'We'll learn from this' - Baxter

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter says lessons will be learnt after he watched his side lose their unbeaten home record in the Aviva Premiership to Northampton Saints.

The East Midlanders completed the league double over the Chiefs as they emerged triumphant from Sandy Park with a 30-19 victory, courtesy of tries from Ken Pisi, Soane Tonga'uiha and GJ Van Velze, plus 15 points from the boot of fly-half Stephen Myler.

The Chiefs countered with a Sireli Naqelevuki try, plus kicks from Gareth Steenson and Ignacio Mieres, but it was sadly not enough to gain any reward for the Devon club who have now failed to win in their last three top flight fixtures.

A month away from the Premiership now awaits Baxter's side, who first face Heineken Cup dates with Clermont Auvergne and Leinster, before resuming LV= Cup duty with clashes against Bath and the Saints.

However, Baxter insists the challenges that lie in wait are just what his team need as they look to progress forward on three different fronts.

"I don't think we could ask for a better environment to challenge ourselves," he said. "We've played well in the Heineken Cup and this is what the season is all about for us. We'll look to improve and move forward because we want to be in the top half and challenging for that top four - and we'll learn lessons, like today, about how we do that."

Despite dominating territory and possession for long periods, the Chiefs again failed to make their superiority tell in key areas and that is something Baxter and his coaches will be keen to address over the coming weeks and months.

He added: "You are always disappointed when you lose a game but the bigger disappointment was that we were in it for large parts and I am not sure that we appreciated the pressure that we probably had on Northampton for large periods of the game.

"Northampton had a three or four-point lead on a number of occasions with plenty of time on the clock - and we were the team that was playing and being able to control possession for periods but we almost played until we made the error.

"We played to the halfway line a lot of times today, created a lot of space for us to kick into and play a territory, pressure type battle, but then we never took those opportunities. Instead we decided to keep playing and pushing.

"For us - and where we are striving to go - we need to be able to flip that switch between being the team that wants to attack, wants to be ambitious and hunting to keep possession and breakdown opposition, but then also looks up and says there is a decision to be made here and we make the right one.

"That has always been the battle for us since we came into the Premiership. Becoming that complete side is what it is all about, but I think Northampton did it better than us today. They got their territory normally from our errors or us conceding a penalty. That said, I thought large parts of our game held up well and scoring points is not a problem for us, but we didn't control enough territory and possession - and we didn't deal with the pressure situations as well as we could have."