Match Reaction - Rob Baxter
By Mark Stevens
23/4/23
Exeter Chiefs Director of Rugby, Rob Baxter, praised the fighting spirit of his side as they wrapped up their home campaign at Sandy Park with a 22-21 victory over Bristol Bears in the Gallagher Premiership.
Joe Simmonds, one of a number making his final appearance on home soil, struck the match-winning penalty, landing his decisive kick with just two minutes remaining.
It capped a remarkable fightback for the Devonians, who had lost lock Dafydd Jenkins to a red card on 18 minutes. Simmonds’ kick, coupled with Josh Iosefa-Scott’s second half score helped the Chiefs to victory after Ian Whitten and Dave Ewers had found their way over the try-line during the first half.
The Bears countered with converted tries from and George Kloska, Joe Jenkins and Yann Thomas, but it was not enough to thwart the Chiefs on an emotional day for many.
“I’m delighted for the players because we had a number running out at Sandy Park for their last time as an Exeter player,” said Baxter. “We wanted the day to go well for them and, as it turned out, it has been a great occasion.
“However, it’s in a different way to what we planned and they have battled through very difficult circumstances to get us a very important Premiership win, with Champions Cup places still up for grabs.
“We had plenty of practice last week playing with 14 players so that paid off a bit today. We managed the scenario a lot better compared to last week where we let things compound and got on the back foot way too often.
“Whereas last week we probably got everything wrong, today we got pretty much everything right. That’s great credit to the players because the last thing we needed was to be down to 14 players.”
The loss of Welsh international Jenkins so early in the game for a head-on-head collision with Bristol prop Max Lahiff meant the home side were short-numbered for a large part of the contest, but Baxter hailed how his side dealt with the deficit.
“I thought we managed to navigate a pretty difficult situation very well,” he added. “The big issue with Daf going off so early meant we not only had to restructure our line-out plans, but we had to rejig without our line-out caller. That caused us a few problems, but great credit to to the players for how they came through those additional challenges and grew as the game went on.”
The decision to also boost the Chiefs pack back to eight in the second half, sacrificing Tom Wyatt on the wing, was also instrumental in the end outcome.
“We probably timed the switch back to eight forwards pretty well,” said Baxter. “We didn’t do it straight away because we felt the space in the back field was important. To be fair, the backs did well to keep us in the game in the first half, we even went in ahead at the break, but as the conditions started to close in, it was important we boosted the forwards.
“That allowed us to control field position a little better and when it came to some of those crucial factors, we were able to come out on top, including that scrum right at the end.”
The win was just the tonic the Chiefs needed ahead of next Sunday’s crucial Heineken Champions Cup clash with La Rochelle in Bordeaux.
“I wasn’t too worried about how we would run from this game into next week because it’s not been a problem all season,” continued Baxter. “It was more I wanted those players who are leaving us to have a nice end to their time here at the club. Given what happened with the early red card, that was a good win against the odds.”