Baxter positive despite defeat
Rob Baxter is confident his Exeter Chiefs squad will have learnt plenty from their pre-season programme, despite ending it with a narrow home loss against Heineken Cup rivals Glasgow Warriors.
Having overcome Scarlets (23-15) and Bristol (51-7) in their first two friendlies, the Devon club were undone home soil by the Warriors who headed back north of the border with a 29-26 win under their belts.
It was a disappointing ending to pre-season for the Chiefs, but head coach Baxter admitted all three fixtures had provided useful work-outs for his players ahead of this weekend’s Aviva Premiership opener away to Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens.
Reflecting on his side’s latest display, Baxter said: “That is why this game was good for us because we didn’t get away with things. It means we can have a good look at the video this week and can focus on getting the things we need to work on, doing things correctly at the right time, and with the right quality.
“Obviously we’re disappointed with the result as getting a negative result last up is not the best way for it to go. That said, it concentrates the minds and makes sure you’re not thinking everything is perfect because it is not. Losing doesn’t disguise anything for us and there were elements there that we need to work on.
“We struggled to get the tempo into the game, particularly in the first half, that we would have liked. The tackle areas were a bit messy; we struggled to get tempo and a crispness that we wanted. Defensively, we slipped off a few too many tackles as individuals. We were stood in front of them quite a lot and they would just come skipping through us. Those are elements we have to work on.”
Certainly Baxter and the Chiefs coaching team will look to address such issues this week, but there were positives also to take from the Glasgow game.
“Were there some positives? Yes, the line-out functioned a lot better than it did last week,” assessed Baxter. “We would probably have liked to get our maul game working a little bit better.
“Also, we scored some good tries still and we’ve only got to be a little bit sounder in defence and all of a sudden we would be talking about us forcing a win. That’s the way you have to look at it, it is not just about running in tries out of nowhere, it is about dealing with pressure situations because I actually think that is where we let ourselves down the most.
“We didn’t deal with the variety of pressure situations that came through the game. We got ourselves back in the game and then the first thing we did was give away a scrum in our 22, so you are going to struggle if you are that inconsistent.”
Baxter, though, is confident his hard-working troops will be back on song against Northampton this Saturday and is predicting another strong season ahead for the Chiefs.
He added: “We are a hard-working team and the guys aren’t going to go out there and not work hard. I was pleased with our overall work-rate and our desire to go out there and play. At times that cost us a little bit, we were a little bit too relaxed about playing, thinking we could play through and around Glasgow, but they were tough in the contact areas.
“However, we have had some tough pre-season games before and bounced through them and hit the Premiership really well and that is what I’m hoping for now.”
By Mark Stevens
Pictures: Exeter Rugby Club / Pinnacle Photo Agency
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