Baxter 'disappointed' after Irish defeat
By Mark Stevens
1/10/20
Rob Baxter admitted he was left ‘disappointed’ by aspects of his side’s 22-19 Gallagher Premiership defeat at home to London Irish.
Just days after witnessing his players advance into a first-ever Heineken Champions Cup final, a much-changed Chiefs line-up were unable to replicate their winning formula at Sandy Park on Wednesday night.
Tries from Will Witty, Ollie Devoto and Tom Hendrickson, two of which were converted by Harvey Skinner, were positives for Baxter to draw upon at the final whistle. However, the Director of Rugby insists lessons would need to be learned by younger members of his squad moving forward.
“I’m a little disappointed, a little frustrated, because I think we could play better than that,” was Baxter’s assessment post-match. “At the same time, people will be aware it’s a much changed side, who haven’t had a lot of time together, in what is a short week. Having said that, I thought we were good enough to win tonight and we didn’t complete things like we normally would as an Exeter Chiefs side.
“As I’ve just said to the lads in the changing rooms, it was a much improved performance from the Saracens game a few weeks ago, but we still made a couple of mistakes and obviously, individually, you have to work very hard to get better. A fair bit of that comes from sitting in meetings, understanding how we play, and how you stay playing the right way under pressure. As you saw today, as pressure built through the course of the game, we made more mistakes, gave away multiple penalties as pressure built, and those are the sort of things that kill you.
“As we saw at the weekend - and in other Premiership games - those sort of pressures the senior side have dealt with very well. Moving forward, it’s up to these players to learn about dealing with those pressures, know what they are doing when the pressure comes on, and then doing what we do, very well. Tonight, I just think we didn’t do enough to win the game.”
For Irish, it was a first Premiership win since they returned from restart and their delight was clearly evident at the final whistle, courtesy of tries from Matt Cornish, Curtis Rona and Agustin Creevy, with fly-half Paddy Jackson kicking the remainder of their points.
“Without looking at the video again, I know there are a number of areas in our game that we can improve significantly,” continued Baxter. “We had a high penalty count, we got turned over numerous times at rucks because only one person was there to clear out, and in that second half our set-piece started to crumble.
“As I said, we need to get these guys understanding the importance of getting on plan and under pressure, sticking to it, because without doubt, if we had done that tonight, we would have come through that game.”
As well as the loss, the other downside to the night was the second half injuries sustained to Billy Keast (calf) and Aaron Hinkley (knee). Baxter said it was still too early to give a full assessment on the injuries, but initial review didn’t paint a great picture for either player.
Next up for the Chiefs is their final game of the regular Premiership season, where they will travel to the Ricoh Arena to face Wasps on Sunday.