Baxter 'frustrated' after loss

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter refused to be too downbeat despite seeing his side slip to a narrow 24-21 defeat to Northampton Saints in round two of this season's Aviva Premiership.

In their first away-day of the new season, the Chiefs were unable to prevent Jim Mallinder's Saints outfit from claiming maximum points thanks to tries from Christian Day, Phil Dowson, Luther Burrell and Dylan Hartley.

However, they did leave a sun-drenched Franklin's Gardens with at least some reward of their own as Matt Jess' third try of the campaign ensuring a well deserved losing bonus point.

Centre Phil Dollman claimed Exeter's other try, whilst fly-half Ignacio Mieres fired over three penalties, as well as a conversion to complete the Devon club's scoring.

"I'm not too disappointed, I'm more frustrated than anything," said Baxter at the final whistle. "We were in a tough Premiership game of rugby today and we were right in it until the very end. Yes we've come away with a losing bonus point for our efforts, but I was also frustrated with a couple of things we did.

"At the start we did things which we said we weren't going to do, like kicking away our first two pieces of possession, which is what you don't do against Northampton and give them the start points they wanted. But once we got that out of our system, we looked a good side, we did what we said we were going to do, and we kept the game fairly fluid and with good tempo.

"As I said, I'm frustrated with certain aspects of our game, but on the whole I'm pretty pleased with the majority of our play. We have come to Franklin's Gardens twice in the Premiership before and the truth is although we got a losing bonus point in the first meeting here, last season we were well beaten and ended up on the end of a 33-3 scoreline.

"Today we were much improved and I thought we were competitive throughout the game. There were times near the end where it all got a bit edgy for Northampton, so in the big scheme of things that's easily our best performance up here. For me, that's a positive in itself to take away from the game and says to me that we are learning as we go through each year in the Premiership."

Although the defeat saw the Chiefs lose their unbeaten tag for the new season, Baxter insisted the game had highlighted plenty for him and his team of coaches to work on ahead of this weekend's trip to newly-promoted London Welsh.

"There are a few little things to work on and discuss this week," added Baxter. "Just stood here I could probably name five or six things that we can go away and talk to the players about and explain to them the repercussions of what can happen or didn't happen from certain passages of play. As always we will learn from it all and as long as we keep learning from these things, one day we will come from here having turned a half-time lead into a win."

Northampton's latest success ensured not only did they preserve their unbeaten home record against the Chiefs, but sealed a fourth win in five starts against Baxter's side.

Next up for the Chiefs is Sunday's visit to Oxford's Kassam Stadium where winless London Welsh lie in wait.

Like Exeter two seasons ago, few have given the Exiles any hope of surviving their first-ever season in the top flight. However, Baxter is well aware of the threat the Welshmen will pose and has warned his troops to prepare for a stern battle.

"In my eyes they are the most dangerous team in the league," warned Baxter. "I think with our own experiences, we know what they are fighting for; we know they will have had a good long break from Friday night; and they'll be learning from their time in the Premiership.

"My feeling is teams become more dangerous the longer they stay in the Premiership, not less dangerous. Some people tend to think teams get battered, worn down and run over by it all, well there is a proof in the pudding somewhere and that's Exeter. You don't get battered and worn down, you stand up and you can fight and get a little bit better each week.

"That's what London Welsh will be training hard to do. They'll be aiming to get better than last week and they'll be aiming to get stuck into Exeter because they know they were playing us two or three years ago and they weren't worried about it when they played us then and why would they worry about it when they play us now.

"We know we are going to have a good, solid week and if anything this is the crucial week of the three in a lot of ways and I would be very disappointed if we didn't get our attitude just right because we are going to have to get it right to get anything out of the game."