Future is exciting, says Baxter

by Mark Stevens
10/4/17

Rob Baxter wants his Exeter Chiefs side to make the most of their opportunity having booked themselves a place in the end of season play-offs with victory over local rivals Bristol on Saturday.

For a second successive fixture, the Chiefs had to come from behind to secure all five points against the Aviva Premiership’s basement club.

A brace from Thomas Waldrom, plus further scores for Olly Woodburn, Geoff Parling and Ian Whitten, were the highlights in a display that certainly showed plenty of individual promise, but was at times missing a collective ingredient from the Devon club.

Bristol, it has to be said, played their part in an entertaining derby encounter, which yielded four tries for the visitors from Will Hurrell, Jason Woodward, Gavin Henson and Mitch Eadie.

It was, however, not enough to stop the Chiefs, who remain second in the standings with just three rounds of the scheduled season remaining.

“It was a tough old game out there,” said Baxter post-match. “It would be very easy to be critical of your own team without giving the opposition any real credit. I thought Bristol came here today, they caused us a few issues, they got onto ball when we were sloppy, and they broke away and scored the points, so I’m not going to take that away from them.

“I thought our intensity levels were good and much better than against Sale in the last game. We saw that by the way we started. We scored early and we carried hard. Whether mentally we were where we needed to be, I just don’t know at this stage.

“In any game when you go points down it becomes a real battle and you’re always working hard to claw your way back. In a lot of ways I was quite pleased with how we dealt with going behind, just because we did not panic and we didn’t self implode.

“As I said, we were physical, we ran hard, and we controlled long periods of the game, so our stats will be good in that respect. What I need to look at is were we as accurate and as fluid as we should have been?

“Some of that I know will be down to our skills, our communication and, in certain areas, a little bit of inexperience. That said, Bristol played their part and they snapped up every chance that came along. Sometimes when it’s like that in games, you feel it may not be your day. Thankfully, we eventually fought our way through things, we got the five points and we’re still second in the table.”

Now that a last four place has been assured, Baxter wants his players to play with a freedom and excitement that takes the pressure off them heading into the final weeks of the season.

“At the moment it feels like we’re scrabbling to stay in second place,” added Baxter. “What I want from our guys is for them to be get excited about being second. Where we are currently, they should be flying and excited, not worrying about who is around them and what we might lose.  What we need to do is move on quickly and make the most of this opportunity.

“For me, this is a great part of the season to be involved in, so let’s go out there and maximise it for all we can.”