Baxter disappointed with loss

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter described his side's first-half display against Leicester Tigers as the most disappointing he had seen since the club had won promotion into the Aviva Premiership.

First half tries from Ben Youngs and Niki Goneva, together with five points from the boot of Toby Flood, gave the defending champions a comfortable 15-0 lead without them really having to do too much for their reward.

Baxter was less than impressed and having let his feelings be known to his players during the interval, the Chiefs were much improved in the second half. Fly-half Gareth Steenson landed three penalties for the home side, whilst Flood added a further two of his own, but by then the damage had already been inflicted on the wounded hosts.

He said: "I am far happier [after the game] than I was at half-time. I don't mind saying I think I was as angry as I have ever been whilst we have been in the Aviva Premiership. I don't mind the wins and the losses as such. You deal with those as they are going to happen, but you have always got to fire some shots and give yourself a chance. I said to the guys at half-time that, if I was a supporter watching that, I would think we were afraid.

"When I say that, I don't mean afraid of the physical contest, I mean afraid of making the game a contest and being brave enough to take teams on.

"You can't run every piece of ball you get but there were times where we had a bit of tempo and rather than be prepared to put a few phases together we kicked it away and were on the back foot.

"The second-half we had a lot more intensity and showed a lot more bravery and ultimately we won the second-half 9-6 and made it a real contest, but we have got what we deserved because of our first-half showing. You can't run away from that and I have told the guys that, at this stage, if it does not feel nice and exciting to be playing someone like Leicester, then we have got something wrong."

Baxter added: "We showed in the second half how effective that can be, even against Leicester. The fact is we are sat here now disappointed not to have scored two or three tries with the pressure we had on their line.

"I think if we had ran one home and got a losing bonus point that was probably all we could expect after our first-half performance. We have got what we deserved."