Baxter's joy at Euro win

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter believes his side are making "big steps forward" in their development as they made it back-to-back wins in the Heineken Cup with success over visiting Scarlets at Sandy Park.

Having defeated the Welsh region 22-16 seven days earlier on their own turf, Baxter again watched on with glowing satisfaction as his troops secured a 30-20 outcome in their latest European encounter.

Tries from Ian Whitten, Simon Alcott and James Scaysbrook, together with another 15 points from the boot of fly-half Gareth Steenson, proved sufficient enough to overcome a stubborn resistance from the Scarlets, who themselves replied with converted tries from Ken Owens and Scott Williams, plus a further six points from Aled Thomas.

The victory - Exeter's seventh in as many games - not only ensured they maintained their impressive recent form, but kept alive any hopes the Devon club have of qualifying when Heineken Cup action resumes again next month.

Before those final two dates with unbeaten Pool 5 leaders Clermont Auvergne and defending champions Leinster, the Chiefs must first return to Premiership action, where upcoming clashes with Gloucester, Bath and Northampton Saints will be of the utmost importance.

"We're taking some big steps forward as a club," said Baxter. "We have backed up our first win in the Heineken Cup with another in front of our own fans.

"However, the next two Heineken Cup games we can put to bed for a while now because we have some very important Premiership rugby to take care of. If we don't take care of that we would be in danger of letting our season fall flat a little because we are in a nice place now, ticking along quite well, but showing some consistency and improvement in some areas but getting a little dented in others.

"But as long as we keep fighting to take those steps foward then I wil be very happy."

Indeed, having seen his side claim another seasonal scalp in front of a sizeable crowd at Sandy Park, Baxter believes there is still more to come from his players as they head into the New Year.

"I'm confident we can play better, which I just told the guys is always a nice position to be in," added the Exeter leader. "There was a lot of endeavour out there and a lot of hard work and sometimes you have got to graft yourself through to a win, which is what we did today.

"Again we got a bit of a flying start, played some good pressure rugby and created a very good try early on. Then some more pressure rugby earned us a charge down, which provided another try for Simon Alcott.

"Those were defining moments in the game, but then we did a typical Exeter thing of chucking the ball around a little bit and went off plan and it allowed the Scarlets to come back at us. However, it is not the worst fault to be ambitious."

Having made six changes to his winning line-up from that which had won at the Parc Y Scarlets the week previous, not only was Baxter able to rest a few of his battered warriors, but at the same time he was able to get another group of stars some quality game time under their belts.

"We were missing some experienced players out there, yet still we won a tough game of rugby," continued Baxter. "All in all, it has been another good day for us."

The only real downside for the Chiefs was the sight of England international Tom Johnson (pictured) being forced from the field in the second half with a rib injury. The back-row forward will be assessed on Monday by the club's medical staff as to the severity of his injury. However, Ben White did make a successful return to the side following a spell out with a knee injury.