Match Reaction - Rob Baxter
By Mark Stevens
09/04/22
Exeter Chiefs Director of Rugby Rob Baxter admits it’s ‘all to play for’ as his side claimed a narrow 13-8 first leg advantage in their Heineken Champions Cup encounter with Munster in the Round of 16.
First half tries from Stuart Hogg and Jacques Vermeulen gave the Chiefs a 10-0 lead at the turn, before Munster countered with a penalty from Ben Healy early in the second half.
The Chiefs then lost Olly Woodburn and Patrick Schickerling to yellow cards in the space of a minute, but they were able to add the next points when Scottish captain Hogg plundered a near 50-metre drop-goal to restore his side’s ten-point cushion.
Munster, though, would not go quietly as they looked to make the most of their numerical advantage and they were rewarded when winger Shane Daly powered his way over in the corner for what could prove a crucial try.
Baxter knows his side could easily have come away with a much bigger lead to take to Thomond Park this Saturday, such was their dominance, particularly in the first half and again towards the final whistle, but the Chiefs leader was more than happy with the end outcome.
“It was a funny one, now it’s finished you would say the tale of the game is us not being able to take our opportunities or Munster stopping us taking those five metre opportunities that we managed to create,” said Baxter. “But then you turn it around and say when we were down to 13 men, we had to work like devils really to stop them scoring. You could feel there was a real opportunity for them because we had ten minutes with only 13 men and that could really have turned against us.
“Some of our spirit in defence and around the breakdown, especially when down to 13 men, that was probably some of our best rugby this season. The whole game, the whole situation could have flipped then, but it didn’t. To only lose the scoreboard by two points in that period, I thought was incredible from us.
“To deal with that ten minutes like we did, it showed a lot of character, which I do believe could really drive our season from now on. I thought the lads really came together. They were all on the same page, they worked really hard emotionally and physically, and I thought our game was well directed.
“We have got over the try line a number of times, yet we haven’t got the ball dotted on the floor. That’s not a disaster of a performance, that’s a very good performance with the last dot down just needed. It’s like dotting the last ‘I’ on a novel, that’s all that needs to happen. All the hard work, processes and elements are there, and that gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season.”
Baxter, though, was somewhat irked by the nature of the two yellow cards his team picked up, adding: “You guys know I am not one to go and look to find fault with the process, but that’s a rugby clear out that has happened probably 30 or 40 times in a game, I could go downstairs now and clip out 20 rucks where someone’s arms where they have bound at a ruck have gone into a head.
“The first card [for Woodburn] is a clear out where the guy is going in and binding and grabbing and it’s a foot off the ground. To the absolute letter of the law, it’s maybe a penalty, maybe a yellow card, but if we are going to freeze frame every breakdown there is going to be an awful lot of yellow cards knocking about. I thought we had moved on from that, I thought we were looking for clear and definitive high contact to heads and faces with no mitigation and no dropping in height, all this kind of stuff, yet this feels like it goes against all of that if I’m being honest with you.
“With Pat, I genuinely don’t think he has a clue what has happened as he rolls away from that tackle, the ball was there and its rolled with him, but I need to look at that again. For us to deal with that and perform like we did, I’m really impressed.”
And so Baxter should be, his team produced a powerful, workmanlike display that augurs well for the second leg which, he knows, will be another formidable challenge.
“At the end of the day, we have to be flat out next week,” said Baxter. “If we’re not flat out, I think Munster can expect to turn that over. They are probably in the changing room now with a few late changes they made to their squad, players available next week, and they are probably relatively happy with the scoreboard. Now we have to turn that into our favour.
“The last time we played there, we played well, but we had the pressure of trying to get five points and score four tries. We had to go for it. We actually created a lot of pressure where we could have kicked for goal, but couldn’t do that on the day. We had no option of how we could win the game. This time we’ve got lots of options for how we can win the game, we’ve not had that before, and we have to make sure we are willing to work extremely hard to make that happen.”