First half display cost us - Baxter

By Mark Stevens

Never one to get carried away in victory or defeat, Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter remained level-headed after seeing his side slip to a second successive Aviva Premiership defeat.

Sale Sharks maintained their unbeaten home record this season by inflicting a 23-17 loss on their rivals from Devon at the AJ Bell Stadium.

Johnny Leota, Nev Edwards and Mike Haley all crossed for first half tries as the Sharks stormed into a 17-0 lead at the break.

The Chiefs, however, were much improved after the interval and countered with converted scores of their own through Jack Yeandle and Dave Lewis.

Sadly, it was not enough as England international Danny Cipriani landed two successful penalties after the break to keep his side in front.

Even then, a late Gareth Steenson penalty brought the Chiefs back to within a score, but they could not capitalise on late pressure and it was the Sharks who ultimately prevailed.

Post-match, Baxter admitted an error-strewn first half had left his side with a mountain to climb, but he was encouraged by Exeter’s fighting spirit which at least enabled them to head home with a losing bonus point.

“The truth is that we are disappointed to lose but at the same time you have to give a lot of credit to Sale," said Baxter. “They stood strong in front of a lot of concerted attacks today and they’ve worked extremely hard not to break, not to drop out of systems and not to give up defensive penalties, so full credit to them for that because we worked extremely hard today.

"I have just said to the lads that I can't fault them for the energy they have put in out on the pitch because we have carried the ball for miles in loads of contacts. But ultimately we have come up a little bit short by being too error-stricken in the early part of the game when we had concerted pressure and we either lost the ball or gave up a penalty.

"I think ultimately not scoring anything in that first half has ultimately cost us. Not only did we not score anything, but when Sale had their moments and for whatever reason you have to say they were extremely clinical.”

Although the Chiefs dominated territory and possession for long periods, they struggled to find their usual fluency in attack and some hurried decisions - under pressure from some stout Sale defence - meant chances came and went far too often for Baxter’s liking.

“Our possession stats are going to be incredible,” admitted the Chiefs head coach. “It’s weird in some ways because it didn’t really feel we were under massive amounts of pressure from their attacks, yet the pressure on the scoreboard was huge for us.

“We were looking around from moments of attack and all of a sudden we’re 17 points down. I think that’s great credit to Sale being ready and clinical to change the tempo from defence into attack, but it’s also us being a little bit off the boil and not dealing with a couple of moments which we should have done, especially in those early attacks.”

Certainly the Chiefs were given a boost in the opening exchanges when Sale lost prop Ross Harrison to the sin-bin for blocking a quickly-taken penalty. However, when the visitors themselves lost James Short to a yellow card shortly after, it was the Sharks who packed the greater bite in attack.

"The yellow card obviously hurt us," added Baxter. "To be honest, I can't complain about the yellow card. Everyone knows the rules - if you stay on the ground and the other guy jumps and you make contact with him then you leave yourself open to it.

"I feel for Shorty a little bit but those are the rules and he is a good enough player to know that if a ball is contested in the air, you both have to get up there.”

Certainly Baxter will reflect on missed opportunities this coming week, but at the same time he will have to get his players prepared for an equally testing assignment against London Irish next Sunday.

“In terms of the big picture, I’m not overly concerned,” continued Baxter. “Okay we’ve lost to Saracens, who have lost only once all season, but everyone who watched that game knows we are only one decision away from winning that game. Today, we have come to Sale who have not lost here for some time and who are playing well, yet we’ve put in a good performance and we’ve got another losing bonus point.

“If you spread those losses out over the course of a good season you just roll through them, so the fact they’ve come back-to-back doesn’t really change too much for us. What it does mean is we have only picked up two points in the last two weeks, so if you want to stay in the top four, then next week against London Irish becomes a very important game for us.

“There is a real scrap at the bottom of the table, so they’ll be fighting for their lives. We had a poor result up there last season and we didn’t play well in that fixture, so the focus this week will be on going up there and playing well, being energetic and ultimately looking forward to playing another big Premiership game.”