Match Reaction - Rob Baxter

By Mark Stevens
1/5/23

Exeter Chiefs Director of Rugby, Rob Baxter, said he is ready to herald a new dawn at the club as he prepares to say a fond farewell to a number of his long-term stars.

In just a few weeks time, a glut of those who helped the Chiefs to win a prestigious English and European double will head for pastures new. It will bring to an end a golden generation who have certainly helped to put Devon’s finest on the global rugby map.

Jack Nowell, Lukę Cowan-Dickie, Harry Williams, Stuart Hogg, Jannes Kirsten, Jack Maunder and the Simmonds brothers, Joe and Sam, are among those destined for pastures new. Behind them, however, are Baxter’s next crop of young talent, all of whom will want to make their mark.

At the impressive Matmut Atlantique Stadium in Bordeaux, it was a combination of the two who fell short of reaching a second Heineken Champions Cup Final. Overcome 47-28 by defending champions La Rochelle, it was almost a timely moment for Baxter to confirm his changing of the guard moving forward,

“I am going to miss these guys because they are amazing players and I count some of them as life-long friends of mine and we have done some incredible things together,” he said. “We have been on a journey together for 12, 13, 14 years with some of them but, at the same time, I am also looking forward to next year because I would like to start a journey with some of these other players.

“It will be amazing to watch guys like Will Becconsall, Tom Wyatt and Tom Cairns, guys who have just got into the team, and Christ Tshiunza, Daf Jenkins, it will be amazing to watch these guys lift a trophy one day, and that’s what we have got to focus on now.”

Up against the star-studded Frenchmen, the Chiefs got off to a dream start when No.8 Sam Simmonds, himself heading to Montpellier next term, gave them the dream start with a try after just five minutes.

La Rochelle, though, were quick to counter and by half time were already 26-7 up by the interval. Ronan O’Gara’s side would extend that lead further in the second half, before the Chiefs countered with further scores from Josh Iosefa-Scott, Olly Woodburn and Jack Yeandle.

It gave the end scoreline a more respectable - and certainly deserved feel to things - but Baxter admitted earlier errors had cost his side.

“The truth is, every defensive slip we made, it became a try,” he added. “I thought the first five minutes, we contained them with great energy, got good field position, we were brave and we got the try which, I felt, gave us some foundation into the game.

“Unfortunately - and this is where you have go give credit to the really good teams, if you then make a mistake, more often than not they’ll punish you and that’s exactly what happened. When we go through the game again, we will look at some of those thought-provoking mistakes, some decision-making mistakes and also, at times, a lack of real decisiveness. Had we gone flat-out, I think we would have been much better. Instead, we didn’t and we got stodgy, which in turn led to penalties and pressure.”

And it’s that learning process that Baxter feels will be invaluable to his young squad moving forward. He said: “La Rochelle showed what a good team can do if you let them into the game easily. At the same time, today is going to let us add some layers of experience to some young guys who, let’s be honest, have not been here long, nor have they played that many games.

“There is so much more there to come. That game didn’t need to be a 20-point difference come there end, had we done more of the things we talked about. Moving forward, we have to work with this group and add that experience so that next time we’re in this position, they know how to deal with it.”