'A lot of teams would like to have those unsuccessful seasons'
Rob Baxter claimed on Saturday night that numerous clubs would love to have the type of season that Exeter have endured – getting knocked out of the Heineken Champions Cup at the round of 16 stage and struggling to make the Gallagher Premiership end-of-season playoffs. The 2020 European champions were eliminated by Irish opposition for the second season running when last year’s quarter-final loss to Leinster was followed up by a 26-10 defeat in Limerick to Munster which resulted in the Chiefs exiting the tournament on the back of a 34-23 aggregate loss.
Despite being without the injured Sam Simmonds, Exeter had their noses in front on the aggregate score until the hour mark at Thomand Park after Jacques Vermeulen’s unconverted 49th-minute try left them trailing in Saturday’s rematch by only 13-10 following last weekend’s 13-8 victory at Sandy Park.
However, they failed to protect that slender two-point advantage and were swept aside by a compelling Munster finish, Joey Carbery kicking eight points to add to a 73rd minute try from Damian de Allende on an afternoon when some historically reliable parts of Exeter’s game left them down, namely their work at the breakdown and the boot of Joe Simmonds.
Their exit means that just two English teams – Sale and Leicester – have made it through to the last eight in the Champions Cup and the lack of European action has now piled the pressure on the inconsistent form of Exeter in the Premiership.
They have qualified for the last six league finals at Twickenham, lifting the title twice, but they have played a game more than their playoff rivals this season and are vulnerable to losing hold of the fourth-place they currently occupy as their three-game run-in commences with a visit to fierce rivals Saracens next weekend.
It’s a gloomy picture following the tremendous European/Premiership double Exeter success in 2020 but Baxter insisted it was a situation that numerous clubs would enviously love to have – a run to the last 16 in Europe and to still have a say in the English title race. Asked by RugbyPass in Limerick if their European elimination to Munster signalled the end of the era of the great trophy-winning Chiefs side, the coach said: “I wouldn’t say so because we have still got some players who were involved in those years who are the right age range, are still improving, are having very good careers and having very good games for us.
“But what you are starting to see now is probably sometimes you need that failure. It sounds a bit weird because we were in the last 16 of the Heineken Cup and we have lost coming away to Munster and won at home, we are still in the top four of the Premiership, albeit clinging in there. A lot of teams would go, ‘I’d like to have those unsuccessful seasons’.
“But for us, we may need something that feels a little bit off and not quite right to put that stopper and allow ourselves a proper pre-season, address a few things and kind of not necessarily restart but just re-kick some of the key foundation elements that make you a solid side. That is the feeling I get. Some of the things that used to make us very hard to beat, some of those have drifted off and we are a little easy to beat in a few areas now and we have to address that and just tinker with a few things.”
The word from the post-match dressing room, according to Baxter, was a realisation that Exeter can’t allow themselves to get pressurised the way that Munster came at them if they are to get back to being a dominant team in both Europe and England. “It’s (a feeling of) frustration because the guys know they created a lot of problems for ourselves,” he continued.
“It’s a really difficult one. We are not on the field, we don’t really know the pressure the guys are feeling and we don’t know the intensity of everything. Did we get pushed into coming off game plan or did we let ourselves get pushed off game plan, that is the battle? We cannot let ourselves get pushed away from what we need to do, that is what good teams do and we couldn’t do that today. Some of that was down to Munster, some down to us. Our challenge will be to improve.”
Earlier in his short post-game briefing, Baxter placed the blame for the defeat on Exeter not being confrontational enough. “We started pretty brightly but then our defence was so far off what we achieved last week, its intensity, its kind of collision quality, that worried me a little bit.
“To be fair to the lads we fought our way back into the game and scored our second try and it became a tight contest again, but you kind of know a day is drifting away from you when the opposition kicker [Joey Carbery, who kicked 16 points off the tee] can’t miss from anywhere and your kicker [Joe Simmonds, who drew a blank with his kicks] can’t seem to hit them from anywhere.
“You look and you think if that had been a 50/50 kicking battle we would have been in it until the death, but that is some of the simple things that happened today. Munster were where they needed to be and we weren’t and it is a great credit to Munster and the crowd and the emotion they created together, it was fantastic for them but we needed to be better than we were. We weren’t confrontational enough or competitive enough in enough areas.
“The breakdown was frustrating because at half-time we kind of solved the problem for the majority of the second half and that led to our second try, we were creating momentum, we were keeping the ball and keeping the ball quite simply as well.
“That is the frustration, that some of the very simple things, I am not saying they are easy but simple things around the golden rules on how you play, how you put your game together, we drifted off relatively easily in the first half and that is a frustration.
“That is a very big frustration from a coaching perspective because when we did those things, we kept the ball and we kept going and we were fine. As I said, if we could have started the game with that clarity of thought we probably would have seen ourselves in a lot better position with the wind to have a better position in the second half than we had.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Farcical, to what end would someone want to pay to keep this thing going.
1 Go to commentsHavili, our best 12 by a mile, will be in the squad, if he stays fit. JB is the most overrated AB in the last 50 years.
61 Go to commentsWe had during the week twilight footy, twilight cricket, tw golf plus there was the athletics club. Then the weekend was rugby 15s plus the net ball, really busy club scene back then but so much has changed and rugby has suffered. And it was all about changing lifestyles.
6 Go to commentsIn the 70s and 80s my club ran 5 Senior sides plus a Vets. Now it is 2 sides with an occasional 3rd team. Players have difficulty getting to training now, not sure why and the commitment is not there. It seems to me more a problem of people applying themselves and not expecting to turn up and play whenever they want to.
6 Go to commentsROG’s contract is until 2027. The conversation about a successor to Galthie after RWC 2027 may be starting now. We can infer that Galthie’s reign stops then. He is throwing the Irish Coaching Job angle in because he is Irish. The next Irish coach MUST be Leo Cullen. As well as being the best coach available, coaching the vast majority of Irish Internationals week in week out, he has shown incredible skill at recruiting the best coaching staff for the job in hand. That was a failing in France. Cullen is a shrewd guy and if there is a need for foreign coaches underneath him he won’t hesitate. Rightly so. Ireland does need to start to bring Irish coaches through. Not just at the professional level but we need to train coaches to man new pathways for developing kids from schools/clubs up through the divisions.
7 Go to commentsNo Islam says it must rule where it stands Thus it is to be deleted from this planet Earth
18 Go to commentsThis team probably does not beat the ABs sadly Not sure if BPA will be available given his signing for Force but has to enter consideration. Very strong possibility of getting schooled by the AB props. Advantage AB. Rodda/Skelton would be a tasty locking combination - would love to see how they get on. Advantage Wallabies. Backrow a risk of getting out hustled and outmuscled by ABs. Will be interesting to see if the Blues feast on the Reds this weekend the way they did the Brumbies we are in big trouble at the breakdown. Great energy, running and defence but goalkicking/general kicking/passing quality in the halves bothers me enormously. SA may have won the World Cup for a lot of the tournament without a recognised goalkicker but Pollard in the final made a difference IMO. Injuries and retirements leave AB stocks a bit lighter but still stronger. 12 and 13 ABs shade it (Barret > Paisami, Ione = Ikitau, arguably) Interesting clash of styles on the wings - Corey Toole running around Caleb Clark and Caleb running over the top of Toole. Reece vs Koro probably the reverse. Pretty even IMO. 15s Kelleway = Love See advantage to ABs man for man, but we are not obviously getting slaughtered anywhere which makes a nice change. Think talent wise we are pretty even and if our cohesion and teamwork is better than the ABs then its just about doable.
11 Go to commentsCompletely agree. More friday night games would be a hit. RFU to make sure every club has a floodlit pitch. Club opens again Saturday to welcome touch / tag. Minis and youths on Sunday
6 Go to comments1.97m and 105Kg? Proportionately, probably skinnier than me at 1.82 and 82kilos. He won’t survive against the big guys at that weight.
55 Go to commentsThe value he brought to the crusaders as an assistant was equal to what he got out of being there. He reflected not only on the team culture but also the credit he attributed to the rugby community. Such experience shouldn’t be overlooked.
7 Go to commentsGood luck Aussie
11 Go to commentssmith at 9 / mounga 10 / laumape 12 / fainganuku 14
61 Go to commentsBar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
11 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
61 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
7 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
61 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
55 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
61 Go to comments