Baxter reflects on Euro exit

[break]

By Mark Stevens
10/4/2016

Rob Baxter has told his Exeter Chiefs players not to wallow in the disappointment of their European Champions Cup exit to Wasps - but instead focus their sights fully on a big end to the season.

The Devon outfit saw their hopes of a first-ever appearance in the last four of Europe’s top club competition denied by a last-gasp conversion from Jimmy Gopperth.

The New Zealander stepped forward to land a knockout blow on the Chiefs as he converted Charles Piutau’s 80th minute try.

It ensured a 25-24 victory for the two-time European champions and denied Baxter and his players of advancing onto a semi-final date with Saracens later this month.

Clearly disappointed with the outcome, Baxter acknowledged afterwards that in the end the difference between winning and losing had come down to “small margins”.

"It was two good sides going at it hammer and tongs. One team had to win it and that wasn't us today," said Baxter.  "I am really proud of how we turned up here today. We have shown some really good qualities and I think that is what games of rugby should be about.

"I'll be honest, it is very disappointing. It would be very easy now for the players, who are obviously a bit down about things, to start to try and rip the game to pieces and look at every single little mistake that happened, and could we have done things a little bit differently.

“The truth is, if that last kick hadn’t gone over, we would have been feeling great about ourselves, and we wouldn’t have been worried about the little mistakes we made in the game, and that is wrong as well.

“The way to view it is to properly look at what we did well in the game, and what we did badly, and learn from each thing.”

He added: “We put a lot into the game, and proved today that we are capable of coming away against one of the best teams in the country and controlling large parts of the match, and in a lot of people’s eyes, maybe deserving to win the game.

“That shows a lot of really good qualities, and we have got to make sure that we understand that, and we see things for what actually happened.

“I would like some of the players to learn from today and move on and want to improve their individual performances, because that is what you want from every game, but there is no way anyone can turn around and say we didn’t take a full part in today’s game, because we did, and I think we will be a better team for it.

"We have contributed to a really good game of rugby. At the end of the day, whichever way that final kick went would not have been the right or wrong answer because both teams could have been justified in winning the game."

Already Baxter and the Chiefs are looking to the future and this Friday’s upcoming Aviva Premiership encounter with Gloucester at Kingsholm.

With just three rounds of the scheduled season remaining, the Chiefs will be doing their utmost to secure a home semi-final, potentially agsinst Wasps, who also visit Sandy Park on May 1.

Baxter continued: “ The important thing now is to go out and stand up at Kingsholm. Gloucester have had a disappointing result for them today in a European competition as well (they lost 23-21 at home to Newport-Gwent Dragons in the European Challenge Cup quarter-final), and their focus will now shift purely to the Premiership.

“We have got three games left where we can keep it in our hands, and we can still make this Premiership season about us, and we can still make sure we get a home semi-final, and that’s what I want our reaction to be.”