'Right up there' Rob Baxter relishes win over Bath

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter said the 35-12 victory over reigning Gallagher Prem champions Bath was “right up there” with the special days he has had at Sandy Park.

Chiefs produced their first league victory over their West Country rivals since December 2022 to give them a five-point cushion over fifth-placed Bristol in the battle for the play-off places.

“That was pretty special because there was a lot hanging on that game, and Bath are a very good side,” said Baxter.

“They have controlled us pretty well over the last couple of seasons but today was a bit different, and our second-half performance into that wind was something special because that scenario was ready-made for Bath.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Exeter Chiefs

35 - 12

Full-time

Bath

All Stats and Data

“They are so good in that situation, they had the wind so they could control territory, with a killer front row to bring on, and there was a relatively small difference in the scoreboard (13-5 to Chiefs).

“But we turned up and played some very good rugby in that second half and it was a very important win for us.”

One of the key performers for Chiefs was Australian international centre Len Ikitau, who looked back to his brilliant best after his recent return from a lengthy injury lay-off.

“Len looked way better today and it just shows that after a decent amount of time out of the game, it is expecting a lot early on for him to perform really well.

“Today will give Len a lot of confidence and he will get better and better over the next three to four weeks and I am really looking forward to seeing him play at Twickenham against Harlequins next week,” explained Baxter.

Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan had no complaints over the result or the 20-minute first-half red card for lock Quinn Roux.

“It is always difficult to come here to Sandy Park and I thought Exeter put us under a huge amount of pressure,” he said.

“We got beaten by a better team on the day. I thought we handled the 20-minute red card pretty well and we had an opportunity just before half-time that we didn’t finish.

“We had the wind in the second half and, with 15 minutes to go, it was a one-score game and then we lost a line-out. In this league if you are only 99 per cent there you get punished and Chiefs punished us in that last 10 minutes.”

It has been an amazing weekend in the Prem, with leaders Northampton also suffering a heavy defeat at third-placed Leicester, and van Graan added: “This is an incredible league, and there have been some big results this weekend.

“We have two home games left, against Newcastle and Leicester, and one away match at Bristol and we will take them one by one but this is going to go down to the wire in the first weekend in June.”