Baxter in record form
Recalled to first-team action after a week's respite against lowly Birmingham-Solihull, No.8 Richard Baxter marked his return to the fold by not only claiming a notable hat-trick of tries, but at the same time touching down for his 100th league score for the Devon club.
His fine treble, mixed together with a double from winger Matt Jess and a single from full-back Emyr Lewis, ensured the Chiefs not only kept up their unblemished start to the season, but also maintained pole position within the new-look division after eight games played.
Again, it was a job well done from the Chiefs who, having worked hard against a strong first-half wind, turned on the style after the interval to run out comfortable victors against the travelling Yorkshiremen.
It was the efforts of Baxter, however, that were to prove the main talking point at the final whistle. The all-action forward now joins a pretty exclusive group of players – Nick Baxter, Eddie Saunders, Dave Scully and Kurt Johnson – in reaching a century of league tries. Out of the five, though, the 31-year-old is the first forward to have achieved the feat.
Leading the plaudits at the final whistle was older brother and Exeter head coach, Rob Baxter, who remarked: "Personally, the highlight for me was watching Richie score a hat-trick and getting his 100 league tries. I know he is my brother, but he has been an outstanding performer for us, not just this season, but for a number of years. And I think 100 league tries is going to take some topping on top of the amount of performances he has had for the club.
"It was another big performance from him again today, he drove us forward in pretty much every aspect of the game. He should be massively pleased with himself and I think the other boys are really pleased he got his 100 tries as well."
Saturday's latest treble means Baxter has now totalled 101 league tries in 292 league games. However, he can add a further 12 touchdowns in 41 cup appearances to his impressive tally.
It's certainly a fine statistic for a player who first turned out for Exeter's first team ten years ago in an away fixture at Fylde. Since then, he has become a regular fixture in Exeter squads over the years, his on-field efforts also rewarding him with selection into the England Under-21s, English National Divisions and Barbarians representative sides.
Now, though, he wants to be part of a Chiefs side that eventually get to dine at English rugby's top table. With brother Rob directing operations off the field, Richard appears intent on leading from the front on the field.
After a somewhat scrappy opening to the game, it was the Chiefs who broke the game's deadlock on ten minutes when winger Matt Jess showed not only some fancy footwork, but a lethal turn of speed to cut open the Rotherham rearguard and finish off a pass inside from team-mate Matt Cornwell. It was the first of Exeter's six tries on the day.
Fly-half Gareth Steenson obliged with the conversion to that score and Baxter's opener on 19 minutes when, following a sustained spell of home pressure, the No.8 was able to crash over under the sticks to make it 14-0.
Rotherham, who had been dealt a triple blow ahead of kick-off when three of their players had contracted food poisoning, needed a response and it duly arrived on 25 minutes.
Working their way into Exeter territory through a series of marshalled drives, they eventually did enough to pierce the home defence and it was back-row forward Sam Dickinson, who benefited with their solitary try, which skipper Mike Whitehead added the extras to.
Steenson and Whitehead exchanged a penalty apiece before the break to leave the Chiefs in control at 17-10.
That would be as close as the visiting Titans would get to their hosts who, it has to be said, cranked into another gear in the second period.
Having survived at least three decent shouts for a try on the line, Rotherham finally caved in the 54th minute when Baxter powerfully drove himself over the whitewash for his milestone touchdown.
Lewis got in on the scoring act on the hour mark when he finished off neat approach work from Chris Bentley and Jess, before the latter added his second of the game when he turned on the after burners to scorch his way past at least two Rotherham defenders. Steenson converted both tries to take the score to 36-10.
Former Launceston forward Tinus du Plessis threatened to add a second try for the visitors late on. However, it was fittingly left to Baxter to crown his special day with his third try on 80 minutes, the forward this time rumbling over in the right-hand corner. Replacement Danny Gray banged over the difficult touchline conversion to add the coupe de grace.
Content with another five-point victory, coach Baxter said his side's individual error count was a cause for concern ahead of this weekend's testing trip to Bedford, but defensively he felt his side had again moved up another level.
"It's a massive step up for us," Baxter admitted. "For me there was a crucial time about five minutes before the end when it just looked like we'd gone a little bit soft. We'd got our 40-odd points, they'd scored ten, and we looked like we could make a choice between letting them run a soft one in or knuckling down and put in a few sets of defence and we defended. To me, that is massive thing.
"They have only scored one try, which I'm still not particularly happy with because it was a very soft try, we didn't work hard enough on the inside of our defence. We looked a bit lazy at times.
"But one soft try is better than conceding two or three at the end of the game, so that's another step forward. I'd be a lot happier if we could get it down to conceding ten or less points every week."
Exeter Chiefs No.8 Richard Baxter powers his way over for one of his three tries in Saturday's 43-10 win over visiting Rotherham
