Beaten Chiefs suffering an ‘emotional wobble’
Baxter knows he and his team have work to do after suffering home defeat to Bristol
STAYING at the top after peaking the summit is the hardest thing in sport so the old adage goes - and so it is proving for last season’s double winners Exeter Chiefs in recent weeks.
Exeter are not used to losing consecutive games in recent years, but the defending Gallagher Premiership champions have now been beaten twice in eight days to sides who finished just below them in the top four last season and are snapping at their heels.
Following a 34-5 defeat to Wasps last weekend with a second string side, Bristol Bears won 20-7 at Sandy Park on Saturday night against the strongest squad Rob Baxter could field with injuries and positive Covid19 cases denying the Chiefs director of rugby a number of key players.
But despite the absences, Baxter admitted Bristol looked the hungrier of the two sides on the day and that was key to deciding the winner.
He said: “I think is has probably exposed that little bit in us, where we probably are in an emotional wobble.
“I am not going to say anything different to people here than what I did in the changing rooms. I am not quite sure every game is meaning as much at the moment as it should for the lads. I understand why it can happen
“We had a big end of the (last) season and you think there might be a flat spot coming at some stage.
“It feels like we’ve hit one now.” Baxter revealed the coaching staff had been working all week to get the emotional reaction need from the Exeter squad to win a game of this magnitude between the two best sides in the league in 2020/21, but felt Bristol had the edge in that area on the day.
Baxter said: “We have got to have a look at ourselves now and have a bit of a reset moment.
“We have got to find a way to make these games and this season special in some way, one way that will happen is some pressure on us in the Premiership table because at some stage we are going to look at the table and say we have to start collecting more points.
“But there’s only one way to get through it - you get honest about it and you get some hard work done. Nothing cleanses the soul like some hard work.
“We will look at the mistakes we made - there were plenty out there - and there is plenty that people can improve, both individually and collectively, so it’s going to be a nice interesting challenge for us over these next few weeks.”
Bristol Bears won thanks to tries from Harry Randall and Semi Radradra, and 10 points from the boot of Callum Sheedy who scored all four of his kicks on the night.
Chiefs scored through Jonny Hill in the first half but failed to register a point after the break as they created far fewer try scoring opportunities than the visitors.
Bristol coach Pat Lam said: “It’s a big win for the club,” Bristol rugby director Lam said.
“Coming here, we were going to get a taste of them being at their best, so we prepared accordingly.
“We talked about what it takes at Test match level, the intensity and physicality. You can’t just rock up with those things, you have got to prepare the whole week. It was a massive effort by everybody.
“They came hard, but we hit them hard, and that’s what we planned to do.”