Match Reaction: Rob Baxter
By Mark Stevens
26/8/17
Exeter Chiefs Director of Rugby Rob Baxter says he will have to assess his walking wounded after a number of his players picked up injuries in Friday’s final pre-season friendly away to Cardiff Blues.
Michele Campagnaro, James Short, Jonny Hill and Dave Dennis were all forced to leave the field during their side’s narrow 21-20 defeat at the Arms Park.
The loss of the quartet merely added to a frustrating night for the English champions, who kick-off their Aviva Premiership title defence this coming Friday with a trip to rivals Gloucester at Kingsholm (7:45pm).
“We will have to assess the injuries, with a couple of them potentially serious, which is always a disappointment in pre-season,” said Baxter at the final whistle.
“You have got to be concerned at any injury you pick up, but we are strong enough to cover it, and we have got guys coming back from injury in the next few weeks.We obviously don’t want any long-term injuries for the players, so we have just got to make sure we deal with things the best we can and move forward.”
Having led 14-10 at the break thanks to converted tries from Don Armand and Sam Simmonds, the Welsh region hit back strongly after the break and sealed victory thanks to a late penalty from replacement Jarrod Evans.
Assessing his team’s performance in a game they could have won late, but for Henry Slade’s late drop-goal attempt being charged down, Baxter added: “It was a tough game, and it was what we were hoping for and what we kind of expected as well.
“I am glad we got a tough work-out and I am glad we were having to fight at the end to try and get something out of the game, because those are the qualities we are going to have to show in every game this season.
“I am not going to get overly carried way about whether we knock over a late drop goal, because ultimately that doesn’t really change anything in terms of our performance.
“What is important is the level of the performance we put in, that is what we have got to get used to looking at, and what the players have got to be happy with, and they are because that is how we always assess them and what they are prepared for.We will very much base selection for next week on what I see when I look at this game in detail.”
Although the Chiefs will head into the Gloucester clash on the back of a defeat, Baxter insists pre-season has gone well for his squad and that come their seasonal opener, his players will be ready to fire on all cylinder.
He does, however, have to ensure his players are aware of the fact that having won the league back in May at Twickenham, they have now become a prized scalp for their rivals - a point underlined by the way the Blues celebrated this latest success on Friday night.
He added: “I said to the lads, being champions of England isn’t about where we end up at the end of the season, it is about what we do today, tomorrow and the next day, and that is how it has to be, and some guys will thrive in that and some won’t.’
“The intensity levels tonight weren’t bad. We dropped a lot of ball on the floor, and whether that is getting used to a surface that is a little bit more bouncy, I don’t know, but we certainly lost a lot of balls I wouldn’t expected us to lose when we hit the floor, and there were a couple of clear-outs I wouldn’t expect us to miss, and we took a couple of decisions that were not really sticking to the game plan and running with that hard.
“We looked for something exciting to make something happen, when we probably didn’t need to, and for a large part of the game, what you need to do is establish really good foundations, and often that is territory-based, partly possession-based, and a lot of decision making.
“We had a lot of opportunity in the second half to take big chunks of territory and we chose to run, and ended up losing the ball.”