Baxter is relishing ‘fantastic’ challenge for Exeter in semis
E xe t e r b o s s R o b B a x t e r i s relishing the “fantastic” prospect of a Heineken Champions Cup semi-final against F r e n c h h e a v y w e i g h t s Toulouse.
His team marched into their f i r s t C h a mp i o n s C u p l a s tfour clash by beating Northampton 38-15 at Sandy Park.
Toulouse, who are chasing a record fifth European title, will present a huge test for the runaway Gallagher Premiership leaders in Devon next Saturday.
“It’s fantastic,” Exeter rugby director Baxter, inset, said. “Ultimately, we need a big challenge now to get the best o u t o f o u r s e l ve s . I a m r e a l l y l o o k i n g for ward to seeing us p e r f o r m, b ec a u s e I t h i n k our focus will be a lot more zeroed-in than it was today.
“There was an everythingto -lose feeling about today, a n d i t w a s a r e a l t e s t o f character for us.
“Today was as much a mental challenge as anything else, but we dealt with it and came through it. We’ve got a short training week now, which I think will be good for us. We can re-energise and focus on three or four key elements.
Saints trailed by only four points at half-time, and Baxter added: “We can play a lot better than that, I know we can, but Northampton came here and challenged us really well in some areas.
“The final scoreline feels a little o dd in a way, but in any Premiership game you would take that every day of the week as a pretty convincing scoreline.
“We will be confident that we can move on our lineout and scrum from today, and some of the discipline.”
Exeter joined fellow English challengers Saracens in the last four, going one better than their previous best Champions Cup campaign four years ago, as tries by scrum-half Jack Maunder, flanker Jacques Vermeulen (two), wing Jack Nowell a n d l o c k Jo n ny H i l l s u n k Saints.
Northampton trailed 14-10 at the break following captain Teimana Harrison’s try and a Dan Biggar conversion and penalty.
Despite Saints centre Fraser Dingwall’s opportunist second-half touchdown, Exe -
ter stand-off Joe Simmonds ticked things over through four conversions and a pena l t y b e f o r e G a r e t h S t e e n - son conver ted Vermeulen’s second try.
Northampton rugby director Chris B oyd said: “I can’t fault the effort or the intent from the players. We tried hard, but you don’t win games of football from trying hard.
“T h e i r p o i n t s c a m e t o o easily, and we had to work too hard to get ours. It was just those little accumulations of errors that seem to be blighting our game at the moment.”
Boyd paid tribute to teenage loosehead prop Manny Iyo - gun, drafted in due to four players in that position being sidelined by injury. “It was a r e ma r k a b l e s h i f t b y Ma n - ny. He will sleep pretty well tonight, I imagine,” he said.