Mixed emotions for Baxter

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter admitted he was left with "mixed emotions" after seeing his slip to a narrow 9-6 defeat against Leinster in their first-ever Heineken Cup fixture.

Pitted in the so-called 'Group of Death' against the reigning champions, French giants Clermont Auvergne and Welsh region Scarlets, the Chiefs came within a whisker of snatching a share of the spoils in their debut outing.

Exeter's Argentine fly-half Ignacio Mieres had the opportunity to ensure a draw with the very last kick of the game, but sadly his penalty from just shy of 50 metres drifted wide of the mark.

It was a bitter pill for the Devonians to swallow, particularly as they had contributed so much against their more illustrious hosts, but Baxter was quick to salute the effort of all his players.

"There were large parts of our display which were very, very good," he said. "When you play pretty well, and you come pretty close, it is disappointing not to finish the job off.

"We talk every week about performances, and if you put one in, you are going to be there or thereabouts, and we were today. We came up a little bit short, and sometimes you have just got to take that on the chin."

In an absorbing contest, one in which defences ruled supreme, it took three penalties from Irish international Jonny Sexton to ensure Leinster scraped home against the valiant Chiefs, who themselves replied with a penalty in each half from fly-half Gareth Steenson.

Had Mieres' last-gasp effort found its way over, few inside the RDS could have complained about Exeter's end reward. As it turned out, however, the Aviva Premiership club had to settle for a creditable losing bonus point.

Baxter added: "I don’t think you can ever say you deserve anything from a game. You have just got to work extremely hard, and if your moments come, you have got to try and take them.

"We created a few moments we didn’t quite see off today, but Leinster are a dangerous side, and for quite a large part of the second half, they had us under a great amount of pressure, and we struggled to deal with that at times. However, in terms of fighting spirit, working hard, and playing some good rugby, today had everything from us really, other than probably enough points."

The Chiefs turned in an excellent first-half display and were level pegging at 3-3 at the break.

"We had a good intensity about us," said the Exeter chief. "I thought we were a little bit hesitant in the first ten minutes, and didn’t quite make the killer passes we maybe could have done to make things a little bit easier for ourselves, and that is probably down to just a little bit of nervousness, but once we settled down, we looked relatively comfortable.

"But you have got to remember that Leinster have had a bit of an up and down start to the season, and don’t get their Irish internationals immediately and didn’t really get the run of fixtures into this game that we have had.

"We have had six very tough fixtures, and probably rolled into this game pretty battle hardened, and it stood us in good stead because we were capable of playing at a high tempo. We have got a very important losing bonus point, which in these pools can prove crucial, and we didn’t let Leinster get a bonus point, so it is a three-point deficit from this game, and the reality is, when we play Leinster at home, we will be battling to overturn that deficit.

"There are a lot of positives for us, bonus points away from home can be very important, and our level of performance was really, really good."

Exeter's display also drew plaudits from Baxter's opposite number, Joe Schmidt, who admitted his side had used their 'get out of jail card' for the competition in round one.

"I am not pleased with our performance, but we knew how tough it was going to be," said Schmidt. "I think a few people probably underestimated what Exeter would bring, but we certainly didn’t. It was no surprise to us how tough they were to break down. I think they are a formidable side, they are greater than the sum of their parts, they are a very unified group, well coached and well organised.

"It is not often we get into our opponents’ 22 four times in the first half and get nothing from it, and that’s down to us. We have to be more accurate than that. You have to be patient enough to build scores against a very good team."