Baxter proud despite European exit
By Mark Stevens
20/1/19
Exeter’s European dream may be over for another season, but Chiefs’ Director of Rugby Rob Baxter admitted there was plenty of positives to take from his side’s campaign.
In what was a straight shoot-out between the Chiefs and hosts Munster, it was the Irish province who progressed from Pool Two into the last eight, courtesy of a 9-7 victory at a packed Thomond Park.
Three penalties from fly-half Joey Carbery - the last of which came in the final ten minutes - proved the difference in what was a compelling, yet brutal game of top-class rugby.
The Chiefs played their part, leading for much of the match thanks to a converted Don Armand try, but in the end it was the two-time European champions who edged through.
Post-match, however, Baxter was quick to salute his side’s efforts on the day. He said: “I am immensely proud of the players for the physical and emotional endeavour they put onto the field today. They should be very proud of themselves, because that game could have gone either way.
“Munster just forced it their way, and that is great credit to them, but we certainly had our moments in the game and we are also a team looking more comfortable in Europe and getting better, and that’s a real positive for us and something I am very proud of and something I am already looking forward to for years to come.”
The Premiership leaders were good value through, making a strong start to the game thanks to Armand’s touchdown.
Baxter added: “When I rewatch the game, there were quite a lot of mistakes in the game from both sides, but that’s what pressure and emotion does, and that’s what these games are often about.
“How many teams are going to come to Thomond Park and keep Munster to nine points? Not many.
“And to be fair to Munster, not many teams keep us to seven points either.
“There is a lot of real credit to both sides out there, it was a big, emotional game, a fantastic atmosphere and a brilliant place to play, and it has been a dream of mine to get involved in massive Heineken Cup games here, and we have been involved in one today and we were fully in it.
“The players are a group of the right age, they are going to get better, experiences like this have got to be good for us, and I know people are going to say Exeter have failed again, but we haven’t had that many attempts at this, we have only been in the Premiership for 10 seasons, and it’s not like we have been doing this every year for a long time.
“We are getting better if you look at our overall scores. I know we haven’t collected the overall match points, but if you look at the results, ourselves and Munster have been split by two points over two games, and not many teams do that to them in a Heineken Cup campaign.
“It is frustrating because we lost by four points away from home to the French champions Castres, but Munster didn’t go away and win there either, and it does feel frustrating, but to draw at home against Munster, get a five-point win over Castres and a five-point away win at Gloucester. We let ourselves down in the home game against Gloucester when we didn’t get any points, but overall, if you look at that block of six games, how close are you going to get?
“It has been pretty much one score per game that has done us. We are going to get there, we are going to force those things to happen, because we are going to work very hard and we have got a good group of players who are honest, and are going to get better, and are staying together.
“Everyone who played out there today is going to be with us next season, nobody is going anywhere and we are only going to get better for that.”
A lost five-metre line-out 12 minutes from time was arguably the killer blow for Exeter’s qualification hopes, and Baxter agreed.
“It felt a little bit like that, because although we came back and got the ball back at the next line-out, it did feel perhaps our moment had gone a little bit,” he said. “Fair play, it was a good steal from them, and we probably misread where we should throw the ball, but if we had scored then, even if we hadn’t converted the try, all of a sudden they are thinking, if we concede a penalty we could be out of Europe, and it would have been nice to have created just that little bit more pressure on them going out, because we never quite did that, because we never created that seven-point separation.”
Munster had the edge in the breakdown and Baxter explained: “It was probably the one area of the match that really got them into the game, because it wasn’t that they were turning ball over but they were winning penalties, and that got them more territory, because we were actually in control of a large part of the territory battle, and if we had just seen off that breakdown a little bit better and had a little bit more control there, we probably could have seen the game off.”