Arscott hurting from Sale loss

Luke Arscott thinks it is no bad thing that Exeter Chiefs’ players have a fortnight to stew over their record defeat to Sale Sharks.

The full-back, who was a replacement in last Saturday’s 55-12 loss, thinks the hurt the squad are suffering could spur them on in their final two games of the season.

The eight tries leaked at Sandy Park was Exeter’s heaviest defeat at home in the league - and their biggest beating in the Aviva Premiership.

Rob Baxter's side are without a game this weekend as the European semi-finals take place, which means they have to wait until next Sunday – when they host Harlequins – before they can get the Sale reverse out of their system.

“Maybe it’s not a bad thing to stew on it and hurt for that little bit longer,” said Arscott following Saturday's final whistle.

“No doubt we will have to improve ten-fold against Harlequins or else we could be on the end of the same kind of scoreline with them pushing on for the play-off spots. We really need to get two wins from the last two games to try to get that seventh spot as well.”

The team that finishes seventh in the Premiership will go into a play-off for the final place in next season’s European Champions Cup.

The Chiefs went into the Sale match in that spot, but slipped a place and four points behind London Wasps, who themselves picked up victory in 'The Stinger' clash at Twickenham against Gloucester.

Arscott said the players were embarrassed by the manner of the defeat, and said they owed their supporters an apology.

“It hurts. It’s not a nice feeling to be beaten, let alone be beaten by that much, at home,” added Arscott. “I think we owe the fans an apology for the way we performed because it wasn’t an Exeter Chiefs performance and we need to put that right in the next two games.

“There’s only so much work you can do during the week, the coaches put our game plan in place and from one to 23 we probably didn’t step up to the mark. Sale played very well, but we’re disappointed and a little bit embarrassed by it.”

Head coach Rob Baxter was not happy with his side’s high penalty count the previous week, when they held on to beat basement battlers Worcester 38-33.

Arscott thinks the players were a little too concerned with their discipline against Sale and that took something away from their normal play.

“It’s hard to put your finger on what went wrong,” he said. “We said before the game we’d be disciplined and maybe we lost a bit of edge. In not conceding as many penalties, we lost a bit of that grit that we’ve shown over the last couple of weeks.”

Arscott added that the disappointment stemmed from the fact the players felt the size of the defeat was more down to the way they played, rather than brilliance from the visitors.

“The season’s not over, it won’t be over until after the Newcastle game,” he said. “We’re just disappointed and hurt from conceding that many points at home.

“We put in a disappointing performance more than anything. Sale played well but they didn’t play 40 points better than us.

“They didn’t have to work too hard for their tries. I don’t know what went wrong – there were big holes in the kick chase, boys falling off tackles. They got a few lucky bounces and a few decisions, but you get them when you’re scoring tries and on the front foot.”