Baxter rues missed opportunity

By Mark Stevens

Rob Baxter admitted he and his Exeter Chiefs have been left "disappointed" after they saw their European Rugby Challenge Cup campaign start with a defeat in France.

A converted try two minutes from time by Tongan forward Lisiate Fa’aoso denied the Aviva Premiership club what would have been a famous victory at the Stade Jean Dauger as they eventually went down 30-24..

Tries from debutant Adam Hughes and prop Carl Rimmer – as well as some accurate kicking from Ceri Sweeney and Jack Arnott – looked like being enough for the Devon club, but the Top14 side rallied late on to sink their rivals with the ultimate sucker punch.

Earlier Opeti Fonua and Pierre Sayerse had claimed tries for the home side, while scrum-half Christophe Loustalot completed an impeccable night with the boot as he landed a further 15 points.

Afterwards, a pragmatic Baxter reflected on his side's showing, admitting the game was there for the taking had his side been a little more streetwise at times.

“I’m a realist about things, I made a lot of changes to that side and in some positions we had guys that haven’t played a lot of high-intensity rugby, only a bit of A-League and that was it,” said Baxter.

“With Dave Lewis coming back as well and the injuries we’ve had, it compounded to make a tight game of rugby and tight games of rugby can go either way.

“I didn’t say too much in there, the players have spoken. They said they are disappointed because the game is there for the winning.

“We lost possession two or three times in the opposition 22 when we could have been more clinical and been more streetwise and seen that part of the game off.

“I know the players are frustrated because they put a lot of physical effort into it and I know they will be frustrated by the direction of some of the things they did, but I am not going to sit here and say it should be perfect from players that haven’t been playing together.

“As frustrating as it is for me and as frustrating as it is for the players, sometimes you just have to take it on the chin. A win here would have been a great achievement, but we have come up a bit short and not achieved our goal of winning, which we came here to do.”

The French side conceded a number of penalties throughout the game and had three yellow cards throughout the course of the game as they continually fell foul of Irish referee Peter Fitzgibbon.

Bayonne's on-field indiscretions allowed Exeter every chance to stamp their authority on the game, but Baxter was disappointed his players did not fully capitalise.

“We had plenty of possession and we did some good stuff. We kept our discipline better than they did and it is frustrating that we didn’t capitalise on the number of yellow cards they had and score some more tries,” he added.

“We gifted them a really soft try with a very poor passage of play. You can’t be passing the ball behind your try line and not expect to get hurt and I think that was the momentum swing in the game because we were in complete control until then.

“They weren’t getting near us on the scoreboard, we were controlling possession and territory, we did a silly exit and we gave them some hope.

“From then on, we made it hard for ourselves and there were more than one moment like that. But they are the moments you get when you have a team that hasn’t played together much and you try and make it all happen in the league.”

The Chiefs now know a victory at home to Irish side Connacht this Saturday is imperative if they are to keep alive their European aspirations so early in the competition.

Baxter continued: "Whatever the result we had tonight we would have had to win next week to take control of the group. As it is, we have an away point, which are often very valuable in this competition, but we have to make it valuable by winning next week. That’s the key.

“I expected this fixture to be the toughest one of all of them because of the group of players that haven’t played high-intensity rugby. I hope that proves to be the case and I am hoping that we are a little bit better and a little bit less rusty in the things we do next week."

Although defeated, Baxter did see encouraging signs from his team. He added: “There were definitely positives and we have got a bigger group of players that have played a higher level and first team rugby now and that is going to be crucial in the next three or four weeks.

“I said to the guys that I expect us to be playing with a higher intensity week by week now over the course of these four weeks and our demands are higher for next week."