Rob Baxter - Match Reaction
By Mark Stevens
19/9/21
Rob Baxter insists he and his Exeter Chiefs side would ‘lick their wounds’ in the aftermath of their 34-19 loss to Leicester Tigers in the opening round of this season’s Gallagher Premiership.
In what was a testing first day for last season’s beaten finalists, they were undone by a robust Tigers outfit, who sealed their success thanks to tries from George Steward, Harry Potter, Matt Scott and a brace from Nic Dolly.
In reply, the Chiefs countered with scores from Don Armand and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, plus a penalty try, but it was sadly not enough to secure any kind of reward from their trip to Welford Road.
As ever, the Chiefs Director of Rugby gave a measured assessment of his side’s performance at the final whistle, stating: “Look, every game you lose is disappointing. I thought Leicester were good value for their win today and thing for us is we need to move on and improve for next week.
“Today was not a game where you turn around and learn too many lessons from, because it wasn’t about that at the end of the day. The thing we have to do is look at ourselves and see what we can do better. That’s what we need to concentrate and focus on and move that into next week.”
Next up for the Chiefs is next Saturday’s visit of Northampton Saints, who themselves started their season on a high note with victory over Gloucester at Franklin’s Gardens.
Although shorn of a number of key first-team stars due to injury and unavailability, Baxter insisted there was still plenty within his stock to have recorded a success on their travels.
“This early part of the season, if anything I would describe it as a chance for a few men to grow within the side,” said Baxter. “It does offer a few of the guys an opportunity and what we want to see is if they are capable of doing that and taking ownership and leadership of things.
“Personally, I know there is a lot more in us and my frustration right now is that I’m not quite sure the guys believed they could flat our rip that game away from Leicester today. When you think like that, sometimes that can hurt you more than anything else but, if you do have that belief, than they stands you in a bigger and stronger position than anything else. For us as a team, that’s something we need to get into our system pretty quickly over these next few weeks.”
Although the Chiefs bossed territory and possession for large parts of the game, it was their failure to convert, but Leicester’s only ruthless edge which ultimately made the difference on the day.
“The message was pretty simple at half-time, we just said get back within seven points and that will start to create some scoreboard pressure,” explained Baxter. “We were heading that way, but then we failed to convert a few of our other chances. If you look at the game as a whole, Leicester’s tries came pretty quickly, whereas ours we had to do a fair bit of work to get them.”
Certainly, the Chiefs will look to redress the matter over the coming week and Baxter is confident that with time, his team will rediscover their winning formula.
“We will lick our wounds and move on, because that’s what you have to do in the Premiership,” he added. “Our story is not one of walking through Premiership games and getting to finals, you have to do special things to win games of rugby and right at this moment, we’ve not been special. We will, of course, learn to be special over the course of the season and I’m confident we are an improving picture.”