Baxter upbeat despite defeat

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter still hasn't given up on finishing in the top two places in Pool 2 and possibly pushing for a Champions Cup quarter-final slot.

Despite their 42-10 defeat at Stade Marcel-Michelin, Baxter believes his side can still stay in the mix for a place in the last eight by winning in Bordeaux-Begles and then reversing their defeat against the Ospreys at home in the New Year.

On a tough afternoon for the Aviva Premiership club, they found themselves on the end of a rampant display from the Frenchmen, who gained revenge for their defeat to the Chiefs just seven days earlier at Sandy Park.

First half tries from David Strettle and Alexandre Lepandry set the tone, before Fritz Lee, Sebastien Vahaamahina and Jonathan Davies followed suit after the break. French international Morgan Parra hammered over a further 12 points with Scott Spedding and Camille Lopez completing the job for the home side.

The Chiefs countered with a first half penalty from Gareth Steenson and a late converted try from Tom Johnson, but it was scant reward against the star-studded Top 14 leaders.

"The bigger picture is that this result may not mean too much. We still have two games to go and we would have had to have won at least one of them - now we have to win them both," said Baxter.

"If we use this experience of coming to France to win another game in France later in the pool, then great. We have got to use the frustrations, disappointments and errors, both collectively and as individuals, the next time we come over here because there will be a similar amount of pressure and we will be playing in front of an even bigger crowd.

"I'm a bit frustrated and disappointed at how quickly we went off plan as individuals. We started really well and the patterns we play and the way we do things does put teams under pressure.  We got the three points, but what did we do? We immediately gave away six points from not being under all that much pressure.

“That is the frustrating thing – guys will look at that and think that it was a soft six points. If you stay three points up for 20 minutes having beaten them last week, it is a different game.”

"We are a pretty good team now and we need our guys to stay confident with what we do. When it is tough, and it was a times, that's the time to really stick at it. We didn't and we went off on our own."

Although disappointed with aspects of his side’s display, Baxter admitted the Exeter coaches would themselves look at how the game unfolded in a bid to rectify things moving forward.

He added: “The truth is sometimes these errors are not always player errors, but potentially coaching errors as well. We have to take it on the chin and talk about whether we prepared the team as well as we could have done this week because we weren’t quite right individually more than anything else. We will discuss that and make sure we are better this week.”

One of the positives for the Chiefs, however, was there never-say-die attitude which was duly rewarded with Johnson’s late score.

“We are never going to be a team that buckles physically because we have a good bunch of players who work hard for each other,” said Baxter. “That is never an issue and it is why I am always very pleased to be the coach here – you know you are always going to get work-rate and effort. But that is for teams not in the Champions Cup – work-rate and effort are the very minimum foundation elements. What you need to make sure comes out on top is some clarity of think and some clear and decisive decision-making.”