Discipline cost us says Baxter

Frustrated Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter bemoaned a lack of discipline from his players as the wait to book a first-ever appearance in the Aviva Premiership play-offs continues.

een for a response after their European Champions Cup exit to Wasps the week previous, the Devonians again suffered away-day misery, slipping to a 16-9 loss at Gloucester.

After a scoreless opening half, Chiefs skipper Gareth Steenson fired them in front with the first of three successful penalties, but it was the Cherry & Whites who prevailed, claiming a converted score from debutant Olly Thorley and three penalties from Greg Laidlaw. The defeat meant the Chiefs still have to wait to book their play-off berth, but it could be handed to them on Saturday should Leicester Tigers overcome arch rivals Northampton Saints.

In an ideal world Baxter would have hoped for his team to have pocketed their top four spot through their own actions – and he said as much during his post-match assessment to the waiting media.

The positives is we picked up a bonus point and we know they are very important because we have collected a lot of them this season,” said the Chiefs coach. What I did say to the players before hand, however, was let’s take something for ourselves and not watch the game over the weekend and wait for others to give us something.

“I’d like us to be a team who take things for themselves and I don’t want to give the players the excuse that they were involved in a big game last week, because if you want to be a top side in Europe, you go from a quarter-final last week to a crunch Premiership game and another crunch Premiership game and then a semi-final. That’s how they roll and you have to be able to deal with that.”

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