Players could do no more - Rob

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter said that he couldn't have asked for more from his players as they finished their season in style with a 44-16 home victory over Sale Sharks in front of a record Sandy Park crowd of 12,642.

"All week we spoke about putting ourselves in a bubble and making sure that we were focused on this game and not get the distractions of other performances so I don't think we could have done much more," said Baxter.

"We weren't at our best in the first half but we weren't going to be in this kind of game with the scenarios as they were. To be fair to Sale, they had a lot to play for as well but I thought we handled most of that very well.

"From where I was sat, with twenty minutes to go, it was pretty exciting and we were just about ahead. But things got away from us elsewhere but this was a great game of rugby and a great day for Premiership rugby in a lot of ways.

"For me it has been a great season having taken some great steps forward in our consistency and the big foundation for that has been our home form - loosing two Premiership games, one to Leicester by 4 points and a to Gloucester by a point.

"Away from home there was only one game where we didn't take a loosing bonus point. We were good through the European Challenge Cup reaching the semis and getting to the final of the LV=Cup again."

Wing Matt Jess scored two second half tries for the Chiefs, who led 15-11 at the break, with the other touchdowns came from Ian Whitten, Jack Nowell, Ben White, Henry Slade and Byron McGuigan with Gareth Steenson adding three conversions and a penalty.

Baxter added that he has learnt some great lessons as a coach and the players have learnt some great lessons so that means hopefully we will be better next season at an expanded stadium.

England will announce a 50 strong preliminary squad on Wednesday for the Rugby World Cup and Baxter is expecting that back row Dave Ewers and hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie to be included alongside Nowell and Slade.

"I know that Stuart [Lancaster] is very impressed by their recent performances and, for me,  the one negative of not pushing through to the top four was that it would have given us another opportunity to showcase a lot of our players."

Sale finished with Mark Cueto, in his final game before retiring, in the sin-bin and Ross Harrison having been sent off. Their points came through a try in each half from Josh Beaumont tries, while Danny Ciprani kicked two first half penalties.

Sharks director of rugby Steve Diamond was far from happy after the heavy defeat which meant that they finished in seven place so failed to gain a place in the European Champions Cup for next season.

Diamond failed to attend the post match press conference but issued the following statement: "It was a great performance by Exeter Chiefs and they wanted it more in the second half. We just couldn't stay in it in that period and ill discipline cost us with the two yellows and a red."