Falcons win pleases Baxter

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter hailed his team as they wrapped up their Aviva Premiership campaign with a 23-13 victory over Newcastle Falcons at Kingston Park.

Tries from Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ben White and Fetu’u Vainikolo were the highlights for the visitors, while fly-half Henry Slade added the remaining points with the boot.

Joel Hodgson had earlier kicked the Falcons into a 6-0 lead with two penalties - and the home side had the final say when Mark Wilson claimed a converted score with the final play of the game.

However, it was never enough against a Chiefs side that produced a professional display to ensure a league double over the Falcons this term.

Post match, a content Baxter said: “‘I know we maybe haven’t always had the rewards that we probably feel some of our hard work should get, but it is satisfying to finish with such a professional and enthusiastic performance from the lads.

“It could have been easy to come up here and just under-perform, but to be fair, in difficult conditions, we have controlled the majority of the game, and created a situation where, with the last play of the game, we were looking for a bonus-point win.

“I thought we applied pressure at the right time and even after going 6-0 down early on, we took a really good grip on the game. I’ve just said to the guys, I was really pleased with the professionalism they showed and also the hard work they put in, simply because there were values to that.

“One was the fact it has helped push us back up the table a little bit and the other was we’ve come to a tough place to play and we’ve scored three tries and we’re looking for a fourth right at the death, so those are all positives for us.”

Baxter added: “We showed quite a lot of maturity in how we controlled territory, and how we let our forwards get hold of the game and squeeze the game, and for me that was the most pleasing thing.

“It wasn’t a pretty game of rugby, you wouldn’t sit here and be thrilled by it, but you would sit here and say ‘well played Exeter’."

With the Chiefs now set for a well-earned break following a season that has again brought it’s fair share of highs and lows, the Exeter coach reflected positively on what had been achieved by his squad.

“I think it has been a pretty good season,” continued Baxter. “Often we talk a lot about the balance of where we are and where we are going. Looking at things, we’ve had seven defeats in the Premiership where we’ve been within a score, so we know we are there or thereabouts.

“Also 10 or 11 players have had what I would call their first proper season in the Premiership, so they have come in and they have forced their way into first team, then held a position, and also won a cup. It’s no wonder we faded towards the end as a lot of guys achieved their goals, but what we have done in these last few weeks is remind ourselves of the here and now and how important it is to play well. We’ve done that really well in the last two weeks and it’s given us something to take into next season.”

Saturday’s game also marked the final appearances in Exeter colours for long-serving prop Hoani Tui (pictured), who is off to newly-promoted French side Lyon, and James Phillips who has agreed terms with Championship side London Scottish.