Chiefs positive despite defeat

IF last week's horror show was hard to stomach, you can bet the Exeter Chiefs' squad will be reaching for the rescue remedies again this morning as they prepare to watch their latest video nasty.

Having led the pack for most of the current campaign, the past fortnight has been one to forget for Rob Baxter's side, whose latest slip-up not only condemned them to a second successive Championship defeat, but at the same time saw them surrender their top-spot status.

Overtaking them at the summit are Bristol, whose 25-16 success yesterday meant they not only avenged their own home defeat by the Chiefs earlier this season, but at the same time they became the first visiting side [since Leeds in September 2008] to win in the league at Sandy Park.

Bristol's five-point reward – which has now put them four clear of the Chiefs heading into the New Year – was not only justified, but underlined that if Exeter want to be considered genuine promotion contenders this term, they need to eradicate certain flaws which have been unearthed in recent weeks.

Those flaws, it has to be said, are nothing too serious. However, against quality opposition – as was the case in this post-Christmas tussle – they will not only be exposed, but also punished.

Recalling events at the close, a disappointed Baxter explained the latest autopsy would not need to delve too far to unearth Exeter's current on-field woes. He said: "We are disappointed because I think we wanted to perform better than we have done today. We know where we have gone wrong and we know the areas we can improve on.

"I think when the players look through the tape on Monday and they see some of the individual errors they made – or some of the things we talked about not doing, but have then gone out and done, then we will be able to move on quickly.

"Yes, we have had a couple of losses, but the mark now will be how we improve from where we are and not get a downer on the rest of the season. We can use use this as something where we sit the guys down and show them that if they don't play well or they don't perform to high standards, that is when you will come unstuck and that's what happened today."

With the Chiefs left to count a number of costly handling errors, as well as a misfiring line-out at times, Baxter will at least have taken some heart from the way his troops performed in the last quarter of the contest.

Indeed, it was during that period that the Chiefs claimed their only try – a late touchdown for Frenchman Nic Sestaret. By then, however, Bristol were already in cruise control, this after the home side had helped to gift-wrap three second-half scores.

Baxter admitted the late salvo was one of a few bright spots he would take from the game.

He added: "Every good season is made up of special moments that you've got to draw on and come back to. I think the last ten or 15 minutes could be one of those moments for us.

"We know we can play better than we played for large parts of the game, but a lot of individuals stood up in that last 15 minutes and said 'we're here to be counted, let's make something of this game'.

"We know we kind of let things slip a little bit with a bad ten-minute spell in the middle, but by the end we were pushing hard. Who knows, had we sneaked over again it would have been an interesting end to the game.

"However, I would have said, on balance, we wouldn't have deserved to come back any stronger than we did at the end because you can't make some of the mistakes we made today and expect to come through a really tough game of rugby.

"We've got to lock down our error count and our poor decision-making, get that sorted and we'll be a better side next time we play."

Having made four changes to the side undone by Plymouth Albion the week previous, the Chiefs started this latest Westcountry affair in fine fettle. From the outset they quickly tore into their rivals and their efforts were rewarded with an early penalty from fly-half Gareth Steenson.

Exeter's lead, however, would prove shortlived as within four minutes a ferocious run from former Chief Junior Fatialofa saw him make decent inroads into the home 22 – from which Chris Budgen strayed offside – gifting Adrian Jarvis a simple penalty to restore parity.

Back on familiar Devon soil, Fatialofa was clearly keen to make his presence felt. Sadly, the centre took that very approach a little too far when he caught opposite number Paul McKenzie with a late hit and was subsequently dispatched to the sin-bin. From the resultant penalty, Steenson fired over the kick to put his side back in front at 6-3.

Although the Chiefs had the man advantage, they were unable to make it pay and it was the visitors who roared into life when Tom Arscott – on as an early replacement for older brother Luke – conjured up the opening for hooker David Blaney to stretch his legs and gallop down the left touchline for the game's opening try, which Jarvis converted superbly on the half-hour.

Bristol bravely saw out the remainder of the half, but were unable to stop Steenson from cutting the deficit on the resumption. The Irishman plundering a third successful kick after the visitors had failed to roll away from the tackle area. In response, Paul Hull's side delivered a quick 'one-two' which momentarily floored the Chiefs and much of the record 7,405 crowd.

First, McKenzie slipped at the wrong moment to allow Jack Adams to feed Tom Arscott who, with gas to burn and space in front him, scorched over the whitewash. Then, just two minutes later, an Exeter fumble saw Bristol's Dan Montagu hack the ball in behind the home defence for Roy Winters to crash over.

With the Exeter wounds exposed, Bristol merely rubbed salt into them when – with ten minutes remaining – the visiting pack combined as one to drive flanker James Phillips over for the all-important fourth score.

To their credit, the Chiefs – re-invigorated by some impressive cameo displays off their bench – refused to lie down and with a late throw of the dice, Sestaret cut a lovely line in off the wing before barging his way under the posts for a try, which Danny Gray converted.

Another score, as Baxter rightly pointed out, would have made the finale somewhat tense. Sadly, it was not to be as another wrong option late in the day came back to haunt the home side.

"At the end of the day we've lost a game of rugby, but it's not the end of the world. The way the league is formatted this season, perhaps in some ways it's an advantage not to be hitting your straps at this stage of the season," said Baxter, whose insists the Chiefs will be sticking to their season plan regardless of recent setbacks.