Baxter delighted after Tigers win

By Mark Stevens

Rob Baxter lauded his Exeter Chiefs side as they moved to second in the Aviva Premiership standings with a 19-6 victory over Leicester Tigers at Sandy Park.

Skipper Gareth Steenson did much of the damage for the Devon club as he converted his own first half try, as well as adding four successful penalties, to secure a first win in seven games against the Tigers.

In reply, Leicester - who had come into the game with an unblemished record from the opening three games - countered with two penalties from fly-half Owen Williams, but it was never enough to undo Baxter’s side, who will now gear up for European battle against the Ospreys and Bordeaux-Begles in the next fortnight.

Post-match, a delighted Baxter was quick to pay tribute to his troops, saying: “The most pleasing thing for me is that we didn’t buckle in the moments of pressure, and that is typically where we have failed against Leicester in the past.

“We have always been able to score some points against them, but there have been moments in games where they have just seized the momentum off us and rammed it home, and today we weathered those storms a lot better.

“We came through the messy parts of the game a little bit better than Leicester, and that backed up the fact our scrum particularly functioned well today, as did our driving game, and defensively, to only concede six points against Leicester is fantastic.

“Lots of things went well for us, but sometimes when we play Leicester we have to overcome some mental battles as much as physical battles, and I think we came through a few in that game and that’s why we won.”

Although Steenson took the headlines for his scoring feats, team-mates such as Dave Ewers and Alec Hepburn were equally impressive.

Indeed, former England Under-20s starlet Hepburn (pictured below) shone on his Premiership debut, coming in as a late change for the injured Ben Moon, who had failed a late fitness check on an ankle injury.

Baxter added: “Alec came in for his first Premiership start and did exceptionally well for us.  You have got to massively control the amount of put-ins that Leicester get at the scrum, so you have to try and play in a way where you don’t become too error-ridden.

“If they get a lot of put-ins and get the advantage, then those often lead to penalties their way more than an equal scrum battle, and everyone knows that the put-in is a huge advantage in regards winning the penalties.

“I thought we did that part of it really well, and often when we did give up penalties, we didn’t get rattled and give away two or three scrum penalties on the bounce, or end up conceding two or three moments of driving play from Leicester, and I think that is the key when you play them.”

Baxter continued: “We defended line-outs better against them, we defended difficult situations on the pitch better, and we scrambled that little bit better.

“We were fortuitous with their disallowed try, because we haven’t done anything there really to stop that try being scored. We missed a couple of soft tackles, although I suppose you could say we scrambled back and managed to get a body near the potential try scorer.”

Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill was quick to praise the Chiefs after his side suffered their first defeat of the season to leave them in fourth spot in the table.

“You have to give credit to Exeter. We were on the back foot for a lot of the game, and we struggled at set-piece and we couldn’t get a proper foothold in the game and that cost us,” said Cockerill.

“They are a good side, and if you don’t play accurately enough, and you don’t front up physically, which at times we didn’t, you are going to get punished. It is disappointing to lose, but it is only round four, there is a long way to go and there is a lot for us to get better at.”