Exeter boss Rob Baxter to address ‘baffling’ performance in Leicester loss

Exeter boss Rob Baxter says he will meet with his players to discuss some of their “baffling” decisions during the 17-14 loss to Leicester.

The Chiefs conceded a last-second try to lose their Premiership opener during a disjointed home performance.

“Hopefully a few of the guys will hold their hands up and say ‘this is what happened, this is what was going on in the field’,” Baxter said.

“The reality is you listen on the ref mic and you don’t know half of what’s going on and half of what’s being said – you’re catching snippets of it, but some of it was somewhat baffling to me.

“Some of that will be us having to give more guidance, but the reality is when you set a plan you have to decide to follow things, and actually at times we almost decided not to, that’s what it seemed like.”

Exeter failed to score in the first half as they conceded a drop goal with the final kick of the period.

They improved after the break and led 14-10 against 14 men after Solomone Kata was sent off.

But when Will Haydon-Wood was sin-binned late on, Leicester took their chance to record a first win under new boss Michael Cheika.

“The silver lining of today is if we’d have seen that game off, which we could have done – say Leicester throw that last line-out in not straight, I’d probably be going ‘we showed a lot of character to win the game’,” Baxter added.

“But the reality is Monday morning’s meeting would have to be just as tough on some of the decision-making we made.

“The reality is this is a slap in the face and you have to accept it in that meeting.

“Our physical stats will be good, we’ve thrown a lot of physical energy into the game.

“But nine times out of 10 we disobeyed our own energy by the way we played and some of the decisions we made and some of their lack of communication.”