Victory pleases Baxter

By Mark Stevens
17/9/2016

Rob Baxter spoke of his delight after watching his Exeter Chiefs side record their first Aviva Premiership win of the season with a 36-25 success over visiting Harlequins.

England hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie led the charge for the Chiefs, scoring a hat-trick of tries alongside a brace from Australian full-back Lachie Turner.

Skipper Gareth Steenson, making his first start of the new campaign, weighed in with the remainder of the home points, courtesy of four conversions and a penalty.

Harlequins countered with tries of their own through Rob Buchanan, Danny Care and Charlie Walker, while fly-half Tim Swiel plundered ten points with the boot after he was called up to replace injured playmakers Nick Evans and Ruairdh Jackson.

The day, though, belonged to Baxter and his team, who were desperate for an upturn in fortunes following back-to-back losses against Wasps and defending champions Saracens.

“We did some good stuff and scored some good tries,” said Baxter. “Were we great for the whole game? No.

“Will we take it? Of course we will.

“We had a little bit of pressure on us today, going into the third round of the Premiership bottom of the table, you can’t run away from that.  On the whole, I thought we performed very well and brought a lot of energy to the game.

“Although we were a little bit disappointed with parts of the second half, overall it’s a good foundation, a good start point to kick on from. We have one or two issues to look at, but we can work on them and it’s something we can look to improve on pretty quickly.

“I’ll be honest and say it wasn’t a vintage performance from us, but we did score some great tries and great credit to the players because they have been under pressure this week.”

The first of Turner’s two tries set the Chiefs on their way before Cowan-Dickie was gifted his first when he latched onto a loose line-out from opposite number Buchanan.

Turner added try number three woith the game’s best move, then just before the break Cowan-Dickie was at it again, burrowing over from close range after he fellow forwards had driven a line-out towards the line.

The young Cornishman, who impressed in front of watching England head coach Eddie Jones the week previous, was at it again early in the second half, claiming his third of the game when he finished off another well-drilled line-out move from the home side.

His on-field actions not only won him the obligatory sponsors’ man of the match award, but will have been noted by England forwards coach Neal Hatley, who was among the Sandy Park crowd.

“Luke is playing flat out,” remarked Baxter. “He was very good last week against Saracens and he was outstanding today. He’s bang on form at the moment and he’s one of those guys who is always in and around the ball.

“Like I said, he’s playing very well at the moment and hopefully that will continue going into the Autumn internationals.”

Cowan-Dickie has certainly made the most of the rules changes to working the ball back through the line-out. However, Thomas Waldrom is sure to be looking at ways of rediscovering his scoring perch, having topped the try charts for the past two seasons.

“People will be aware the maul laws have changed this season,” explained Baxter. ‘If Thomas is first on the ball it’s unlikely he’s the guy who will end up on the ball. It’s obvious hookers are more likely to be on the ball last because they throw in and they join the maul last.

“Luke’s tries are more about the new set-up, but I’m sure Thomas will want to become a hooker in the next 12 months to ensure he scores a few more tries!”

Tries aside, the Chiefs had to withstand not only a late rally from the Londoners, which yielded tries for Care and Walker, but also a red card for prop Tomas Francis for careless use of the boot.

Baxter added: “I’m not going to be too disappointed with the fact they came back into the game in the second half because they have dangerous players in their side who can score tries.

“Yes, we’re a little frustrated with the second half because it looked like after we scored that try early on we could really have accelerated through the game. Instead we relaxed a little too much and let them back into it.  In the end, though, we came through and we weathered the threat and a red card to come away with five points.”

Asked for his take on the dismissal of Francis – the first Exeter player to be shown a red card in the Premiership – Baxter said: “One thing I can’t deny is that all Premiership clubs were told that if you flash a foot into a ruck and it connects with someone’s head, there is a chance you will get a red card.

“Whether it’s accidental or not, players have been told not to flash their feet into rucks, especially from the side. It’s happened, Tom’s shin has connected with Danny Care’s head, so I can’t criticise the referee because there was a directive at the start of the year.

“How it now goes for the rest of the season, I just don’t know because no one has been in that scenario yet where it has been thrown in as a straight red card.”

The Welsh international will now await his fate from RFU disciplinary chiefs, while his team-mates must now ready themselves for next Friday’s short trip to newly-promoted Bristol at Ashton Gate.