'We need to move on' - Baxter
By Mark Stevens
10/4/21
Disappointed Exeter Chiefs Director of Rugby, Rob Baxter, says it’s important his team put to bed quickly their Heineken Champions Cup exit, before turning their attention back to the defence of their Gallagher Premiership title.
On a tough day for the Devonians, Baxter could only watch on as his Chiefs surrendered their European crown at the quarter-final stages, going down 34-22 to Leinster at Sandy Park.
Tom O’Flaherty quick fire double helped the home side storm into a 14-0 lead, but by the break the four-time European winners had overturned that deficit to lead 20-14.
Dave Ewers restored Exeter’s lead just after the restart, but the visitors were not to be denied and having claimed first half scores through James Lowe and Jordan Larmour (2), they were indebted to the boot of replacement Ross Byrne, who kicked a further 17 points.
“It was a fantastic game to be involved in,” said Baxter after the final whistle. “We had a great first 10 minutes, then the momentum shifted away for a fair chunk of time. Half-time let us just settle down, and we started the second half really well and got ourselves right back into contention.
“The bigger story of the game – and you have got to give Leinster credit – was they kept an intensity in most areas that meant we never really settled, and that’s great credit to them and probably a little frustrating from us.
“You could probably see the times when we just went off-script, and we started going from side to side and got turned over. The three or four times we got in really good shape, we scored tries.And I think that is the thing that will frustrate us the most when we review the game. When we actually played, we created quite a lot of pressure on Leinster.
“A lot of that is credit to Leinster, but some of it we will be very frustrated and disappointed about. The moments added up. Normally, we would like to say we are the team that creates that pressure in most areas and it adds up for us, but today it added up for Leinster.”
Indeed, when Baxter and his squad review the footage again next week, they will be acutely aware that they had the opportunities to make their mark but, uncharacteristically they failed to drive them home like they would normally do.
“If we’re honest, we lost our composure a lot earlier in the game then we would have liked,” added Baxter. “We started to chase the game and ultimately that cost us the opportunity to get something.
“Defensively, we also got soft a couple of times and that allowed them to score in the corner. If you start to add up those things - and others - it was the story of the game and we did that a few too many times today.”
As Baxter rightly pointed out, the Chiefs can ill-afford to stew on their loss for too long. Instead, they need to regroup quickly and prepare for two huge Premiership games against Wasps and Bristol Bears in the coming weeks.
“Like we have done in the past, we have to use this game and this experience as a real learning process for us,” he continued. “These days there is a lot expected of us and we expect a lot of ourselves. However, this was only our third quarter-final – I think it was Leinster’s 16th. You have to keep going and keep going at it.
“I have got a very disappointed changing room in there, but we need to move on quickly. Right now it will see hard to focus on the Premiership, but come Monday we’ll come back in, we’ll freshen up, and we build towards Wasps because we have got to collect as many points in the Premiership as we can - because that competition is still wide open for a lot of sides.”