We don’t sit here and complain about refs says Baxter

PIERS Francis, who kicked Northampton to victory, was “elated” by “a real battling performance”.

He said: “It’s one we targeted and we’re pretty pleased we put on a show down here in difficult conditions against a big side. We showed a lot of heart and character.

“We have been working hard on our defence and it was nice to see that come through.”

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter said: “We had our opportunities to win the match but Northampton did fantastically well and exposed us a few times.

“You can be picky with yourselves but when you watch the game back we will see a tremendous defensive effort from Northampton and the result is that if you are off and they are good then you lose.

“We gave ourselves a chance to win the game and fought exceptionally hard in the second half but I know there are certain things we can improve next week.”

Baxter added: “We have no complaints at how the game ended. We don’t sit here and complain about refereeing decisions. We complain about what we got wrong ourselves.”