Baxter praises Exeter's character
By Mark Stevens
3/3/19
Rob Baxter insisted his side had come through a ‘real test of character’ after they maintained their position at the top of the Gallagher Premiership with a 20-14 victory away to Sale Sharks.
Tries from Ollie Devoto, Don Armand and Sean Lonsdale, coupled with five points from the boot of Gareth Steenson, paved the way for their latest success which came in a full-blooded encounter at the AJ Bell.
The Chiefs bossed the first half to lead 15-0 at the turn, but then had to put in a solid defensive shift during the second period as the Sharks came back into the fight.
“Looking at the body count come the end, you can say it’s been fully committed encounter from both sides,” said Baxter. “We knew it was going to be tough here today, just because Sale have shown a bit of form of later and they have been playing really well.
“Yes, it was tough and physical out there but that is what you expect in the Premiership.You obviously don’t prepare for tight games, because you want to try and win nice games of rugby, but the reality was that was a ding-dong battle, like we have had here for a number of years now.
“At the end of the game it was see-sawing and it was coming down to one score in it, and it was about who could hold it together and who make the least number of mistakes, but we’ve come through it and we’ve shown a real test of character, so I am really pleased with today.”
From the outset, both sides tore into one another, producing a physical encounter in which neither side were never really able to gain some significant momentum.It was, however, the table-toppers who were more effective in the first half, claiming a quality finish from Devoto for their opening try, before Armand rumbled over from close range for their second.
The Sharks countered with a Sam James try midway through the second half, before replacement Lonsdale glided over for Exeter’s third.Sale, however, were far from finished and when Will Cliff scooted in under the posts late on, it set up a grandstand finale.
The Chiefs, though, had enough in their defensive reserves to keep them at bay and see out the match, which finished with an accidental clash of heads between Cliff and Exeter’s Dave Ewers.
Baxter added: “To not concede for as long as did was crucial. Just because when Sale did score, they started to score quickly. Overall, it was one of those games where we can look through it in detail and start to pick out lots of little errors, but those little errors were covered up by the fact that we just got on with and we showed an incredible amount of character.
“When you do that, often good things happen and that’s what happened today. We worked extremely hard, we’ve been through some difficult moment, and we’ve come out with the win.
“As I said, there were two fully committed sides out there, and I thought Sale showed an awful lot of full-blooded commitment to the contact area, both in attack and defence, and that made it difficult for us to get real momentum, but I think we did the same to Sale as well.”
Next up for the Chiefs is a trip to Worcester Warriors on Saturday and Baxter is predicting another challenging day at the office for his side, particularly as the Midlanders are scrapping for points at the other end of the table.
“I’ve just said to the guys that because of the efforts they’ve put it in today, we’ll give them an extra day of to recover on Monday,” explained Baxter. “But then when they come in on Tuesday, we’ll go again, have two big, energetic training days, and get a good fix of how we want to play against Worcester.
“Right now, victories like today are what is most important. We don’t want to be looking around at other results and banking on other teams to help us out. We want to be controlling our own destiny and fighting like a side who want to be in that top four, and who want to be going all out to secure that home semi-final.”