Baxter hails his Chiefs

By Mark Stevens

Rob Baxter was full of praise for his Exeter Chiefs side as they booked themselves a first-ever appearance in a European semi-final with a crushing 48-13 victory over visiting Newcastle Falcons at Sandy Park.

The Devon club were in ruthless mood against their Aviva Premiership rivals, running in six tries on the night to set-up a last four showdown with rivals Gloucester in two weeks’ time at Kingsholm.

Dave Ewers stole over for the opening score and a Penalty Try shortly after ensured the Chiefs were in control as they led 17-6 at the break. In the second period, Baxter’s side kicked into overdrive as they added further scores through Thomas Waldrom, Byron McGuigan, Sam Hill (pictured) and skipper Dean Mumm.

Fly-half Henry Slade kicked four conversions and two penalties before he was replaced by Gareth Steenson, who then weighed in with the extras to the final two tries of the night.

The Falcons countered with a second half score from winger Chris Harris, but that was a rare highlight along with eight points from the boot of fly-half Tom Catterick.

For the Chiefs, it means a second semi-final appearance of the season - the other came in the LV= Cup against Leicester Tigers last month - and Baxter is delighted to see his team keeping their seasonal ambitions firmly alive heading into the final weeks of the campaign.

“It is a nice little step – I think that is the best way to describe it really,” said Baxter.  “Some people try and build up games as big moments – I don’t think this is so much a big moment, but a nice little occasion that we are becoming more of a consistent side than we have been in the past.

“I think if you look at where we are now, getting to the final of the LV= Cup, being at the top-end of the table and now moving through to the semi-final of a European competition, it shows throughout the course of the season so far that we have been consistent in a successful way and things are there for us to play for, which is exciting.

“If you want to be a good side you want to be in finals and semi-finals and finals and to have those big Premiership games coming up. Some say it makes it a tough schedule for us, but for me I’m just excited to get the boys in on Monday and keep aiming for things.

“I’ve just said to them now in the changing rooms, we won’t do anything different now, we’ll just get after the Northampton game as hard as we can on Sunday then we’ll re-assess and go after the Gloucester game as hard as we can the week after.”

Certainly the Devon club demonstrated they have the desire to go all the way in Europe, a point emphasised in the closing minutes when the impressive McGuigan chased down what appeared a certain Newcastle try to win the turnover and bring about the final whistle.

And it was that willingness not to give in, particularly in defence, that Baxter was quick to talk up post-match.

“The tries are great and fantastic for everybody to watch but what was most pleasing was our defensive performance and how we controlled the game when Newcastle had energy,” said the head coach.

“It is relatively simple to score tries when you have a 30-point lead. What is harder is to make the right decisions and do the right things when things are tight, but that is what we did very well.

“Their try we will be a bit frustrating when we assess what happened. But the last time Newcastle were here, we built quite a good lead but became quite poor defensively in the second half and they scored quite a lot of points.

“We were determined for that not to happen again and, apart from the end when we should have just put the ball out of play, we didn’t really give up any easy metres.”

With Gloucester to come in the semi-finals, Baxter anticipates a great occasion for the Chiefs as they chase the dream of a first-ever European final appearance.

“It’s always fantastic going to play at Kingsholm because there is always a fantastic atmosphere up there,” continued Baxter. “It’s a big thing for them to play for now, especially when you look at the way you qualify for the Champions Cup with the seventh placed play-off, but it’s also very important for ourselves.

“As I say, we’ll put this game to bed on Monday and Tuesday and then we’ll worry about Northampton. That in itself is a huge game for us and once we get that game out of the way, then we’ll start to worry about going to Gloucester.”