Baxter reacts to Gloucester loss
By Mark Stevens
16/2/19
Rob Baxter felt his Exeter Chiefs side had come up a ‘little bit short’ after they suffered a 24-17 defeat to rivals Gloucester in the Gallagher Premiership.
A late converted try from England international Ben Morgan proved the difference in a hard-fought encounter at Kingsholm. However, the Chiefs could easily have departed with a share of the spoils had a couple of late decisions from the officials gone in their favour.
Controversy surrounded the build-up to Morgan’s try, where it appeared Tom O’Flaherty had been deliberately blocked in his attempts to make a tackle on Gloucester winger Ollie Thorley; while the decision to award a knock-on by Chiefs No.8 Matt Kvesic in the last play of the game also appeared tough on the visitors when replayed on the TV screens afterwards.
Although clearly frustrated by the two outcomes, the Chiefs Director of Rugby refused to put the end outcome solely down to the calls of referee Craig Maxwell-Keys and his fellow officials.
Quizzed on the incidents post-game, Baxter replied: “I have got two points of view on it. One is- and I said to the referee when we came off - I was surprised it [the Morgan try] wasn’t looked at again. Had it had been looked at and a decision gets made, then I don’t think you can complain too much, but you do expect things like that to get checked.
“Talking to the team about it, the truth is - and the guys know this - if you want to win regularly, you can’t hope that a refereeing decision goes your way. You have to make the game go your way. At times tonight, I thought we did that, but at others times we didn’t. If we’re honest, it was a little bit fractured and not quite where we needed to be for us to ever really take charge of the game. We were probably that little bit off.
“Had we had got a draw at the end, I don’t think it would be an unfair result for either side, but it’s one of those things. Tonight we have given it a real go, but we have come up a little bit short.”
Morgan’s late try ensured that for a ninth successive season in the top flight, near the Chiefs or Gloucester were able to claim a league double over one another.
The Chiefs had earlier got off to the dream start when Nic White raced over for the opening score, but Gloucester hit back to lead 10-7 at the break thanks to a penalty from Billy Twelvetrees and a converted try from Jason Woodward.
Joe Simmonds restored parity early in the second half, before Gloucester again edged in front, this time skipper Will Heinz sneaking over from close range, only for O’Flaherty to level the game up when he raced over for his first-ever try in the Premiership.
With little to choose between either side in the closing quarter, it was Morgan who provided the crucial finish, bulldozing his way over in the right-hand corner.
It was, however, the build-up to that score which left Baxter searching for answers afterwards. He added: “I spoke to the officials on the pitch at the end and they said they didn’t see it. The TMO has an opportunity to come in on it if necessary, but the thing that surprises me is that the TMO hasn’t looked at it at all.
“Where you have to be careful in these situations is that you don’t say there were one or two decisions that have cost us the game. Instead, you have to make it about yourself. If we start focusing on the referee, which is something we don’t do, that’s where you get things wrong. The whole point is you have to take control of what you do. There were things we could have done better today and there are things we will need to work on in training. However, the good thing about this time of year is that if things are going to get exposed, now is a good time for them to be exposed.
“The worst thing is had we drawn the game tonight, the players could have gone away and thought everything is ok, when actually you need to work hard to get better in everything that you do. Again we have been hugely competitive away from home, against one of the top teams in the Premiership, and we nearly drew the game right at the end. We got a losing bonus point, so it’s not an awful performance and these are the things we need to remember.”