Match Reaction - Rob Baxter
By Mark Stevens
02/04/23
Rob Baxter was full of praise for his Exeter Chiefs side as they booked their place in the quarter-finals of this season’s Heineken Champions Cup.
Jack Yeandle’s dramatic, extra time score helped to secure a 33-33 draw for the Devonians, who advanced past the reigning French champions Montpellier on a try count back.
The visitors had stormed into a 12-0 lead thanks to early tries from Curtis Langdon and Vincent Rattez, but back roared the home side with converted scores of their own through Scott Sio and Sam Simmonds.
Paolo Garbisi kicked penalties either side of half time to give Montpellier the lead again, but their cause was hampered with the second half dismissal of influential No.8 Zach Mercer for a high hit on Exeter’s Christ Tshiunza.
He could only watch on as the Chiefs made the most of their numerical advantage to add further tries through Tom Wyatt and Josh Iosefa-Scott, but the visitors refused to go quietly and they reduced the deficit with a score of their own from Lenni Nouchi, before Garbisi kicked a last-minute penalty to send the game into extra time.
Louis Carbonel’s converted try during the second half of added on time gave Montpellier the lead once more, only for the Chiefs to strike late through club captain Yeandle.
His effort means the former champions will now play host to South African giants DHL Stormers this Saturday (5:30pm) in what will be a mouth-watering quarter-final tussle at Sandy Park.
Post-game, Baxter gave his assessment of his side’s performance, saying; “We’ve managed to have a few of these rollercoaster games over the years but, thankfully, we’ve managed to come out on top in most of them. Personally, I’m really pleased for the players because we have challenged them a few times this season around the highs and the lows of performances.
“As I’ve said before, whether we win or lose, that doesn’t matter too much, it’s the level of performance across the game which is most important to me. We weren’t perfect today by any means, but we did look like a team who wanted to win and were willing to work incredibly hard to get that win.”
With Montpellier’s cause disrupted by the dismissal of Mercer ten minutes into the second half, Baxter felt the red card helped to galvanise the Frenchmen into a much tougher on-field force.
“I don’t know if them being reduced to 14 men made it harder for us,” added Baxter. “It seemed to energise them – they grew and grew. Overall, those emotional rollercoasters, coming through that, it shows you can make good things happen. We were quite rightly criticised after our away performances against Bath and Harlequins, whereas today we controlled what we wanted to do very well.”
Helping to lead the way for the Chiefs was No.8 Sam Simmonds who, ironically, will next season be pulling on the Montpellier jersey. His man-of-the-match display not only helped Exeter to victory, but reminded his new employers of his undoubted talent.
“He looked almost impossible to handle sometimes,” said Baxter.“He very nearly scored a solo try that would have written the game off and he was one of the guys who got his levels right for what he wanted to achieve today.”
Equally, there were many others within the home ranks who stood up in battle and Baxter hopes another week of work on the training field can help put the 2020 champions in prime fettle for the visit of the Stormers, who themselves advanced into the last eight with a home win over Harlequins.
“I think today showed what we are truly capable of,” added Baxter. “There have been times this season where we have produced some top quality rugby, but only in small quantities and that’s been our issue. If you watched that last two minutes, they showed what we can do when we want to. The problem we’ve had is that we’ve not done it enough this season.
“This result, however, I believe can give the lads the confidence and the belief that they can go out and produce big performances. Equally, the crowd played their part. I thought they were magnificent and as a club we need to grow that relationship and that support between the players and the supporters. It’s like anything, if you put in a blood and guts performance like that, then the supporters will back you no matter what. Now, let’s hope we can do it all again next week.”