Exeter players given '10-minute b******ing' despite big win over Saints

Despite a morale-boosting 42-14 Gallagher Premiership a second-string Northampton, Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter was disappointed about the paucity of his side’s performance at Sandy Park.

Ahead of their European Cup final appearance in Cardiff in a fortnight’s ago, Saints rested almost all their first-choice line-up but Chiefs still needed a huge response after their record 79-17 defeat at the hands of Gloucester in their last league outing.

That result saw the departure of two of their coaches with Baxter assuming his former role as hands-on head coach.

Paul Brown-Bampoe and Harvey Skinner each scored two tries, while Nick Lilley and Martin Moloney were also on the try-scoring sheet, with Henry Slade kicking five conversions and Josh Hodge one.

Jake Garside and Tom Lockett crossed over for Northampton – with both converted by Tom James – but the final scoreline was hugely flattering to Exeter, who were sorely tested by a side which contained six debutants in their matchday 23.

22m Entries

Avg. Points Scored

3.5

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Avg. Points Scored

1.5

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Baxter said: “That was barely a regulation win against a wholly second-string side so I’ve issued a 10-minute b******ing to the players in the changing room as their performance was nowhere near good enough.

“There were very basic mistakes in there; our pure error count will be through the roof as will our penalty count.

“The first rule is not to beat yourself, the opposition have to beat you, but we are beating ourselves in many areas.

“We just can’t keep the ball and I will be repeatedly telling the players that I need more from them.

“We want to contest for a top-four spot next season but on that performance we are miles off and the next two weeks against sides in contention for the play-offs will be hugely challenging with pre-season training needing to be harder.”

In contrast, Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson was upbeat following the effort of his young side.

He said: “I’m frustrated at the final scoreline but full of admiration for the amount of effort we put in.

“We wanted to have a real crack at it but it wasn’t perfect as there were a lot of errors, a couple of which we were really punished for.

“Still we showed a lot of heart against a fully-loaded Exeter, who badly needed to win and our performance speaks volumes for the strength of our squad.

“We have Saracens next week and will need a strong side to put on a decent show for our fans in our last home game of the season but selection with the European final looming is a fine balancing act, especially having had a glut of injuries in the back row and back three.”