Excellent Exeter remain unbeaten

EXETER Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter was full of praise for his side as they maintained their 100 per cent record in the Championship with a 22-15 victory over local rivals Cornish Pirates at Sandy Park.

Tries from Paul McKenzie, Richard Baxter and Brett Sturgess, plus an additional seven points from fly-half Gareth Steenson ensured the table-topping Chiefs made it 11 wins from 11 starts.

In reply, Steenson's opposite number, Rob Cook, kicked five penalties for the Pirates who, at the halfway stage of the season, sit fifth in the standings.

For Baxter, though, seeing his side – who dominated for long periods of the game – record yet another success was a satisfying outcome.

"I'm a little bit frustrated," he admitted afterwards. "We didn't really play in the first half. To be fair, we elected to take the wind because we thought it was going to die and wanted the best of it. If I'm honest, we did get the best of it, but we didn't make good use of it.

"In the first half it was like we didn't want to play a little bit, I don't know. We didn't get through any phase play, we had a lot of first up mistakes and we didn't play with the composure we have been playing with of late.

"That said, if you want to look at a game of two halves, you flip it over to what we did in the second half – against a strong wind – and we had virtually total control of the game. We only conceded a couple of penalties, which they knocked over, but take that out and what was it all about? It was about us being in total control and I was massively pleased with that.

"Yes, we weren't perfect, but it was about endeavour in the second half and we had endeavour in spades. You know, 15 minutes into the second half there was only ever going to be one winner. For me, that was fantastic."

As expected, the derby tussle was a keenly contested affair and Baxter admitted the Pirates competed valiantly. He added: "It was a tough, physical game out there and a lot of the mistakes were forced. They are a team who if you lose your composure, which we did in the first half, get in your faces defensively. They piled into the breakdowns, maybe not always legally, but they do fly in there and that disrupts your flow a bit.

"We played with slow ball in the first half and made individual errors, but once we got flow into the game, we just came round the corner with power and pace and blitz."

Baxter also praised the efforts of his pack, particularly the front-row of Brett Sturgess, Simon Alcott and Chris Budgen. He said: "That said, we have to say our front-row were fantastic, they were very strong, they won us a lot of penalties, won us a lot of field position, and disrupted a lot of opposition ball.

"Also, defensively we looked very sound. We didn't look like conceding through line breaks. Our defence has been very good these last few weeks and it was again today."

But whilst Baxter was pleased with his side's showing, opposite number Chris Stirling was not so happy come the final whistle.

"I'm not pleased at all," said the Kiwi. "Three tries to nil is how it will read in the paper tomorrow and I think anybody around the country, if they pick up the paper and read it was three tries to nil, will think our defeat was quite comprehensive, but it wasn't.

"The Chiefs battled hard up front and definitely caused us some problems at times, but I can't question the guys' application and the way they went about their job. We have to be more accurate, both at set-piece and in general play."

At scrum time in particular, the Pirates were found wanting by their dominant counterparts. Stirling added: "It was always going to be difficult for us coming up against one of the better packs in the competition. We had no excuses there, I ripped into them at half-time and said it was not acceptable.

"We came out and, at times we struggled, but at other times we put it right. We do have a good set-piece, we just have to focus and concentrate. At times when we got a penalty we kicked for touch and made some territory, but then we lose the throw and that really disappoints me.

"We actually opened them up a couple of times outside, but slight wrong running lines and not just giving it to the right man who was in space probably did cost us and that is normally a strength of our game.

"However, there were no fears at what Exeter threw at us, apart from their taking from the base of the scrum and the base of the breakdown they were pretty dominant.

"They were very effective at times and that's why they have won 11 games, because what they do they do really well. They came out for the second half, they were under pressure at half-time and they lifted the intensity. A couple of kicking errors from us and we ended up in our own half and couldn't get out.

"However, there were positives, especially our first-up tackling. I was very impressed with it today after last week against Bedford because that was a big work on for us during the week. As I've said before, though, when the pieces of the puzzle come together we will be a hard team to beat."