Baxter's joy at Euro win

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter was full of praise for his team as they wrapped up their Heineken Cup campaign with a hard fought 19-13 win at Cardiff Blues.

An early try from Don Armand, together with 14 points from the boot of skipper Gareth Steenson, enabled the Chiefs to record a creditable European double over their Welsh hosts at the Arms Park.

British & Irish Lions duo Alex Cuthbert and Leigh Halfpenny claimed all of Cardiff's points in reply, but it was the defensive resolve from the Chiefs - particularly in a testing last ten minutes - which delighted Baxter at the final whistle.

"We have deserved something for a while, and it came off for us today," said Baxter.
"When we watch the video and reflect on the match, I think we will be a little bit disappointed in a way that the game became so pressurised towards the end.

"We were flying. We were playing really, really well and I think we caught Cardiff on the hop a bit. We showed great intensity and physicality, and great movement of the ball, and we were 13-0 up. But then twice with a dominant scrum five metres from the Cardiff line, we didn’t convert either of those chances.

"The reality is we should have done. A top-class team playing well would have converted from five metres out, and we could have been 20-0 up, and you could have said the game was potentially dead then.

"As it was, we gave the ball up on their line, and the next minute we are conceding a try, and at 13-10 it was all back on, and it took us a little while to wrestle the momentum back. That said, it can be scrappy and you stand and fight and you win, because of your endeavours, which is what happened today, but in other games in the last six or seven weeks, that hasn’t happened for us, and the odd decision hasn’t gone our way."

In a tense conclusion to the contest, the Chiefs not only had to cope with a yellow card for scrum-half Dave Lewis, but also one particularly bizarre decision by Irish referee John Lacey, who overturned what appeared a dominant Exeter scrum just yards from their own line.

Baxter added: "I was left fuming by that decision near the end. We had a scrum five metres from our own line, we were going forward, and the referee called it a turnover, and if that had cost us the game, I don’t know what I would have done with myself.

"We might have been sitting here saying we had lost another game on one call by the referee, so I am obviously pleased we have come through the game with a win."

Despite the win - Exeter's second in only ten games - they have bowed out of European action for the remainder of the season and will now focus their thoughts on the upcoming LV= Cup clashes with Ospreys and Worcester Warriors, as well as a huge block of Premiership fixtures.

"There is an element of frustration in that there is nothing for us going forward in Europe this season (with the Chiefs missing out on an Amlin Cup quarter-final place), but on the flip side, we have had a better Heineken Cup campaign than last year," continued Baxter.

"We have won two, as we did last year, but we have just kept everyone else much closer, been competitive in every game, and got bonus points in three of the four matches we lost. We have not been well beaten by anybody, and in a lot of ways we have shown, if you are playing Exeter in the Heineken Cup, you are going to get a competitive game, whatever happens.

"Just because we couldn't get through in the Heineken doesn't mean today wasn't a big game of rugby for us. We emphasised all week that today was massive. Sometimes people forget just how far we've come in such a short space of time. Four years ago we weren't even in the Premiership, yet here we are playing in the Heineken Cup, away from home in Cardiff, and against a team with a great tradition over the years.

"I'm delighted with the win because the guys showed real character, especially towards the end of the game, and in the end they got their rewards for that."