Exeter head coach Rob Baxter praised his side's efforts during the 27-21 defeat to Northampton.
Visitors earn losing bonus point at Franklin's Gardens
Exeter head coach Rob Baxter praised his quick learners as the newly-promoted side salvaged a losing bonus point with a stirring fightback against second-placed Northampton in their Aviva Premiership clash at Franklin's Gardens.
Trailing 27-9 with just over 10 minutes to go, gritty Exeter reduced the final deficit to 27-21 to earn a deserved point with tries from Chris Budgen and Luke Arscott.
"Northampton had the game pretty much sewn up, eased off a little bit for whatever reason, made a few changes, took off some key personnel," said Baxter.
"That was the time of the game we had to push hard to try and get something out of the game and we did.
"We forced some penalties, forced a yellow card (for Northampton centre Jon Clarke) and scored our tries.
Solid
"Some teams have completely crumbled in the face of Northampton's scrum this season but we certainly didn't."
Exeter were hammered 40-13 at Harlequins a week ago but Baxter said: "That game got away from us. We talked at length about the importance of managing not just the clock but the momentum of the game when you become penalty-ridden and we managed that fantastically today.
"The bonus point is massively important for us but the way we learnt this week about managing the game was so much more important.
"To come away from home to a difficult place to play, if you are in bonus-point territory you have always got a chance of winning the game so that was a nice place to be in the last few minutes of the game."
Jim Mallinder, the Northampton director of rugby, described his side's performance as "frustrating" after they failed to kick on and secure a winning bonus point.
"Partly it was our fault," he said. "Our scrum went really well and we got a just reward from that in terms of penalties but it meant we could never really play from it.
Lineout woe
"Our lineout didn't function as well as it had in the previous four games and we gave the ball away when we did have it.
"When you have that with struggling to defend and struggling to get the ball back it makes it a frustrating game, but there was no complacency there.
"You have got to make changes in this day and age and the lads did all right but we got pinned on the back foot and got penalised a lot in the second half.
"I think Exeter came here with the intention of slowing things down a bit - if you noticed every scrum there was an injury, which is an interesting way to do it - but it worked for them."
