Baxter pleased as Exeter show winning attributes
Ability to grind out victories has been the cornerstone of Chiefs’ incredible success
ROB Baxter hailed Exeter Chiefs’ ability to see out victory in a tight game with Worcester Warriors on Saturday and says his side are going to have to channel that spirit right through this block of eight weekends without some of their best players.
Chiefs beat Worcester 21-17 at Sixways thanks to early tries from Jonny Gray, Ian Whitten and a second half score from Ollie Devoto, but they were never able to pull away from their determined hosts.
Exeter head to Newcastle Falcons on Sunday, with the northern side starting the season superbly well after being promoted from the Championship, sitting in fourth place despite losing 31-22 away at London Irish last weekend to drop below Chiefs.
Reflecting on Saturday’s win over Worcester, Exeter director of rugby Baxter said: “At the moment being about to lock down and win an away game and get four points, that’s what makes a big season.
“I would like to think we will look back on Worcester as nothing else as a really important collection of points. That is what we have got to be prepared to do, go by week by week, by week and get what we need.
“It is going to be a tough challenge this weekend going to Newcastle, they are playing very well and they are at the other end of the table to Worcester.
“They do a lot of things very well which we do, their 5m pressure game is really good and we are going to have to create some space on the field and on the scoreboard to get a win up there but it should be a challenge we are looking forward to and not worried about.”
While Baxter admitted he would have loved his side to pull away and make it an easy day at the office having gone 14-0 up after 15 minutes, he said being able to win tight games has been the very foundation of the club’s success in recent years having won the Gallagher Premiership and European Heineken Champions Cup in 2019/20.
He said: “I am pleased we have battled through a tough game, if anything that will give us a bit of confidence we can come through tight games.
“The key thing at the end of last season was how we came through tight games, the European semi-final and both finals were tight games and sometimes grafting your way through the tight ones is the best quality you can have.”
With the Six Nations running over the next two months Chiefs are without England quartet Jonny Hill, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Harry Williams and Henry Slade; Wales’ Tomas Francis and Scotland’s Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray.
The club’s England players also missed the victory over Worcester as they were in a national training camp, but even with Francis and Gray in the pack the Exeter scrum struggled. Reflecting on the issue in the set piece, Baxter said: “I think at the moment we are not really scrummaging as an eight. That is the battle with the scrum.
“The scrum isn’t just about the frontrow, the scrum is an eight man machine and at the moment our scrum doesn’t look like an eight man machine, but I am sure Rob Hunter [forwards coach] is going to have a few prime words with the pack of forwards during the course of this week, I have already had a chat with him, and we are ready to lock it back into place.”