Baxter bemoans slow start

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter bemoaned his side's slow start as they suffered yet more heartache at the hands of Westcountry rivals Bath at the Recreation Ground.

Not since 1978 have Exeter recorded victory against their nearest and dearest - and that wait will continue for another fortnight at least following this 37-15 defeat.

Converted tries from Matt Banahan and Matt Garvey not only gave the home side a dream start, but lay the foundations for them to record a bonus point victory courtesy of further tries from Martin Roberts and Charlie Beech.

The Chiefs countered with second half tries from James Phillips and Greg Bateman, but it was never enough to save them in the Roman City.

"Uncharacteristically, we were slow out of the blocks and that made the whole afternoon difficult for us," said Baxter. "I think our first couple sets of defence were as poor as I've seen us defend all season and when you get that wrong against a good Bath side, they make you pay.

"We definitely paid in that first quarter and that kind of dictated how the rest of the game went because we could never really create any pressure moments for it to be a real contest. It wasn't like we could put a bit of pressure on; knock over a penalty and get the game squared up - we were always chasing the game, so that was disappointing from our perspective."

In what was a whirlwind start for Bath, Banahan and Garvey both crashed over inside the opening four minutes and from that point on it proved an uphill struggle for the Devonians.

"Credit to Bath, they went for the game from the very start," added Baxter. "That's what we like to talk about doing, but they did it to us today. As I said, if you miss individual tackles, if you get some system things wrong, and the opposition team gets on the front foot, it's going to be tough for you."

After such a fine start to the tournament with a 19-5 victory over holders Harlequins, this latest reverse has seen the Chiefs drop to the bottom of their pool behind Leicester Tigers, Sale Sharks and Cardiff Blues.

In the New Year they will tackle Ospreys (home) and Worcester Warriors (away) and know nothing less than two victories will be enough to keep their dreams alive of advancing to the latter stages, including the final itself which will be played at Sandy Park on Sunday, March 16.

Although disappointed with this latest outcome, the Chiefs leader admitted there had been plenty of positives to take from the past two weeks, most notably getting a number of his squad vital game time.

"We have played a lot of players in the last four games, two different groups almost, and a lot of these guys have done very well," continued Baxter. "What you have to remember is some of these guys may not have performed as well as they would have like to today, but they did put in good performances last week against what was a very good Quins' side.

"Obviously we approach the LV to try and win games, but we also use it to develop players and things within the side as well. We're well aware we can't expect it to be perfect all the time, particularly as most of this team have not played a huge amount of rugby together.  However, you can expect individuals to be on the money a little bit more than some of them were today and that's obviously something we will address. We will look at the things we can work on team-wise and we will address any issues on why a few individuals may have been a bit off.

"I am sure once we have reviewed things there will be a few stand-out perfomances and I'd imagine there are a few guys that have done very little wrong and added something to the side. The problem is in a team game when there were a few errors and individual mistakes like today, collectively you all suffer. That said, the players are aware they have to get their little bits right and today we probably didn't get too many of those bits right for us to win the game."

And Baxter confirmed once the review of this clash was completed, the focus of everyone at the Chiefs would switch immediately to the impending Premiership visit of Saracens this Saturday (3pm).

"It's far from the end of the world for us," continued the coach. "As I said, we'll get the review done on this and then prepare for what will be a huge game against Saracens. They are a good side and we've always had good games against them over the years. Of course we have to be a lot better for that game, but I'm confident we will be. Today is a bit of a slip up, but we are a team in good form. We are not fourth in the Peremiership because we are a poor side,  nor are we top of our Heineken Cup group because we are a poor side, we just  didn't play as well as we would have like today."