Baxter 'frustrated' after Saints loss

By Mark Stevens
1/10/2016

Rob Baxter admitted to feeling "frustrated" after he saw his Exeter Chiefs side slip to a narrow 20-19 defeat at Northampton Saints on Friday night.

Having dominated the opening quarter of the game, storming into a 13-0 lead thanks to a converted Olly Woodburn try and two penalties from Gareth Steenson, the visitors then allowed the Saints to hit back with two tries of their own in as many minutes.

Welsh international George North claimed the first, before turning chief provider for their second, which was finished off by centre Rory Hutchinson.

Down by a point at the break, the Chiefs twice led in the second half thanks to further efforts from Steenson, whose 14-point haul on the night took him past 2,000 in total for the Devon club.

Northampton, though, were far from finished and it was Steenson's opposite number, Harry Mallinder, who nailed two penalties of his own - alongside two first half conversions - that sealed a first home win of the season for the Midlanders.

Post-match, Baxter conceded Northampton's quickfire double had proved a pivotal moment in the contest, saying: "Credit to the players, they started the game really, really well and did a lot of the things we had practised and talked about.

"We kept good territory and possession pressure on Northampton, and we were coming up with the goods because of it. That little drop-off of focus that allowed their two tries to go in really hurt us, and it felt like we went from being really, really good to being quite poor for a period quite quickly, and that is a little bit frustrating.

"I think, at the end, it became a bit of a nervy battle between who was going to win it, and who was going to give up the loss, and in a way we gave that up, with a bit of a shaky line-out, and then we didn’t really get possession and territory back like we needed to for those last five or six minutes.

"Ultimately it kind of felt like a penalty, or a piece of pressure from Northampton, might be coming. It’s tough, but Northampton are a good side with good players, and they wanted to win as well, and you have got to give them some credit.

"They were working very hard out there, they were a bit nervy and a bit edgy and they didn’t want to lose, and it became that kind of a game in the second half, and unfortunately we just came up with one of two too many errors that meant the game became a one-kick match, and Northampton put the last one over."

Baxter agreed that Exeter, in a lot of ways, had played some of their best rugby of the season in the opening quarter, when they stunned the home crowd.

"We had great control, we kicked well and took territory, we created good pressure and had great discipline, the set piece was functioning well and we did exactly what we wanted to do, which was to quieten the crowd and create a bit of pressure on Northampton," he explained.

"But you have got to follow that through, and even if we had not kept it at 13-0, we certainly shouldn’t have shipped two scores so quickly, and that got the game back in the balance, and after that I don’t know if we ever really seized the game in both hands.

"We were managing our way along, and that sounds harsh because we had to work very, very hard doing that, but it didn’t feel like at any stage in the second half that we grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck."

Friday's loss means it's now three defeats in five matches for the Chiefs, but Baxter insists there is no need for panic in and around Sandy Park following a testing opening to the new campaign.

"We got a losing bonus point at Northampton last season and still finished second in the league. The important thing is to make sure we win next week,’ he said.

"If we beat Gloucester, we will potentially only be three or four points behind what we got out of this block of six games last year if you look at those teams in isolation. So there is no need for panic or starting to worry about our form. Our form is actually okay, and what we have got to do is keep knuckling down, and we will win games like this one later in the season.

"We have got some exciting games coming up, with Gloucester at home and then European Cup fixtures, and we should be focusing on getting excited about the next few weeks and not being too dour about things and ourselves."