Baxter full of praise for Chiefs

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter admitted he could not have asked for anymore from his players as they slipped to a successive Heineken Cup defeat at the hands of reigning champions RC Toulon.

A week after going down 14-9 at Sandy Park, the star-studded French side again proved too strong for Baxter's men, winning the latest encounter 32-20 at the Stade Felix Mayol.

Again England World Cup winner Jonny Wilkinson played a decisive role in Toulon's success, coming off the bench to help his side claim maximum reward as he bagged the home side's all-important fourth try.

Earlier winger David Smith (2) and prop Xavier Chiocci had also crossed the whitewash, whilst Aussie fly-half Matt Giteau weighed in with the remainder of Toulon's points.

The Chiefs, though, never gave up and their on-field efforts saw them counter with tries from Don Armand and Ben White, together with further kicks from Henry Slade and Ceri Sweeney.

The defeat - Exeter's third in the competition this term - means qualification to the latter stages will now be a tall order, but Baxter remained upbeat about his side's showing in the aftermath of this latest fixture.

"We probably made a couple of defensive mistakes that really hurt us, and we definitely didn’t take a couple of try-scoring opportunities we worked hard to create," said Baxter. "We have been involved in a really good game of rugby again and come up a little bit short.

"With large parts of what we do, we are very competitive, and if one or the two try-scoring opportunities we created in the first half had gone in, it would have created a really pressure cauldron for Toulon.

"We had our moments to take control of the match, and I said to the players that we ask them to learn all the time, and we are learning as a whole team and a coaching staff, but we have to be in it (the Heineken Cup) and taking part in it to keep moving forward.

"The battle for us is to keep taking part in these tough games, keep throwing ourselves into them wholeheartedly and moving forward, and I think there are things I have seen today that, when we play against a similar team to Toulon, that we can use them to our advantage, but I just can’t credit the players enough.

"Could any of them got themselves more involved in the game for the 80 minutes than they did? No. Could we have kept going for longer and harder than we did? No.

"I also don’t think we could have given anything more physically, but the challenge for us now is to maintain the intensity we have showed against Toulon in the Premiership next weekend.

"That’s what we have got to do, because I want to make sure we are in the top six at the end of the season, because whatever the top level of competition there is in the Premiership, we want to be in it, because it is absolutely fantastic for us."

Baxter was also full of praise for the Chiefs’ fans with an estimated 1,000 of them making their way to the south of France to help create a special atmosphere inside the Stade Mayol.

"Our supporters were absolutely incredible and you have just got to credit every one of them, for the effort and the expense to get over here, and I just hope that they feel like I do, that the lads did them proud," he added.