Baxter rues missed opportunity

By Mark Stevens
26/6/21

Rob Baxter insisted lessons would be learnt by his Exeter Chiefs side in the wake of their 40-38 defeat to Harlequins in the Gallagher Premiership Final.

With the Devonians looking to replicate their title-winning success of last season, it was the Londoners who were celebrating come the end, Louis Lynagh’s brace of tries in the final ten minutes steering them to a famous victory at Twickenham.

For the Chiefs, it was a bitter pill to swallow following an absorbing contest in this end of season showpiece at HQ.

The game ebbed and flowed throughout as both sides continually hit back at one another in a powerful slug-fest between two of the Premiership’s heavyweight contenders.

In the end, tries from Jonny Gray, Alec Hepburn, Sam Simmonds, Ollie Devoto and Stuart Hogg proved not enough for the Chiefs, who themselves were picked off by scores from Wilco Louw, Alex Dombrandt, Andre Esterhuizen and Lynagh (2), as well as an early penalty try.

Speaking after the match, the Chiefs’ Director of Rugby could not hide his disappointment in his post-match assessment. He said: “Quite frankly we weren’t good enough.We conceded 40 points and that tells its own story

"We came into the game with the best defence in the league and we didn’t show that today. We had our moments when the Exeter plan was overcoming the Harlequins plan, but they have scored 40 points.

“I can’t sit here and say we were a horrible team to play against today - and that is probably my biggest disappointment. Any time we got a score we were then relatively passive and allowed them back into the game.

“There weren’t those blocks when we score, take back control and then score again. It just never happened in the game.

“The key to breaking teams who want to play is how good you are defensively, how disciplined you are, how hard you are working in those areas, we never really did that.

“A lot of that is great credit to Harlequins who stayed true to themselves and drove it really hard and they probably outworked us in areas we should have taken charge of.

“This is definitely a learning for us and the players have learned it in the toughest way possible.”