Baxter upbeat despite defeat

 

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter refused to be too downbeat despite seeing his side slip to a 21-16 defeat at Bath in the Aviva Premiership.

Bath fly-half George Ford produced a faultless display with the boot - landing six penalties and a drop-goal - to ensure the home side of the spoils in a pulsating Westcountry derby at The Rec.

Although undone for a sixth time in the top flight by their nearest and dearest, the Chiefs played their part as tries from Damian Welch and Dean Mumm, together with two penalties from Gareth Steenson, ensured they were at least able to head home with a losing bonus point for their efforts.

Afterwards, Baxter expressed the disappointment and frustration within the Chiefs camp, but hailed the commitment and quality shown by his troops in the heat of battle.

"Obviously there is some disappointment and frustration there, simply because we have lost," said Baxter. "However, the reality is when you step back and look at the bigger picture, I'm relatively OK with large parts of today. I thought we were good from the start and we did what we said we would do. Yes, we weren't perfect and ultimately we ended up losing, but I thought our attitude was spot on from the first whistle and we caused Bath a lot of problems.

"Fair play to Bath, they had to play well to beat us today. You know lets face facts they're a good side and they have won the game, but as I just said to the players, it's one of those days where you know you were quite good because you feel disappointed with individual moments that have occurred in the game. I know we'll pick out individual moments where we lost a bit of momentum or something changed in the game as being crucial, but overall I thought our 80 minute performance was pretty complete and at a high level."

In a gripping contest where the lead was constantly changing, the Chiefs - as Baxter said - will reflect on little moments where things could easily have gone the other way.

"Without doubt that is the strongest Bath team we have faced since we've been in the Premiership," added Baxter. "They are playing well, they are confident, yet we really rattled into them from the outset. Looking back it could have gone either way, but for one or two moments. Obviously their goal kicker has had a fantastic day, but on another day we may have won by two or three scores, that was how close things were out there.

"Credit to them, they stuck at it and when times were times were tough, they dug in and they defended well. That said, I think we're bubbling along really well. At top level it's all about being competitive for the full 80 minutes. That performance from us today would have beaten a lot of Premiership sides. On another day, their kicker could have had an average day and we would have won, so that's why you've got to sit back and look at the bigger picture.

"As I said, we're not going to beat ourselves up too much simple because we have lost a game of rugby. Today we are away from home and we've just come up short against a very good Bath side. To get a losing bonus point shows we were competitive throughout. It went right to the wire and that happens in competitive sport, sometimes you get over the line, sometimes you don't, but we'll learn from the whole experience."

With the Premiership now due to take a fortnight break, the Chiefs will now ready themselves for the impending back-to-back encounters with reigning Heineken Cup holders Toulon.

And it's a challenge Baxter and his players are clearly relishing. The head coach coach continued:  "I think everyone is really looking forward to these two games and I'm expecting our guys to go into it with bags of energy. Every year we enjoy being in the Heineken Cup and now we're looking forward to getting stuck into what is a fantastic Toulon side.

"At the same time, we know we are a very good side - as we showed again today - so it promises to be two great occasions. Right now we're at the right end of the table and we deserve to be where we are. At the moment we're in a tough run of games and we know it's not going to get any easier, but I know we have a team that will be looking forward to flying into Toulon and making sure they don't have an easy game."