Rob Baxter pleased to see champions Exeter bounce back from opening day defeat

10 September 2017 05:24

Exeter's Rob Baxter was pleased to see the Aviva Premiership champions get back to winning ways.

The Chiefs lost their opener at Gloucester last week but bounced back at Sandy Park on Saturday wi th a 37-7 defeat of London Irish.

Baxter said: "We had overall control of the match for long periods and it was very satisfying to pick up five points and concede only seven.

"We were a bit more composed today against a London Irish side who put in a big emotional performance last week in beating Harlequins at Twickenham.

"The second half got a bit frustrating as the game seemed to be petering out.

"We were disappointed to concede as we missed a great opportunity to get a nil on the scoreboard but we had a great last seven minutes to score two tries and pick up the bonus."

Flanker Dom Armand scored two of Exeter's tries with Henry Slade and Olly Woodburn also on the scoresheet. T here was also a penalty try award in the Chiefs' favour, with Gareth Steenson adding two penalties and two conversions.

Director of rugby Baxter added: "We've got six points after two games, which we expect to build on against Worcester next Friday when we can take advantage of an extra day's rest and hopefully put in a hugely energetic performance."

Centre Henry Slade added: "We started off really well to take control of the game.

"We came unstuck last week in the latter stages but we were much more accurate today and defensively we were mentally strong in the difficult playing conditions."

Irish were outgunned throughout, with a late try from Alex Lewington and conversion by Tommy Bell their only response to five tries from the Chiefs.

Boss Nick Kennedy said: "We know we had lessons to learn and we had confirmation of that today - but we'll be back in on Monday and will be upbeat.

"We are at Sale next Friday and they will be extremely hungry after two losses. They are a different beast at home and we will have to be at our best to compete, let alone win."

Captain David Paice said: "We knew it would be tough coming here to face the champions.

"We lost the physical battle in the first half as we didn't really have the sting in our defence that we had last week.

"They played clinical rugby and we rushed our play but I'm proud of our commitment in the second half, although we are a long way from where they are as it was a huge step up for us."

Source: PA