Exeter’s director of rugby, Rob Baxter, suggested that his players might have been overly emotional during their 40-22 defeat to Leicester, which ended their Gallagher Premiership play-off hopes.
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Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s early try for Exeter was quickly countered by two tries in five minutes from Ollie Hassell-Collins and Jack van Poortvliet.
Exeter faced a setback when Feyi-Waboso was sin-binned just before halftime. Shortly after the break, Tommy Reffell and Mike Brown added to Leicester’s tally with two more tries.
Although Dan Frost scored for Exeter, and Jasper Wiese was sent off for a dangerous tackle, Ross Vintcent’s late try wasn’t enough to turn the tide.
Baxter said: “We turned up here very emotionally driven, threw a lot of energy into the early part of the game, but did we really have a cast-iron direction and accuracy? No.
“We threw a lot of emotion into the game and with things like what happened with [the death of] Jack Yeandle’s dad this morning, and the players knowing about that, it really meant a lot to them to try and put a big performance on the field.
“I just said to them ‘I know you really care about what’s happened, I know you’ve really been emotive about it, I know this is really hurting you, but let’s make sure we learn this lesson’.
“One of the best ways for me to describe our performance was at one stage it looked like we had 15 guys on the field all trying to win the game on their own.”
NIGEL OWENS: MY TOP 5 CAPTAINS
#5. Chris Robshaw (England)
Owens said: Some people will be surprised at this one to start off. His misfortune was perhaps to be leading England during a difficult time, but he always gave everything for the cause, encouraging others to follow suit, and he was a nice guy off the pitch.”
