Discipline cost us, says Baxter

By Mark Stevens
16/4/2016

Frustrated Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter bemoaned a lack of discipline from his players as the wait to book a first-ever appearance in the Aviva Premiership play-offs continues.

Keen for a response after their European Champions Cup exit to Wasps the week previous, the Devonians again suffered away-day misery, slipping to a 16-9 loss at Gloucester.

After a scoreless opening half, Chiefs skipper Gareth Steenson fired them in front with the first of three successful penalties, but it was the Cherry & Whites who prevailed, claiming a converted score from debutant Olly Thorley and three penalties from Greg Laidlaw.

The defeat meant the Chiefs still have to wait to book their play-off berth, but it could be handed to them on Saturday should Leicester Tigers overcome arch rivals Northampton Saints.

In an ideal world Baxter would have hoped for his team to have pocketed their top four spot through their own actions - and he said as much during his post-match assessment to the waiting media.

The positives is we picked up a bonus point and we know they are very important because we have collected a lot of them this season,” said the Chiefs coach. What I did say to the players before hand, however, was let’s take something for ourselves and not watch the game over the weekend and wait for others to give us something.

“I’d like us to be a team who take things for themselves and I don’t want to give the players the excuse that they were involved in a big game last week, because if you want to be a top side in Europe, you go from a quarter-final last week to a crunch Premiership game and another crunch Premiership game and then a semi-final. That’s how they roll and you have to be able to deal with that.”

Certainly during a full-blooded opening half at Kingshom, it appeared the Chiefs had coped sufficiently with the disappointment of their loss to Wasps just days earlier. However, it was during the second half that errors and ill discipline that crept into their game and it was the home side who made them pay.

Yes, I’m a little bit frustrated,” added Baxter. “I actually thought after last week that we got ourselves emotionally and physically into a good place and I think the first half showed that as it was a right old battle.

“I think it was important we showed that we got a good amount of recovery in from last week and we were prepared to come here and fight. As I said, I thought for much of the game we did well, but we were massively undone by a period of ill discipline during the second half and that is the thing that has annoyed me.

“In a game like today with conditions like they were, it was almost certain to come down to penalty shots at goal and when it was tight Gloucester got the penalties and we didn’t.

“We had our moments, particularly in the first half, but we three or four times we made errors on their try line and got turned over. They are things we have been very good at this season and today we came up a little bit short. It’s difficult to breakdown straight after the game, but when the game was tough, when it was tight and we needed to show that little bit more composure and discipline, we didn’t and Gloucester did.

“I’ve just said to the lads in the changing room, Gloucester won two or three battles that were important and that’s why they won. Sometimes games away from home in those conditions come down to one or two things and one of them is discipline and that’s the area that disappoint me the most.”

The Chiefs will now have a week off to recharge the levels - both physically and emotionally - before they welcome Wasps to a sold out Sandy Park on May 1. Victory in that game for either side will go a huge way to ensuring who will have home advantage in the play-offs, so Baxter is looking for a response from his players.

“Right now I’m not looking to many any excuses, I rather we face up to things we are tougher on ourselves and we improve the things we need to.”