Baxter demands more
By Mark Stevens
30/9/18
Exeter Chiefs maintained their unbeaten start to the new Gallagher Premiership season, but Director of Rugby Rob Baxter was less than impressed with his side’s latest display in defeating Worcester Warriors at Sandy Park.
The Chiefs may have bagged their fourth bonus point win in five starts, courtesy of tries from Jack Yeandle, Dave Ewers (2) and Harry Williams, but they failed to hit the same heights of earlier matches this season.
Although content to take the victory, Baxter admitted the second half display of his players was the ‘sloppiest of the season’ and said improvements will be needed ahead of next week’s trip to Bath and their impending Heineken Champions Cup clashes with Munster and Castres.
“The important thing for us as a club now is not to look back and be satisfied with five wins in the bag,” said Baxter.“We can either see ourselves as being nice and comfortable, and that negates your cutting edge and negates a bit of fight, or we can see how hard we can really push on from the foundation we have created.
“That will be the key for us over the next three weeks. We have got a tough league game at Bath on Friday night, and then we have got our opening two games in the Heineken Cup, and we can either be very picky about what we have done against Worcester, or feel quite relaxed about it.
“I feel we need to be picky as the second half was our sloppiest of the season.
“We didn’t start the game particularly quickly again, but we went through the gears and started to score some points and created those pressure moments that we are very successful at.
“But after the break, for half an hour it was a sloppy waste of rugby in a lot of ways, and I don’t think we progressed as a team or individuals, and that’s what we need to be doing, cherishing every moment on the field, if we want to keep advancing and keep winning big games.
“We are not a better team or more prepared than Munster after the second half of today’s game. I know that might be looking too far ahead but that’s the reality.”
Worcester director of rugby Alan Solomons said he believed the Premiership is becoming a two-horse race.
“In terms of the Premiership, everybody is massively competitive, but Saracens and Exeter sit slightly away from the rest of us,” said Solomons.“Exeter just had too much power for us. We had a very good opening 20 to 25 minutes and dominated territory and possession and full marks to Exeter’s defence, we couldn’t convert any of that into points.
“Then in the 15 minutes up to half-time, they scored three power tries, with a driving maul and two pick-and-goes, but we showed great resolve and resilience in the second half, and there are a lot of positives for us to take.”
