Chiefs targeting top six spot

 

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter believes his side can still claim a top six finish in this season's Aviva Premiership despite seeing them slip to a narrow 12-9 defeat at home to Leicester Tigers.

Toby Flood's four penalties - the last of which came ten minutes from time - ensured the Tigers became only the second side this season to claim a top flight victory at Sandy Park against the Chiefs, who replied with three penalties of their own from fly-half Gareth Steenson.

Even then the Devon club could easily have claimed a share of the spoils in the dying moments. However, Steenson's last-gasp penalty chance - given after Leicester replacement Martin Castrogiovanni was pulled up for dropping a scrum just inside his own half - dropped just short of the mark and the Tigers were able to head home with the points.

Although disappointed with the end outcome, Baxter feels his team - who lie eighth in the standings, but just five points off the top six - can finish their campaign on a high and ensure they remain amongst European rugby's elite again next season.

"I still think finishing in the top half of the Premiership is achieveable," said Baxter. "Everyone's got different run-ins and teams are playing each other. There's still a lot of points to play for, there's not a big gap to Bath and not a big gap to the next team [Wasps], so we've just got to string a few good results together.

"Yes, I am disappointed with the result, but if you look at the overall performance, massive parts of what we wanted to do held up really well. The key for us is to make sure we are that competitive in every game we play against the big sides in the Premiership."

Indeed, Baxter praised his opponents' match-winning knowhow after Flood's decisive 70th minute penalty proved the only score of the second half.

"It's why they win things because that was a high-pressure game with 15 minutes to go and they turned the screw better than we did," he added. "They controlled territory and possession a little better and they didn't make those tempestuous decisions.

"We had a kickable shot at goal and Haydn Thomas tapped and went and we got turned over; and in the next passage of play they put some pressure on us and we got another penalty, and instead of kicking and exiting and keeping possession, we tapped again and got turned over, and from that piece of play they kicked their match-winning penalty.

"At 9-9, we could have been the team taking control and heaping the pressure on them, and we actually took the pressure off them, and that is a little bit disappointing, but we were still in the fight in the last quarter of the game, and that is what we have got to be doing.’

"We should be having a shot at goal when the scores are level. Instead we tapped and tapped again. Those are little things that perhaps we need to learn. I said to the guys the majority of what we did was pretty good."

Baxter, though, saw enough positives in his side's display against a star-studded Tigers line-up to give him confidence for the final few weeks of the season.

He continued: "Sometimes you come through, and sometimes you don’t, and in a similar game last year, when we did not play so well against Leicester as we did tonight, we got a charge-down try and won the game on the back of it.

"That is the sort of thing we needed today to make the game go our way and we didn’t quite make that happen, and found ourselves on the back of a close loss.

"It shows we have taken good strides as we were up against a full-on Leicester team today, with all their internationals playing, though I know they have not had the greatest preparation because they have had players away with England, but they were desperate to get points."

With Worcester away next up for the Chiefs, followed by encounters against London Irish (home), London Wasps (away) and Gloucester (home), Baxter believes the push for the top six is still very much on for a number of clubs.

Baxter said: "We are going to go out and try and win as many games as we can. We have a tough game next at Worcester. We put in a decent performance today and we have to make sure that level of performance stays high.

"It's still there for us. The top part of the league is where we really want to be on a consistent basis and we can still attack that and go after it with some excitement. We aren't looking over our shoulders and worrying what is going on behind us."