flips that quickly. What we have to do is enjoy tonight, because sometimes if you put a bit of pressure on yourselves - and I don’t mind putting my hand up and saying I have put pressure on the team to do better in Europe - the one thing you sometimes forget to do along with that pressure is enjoy yourself.
“As I said to the lads, I know we have a big game against Saracens next week, but stop, draw breath and enjoy tonight. I am just going to let them focus on that for now and then we will move on and re-visit things again on Monday and make sure they stay in place for the next game.”
