'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
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments