Baxter is delighted to grind out victory

EXETER director of rugby Rob Baxter praised his charges for overcoming freezing north-east conditions to beat a battling Newcastle side 15-9 at Kingston Park.

The defending Gallagher Premiership champions’ second successive win moves them up to second in the league table after eight matches, two points behind leaders Bristol Bears who lost at home to Sale Sharks on Friday.

A Sam Simmonds try helped the Chiefs to a slender 10-6 lead at the break, and Wales international Alex Cuthbert crashed over in the corner in the second half to see the Devonians over the line.

And while Baxter admitted after the final whistle that there is still plenty for his side to improve on, he was buoyed by the professional manner in which they saw off a team who had won five of their seven previous Premiership matches this season.

“It’s not easy to come to Newcastle on a freezing cold Sunday afternoon and grind out a win,” said Baxter, 49.

“It was a seven-hour trip here, it was an early kick-off, and the boys have turned up and performed physically and emotionally really well.

“If we’ve got one criticism, there was just a little bit of inaccuracy and lack of composure around the breakdown. Sometimes the ball just went to the floor a bit too easily and that was disappointing.

“A bit of accuracy would have seen us through the game a lot safer and that would have taken some of the pressure off in the final few minutes of the game.

“But Sam and Alex have scored two very good tries which have won us the game today.”

Having seen his team narrowly fall short, Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards said: “Exeter were more dominant in the second half and kept us pinned back for long periods where we struggled to get into real attacking positions. They are a very good side and we’ve pushed them close, but they just had that little extra bit of quality which is what was needed to get the win.”