Baxter's joy at Welsh win

By Mark Stevens

Delighted Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter said hard work put in during pre-season by his players and coaches had clearly paid dividends as the Devon club kicked-off their Aviva Premiership campaign in record-breaking style.

The Chiefs ran in seven tries during their convincing 52-0 victory over newly-promoted London Welsh at the Kassam Stadium.

No.8 Thomas Waldrom claimed two tries on his debut, whilst Dave Ewers, Sam Hill, Ian Whitten, Jack Arnott and Chrysander Botha (pictured) also weighed in with further touchdowns.

Irishman Gareth Steenson provided a faultless display of goal kicking as he converted Exeter’s opening six tries - and fellow playmaker Henry Slade did the remainder of the damage with a first-half penalty and a conversion after the break to put the Chiefs through the 50-point barrier for the first time in the top flight.

It was clear to see the satisfaction on the face of Baxter at the final whistle.

“We got a lot of things right today,” said Baxter. “I have to give a lot of credit to Ali Hepher, our attack coach, as he’s worked on a lot of things in pre-season. Sometimes you have to keep the faith when things don’t always go right from minute one, but the boys certainly rammed it home for him today.

“I thought the efforts of individual players and how much we wanted to play, plus things Ali put together in pre-season, really came off out there today. I thought we also showed a lot of fight in defence and if anything that last minute of play, when we were on our own line, kind of epitomised the effort and energy we brought today and that kind of moulded everything together for us.”

Having led 17-0 at the break, it was during the second half where the power and the precision of the Chiefs really came to the fore.

Indeed, Baxter believes his squad - which was minus the likes of key stars such as Dean Mumm, Jack Nowell, Phil Dollman, Tom Johnson and Luke Cowan-Dickie due to injury - underlined the strength and quality that now exists within the ranks, as well as the fitness levels the players have worked tirelessly on during pre-season.

“We think we’re a very hard working side and we think we’re fit,” continued Baxter.  “But to do all that, you also have to try and wear the opposition down. Looking at the game, it was tough out there for a while and although we scored points at regular intervals, it was a very good contest for a while.

“We tried to up the tempo, keep it high and felt by almost breaking ourselves, we might break the opposition at some stage. That’s a little bit what happened in the end and those efforts are what brought us our points ultimately. Right now I’m delighted with the effort from the players because they have put in a big stint in pre-season. Also I’m pleased for this group because there are a few heads missing and you could have some doubts over decision-making, but they went out there, stuck at it and by doing that they got their just rewards.”

Among those to shine during an impressive display was summer signing Ryan Caldwell (pictured), who picked up the Aviva Man of the Match award at the final whistle.

The former Bath lock may not have got on the scoresheet, but his all-round efforts were clear to see as he went about his on-field business with aplomb.

“We could not have asked for a better start,” he said. “We came out and everything seemed to go well. The game plan that we have been trying to get sorted over the last couple of months in pre-season really came together.

“High tempo games are what it’s all about for us, but we’ll go back and look and see what we can improve because we have a massive game versus Leicester Tigers next week.”