Leicester boss Richard Cockerill was pleased with his side's "workmanlike" win over Exeter at Sandy Park on Sunday
Baxter left frustrated after Exeter have to settle for losing bonus point
Leicester boss Richard Cockerill was pleased with a "workmanlike" win over Exeter that lifted his team to the top of the Aviva Premiership.
Jordan Crane scored two tries, while Alesana Tuilagi also crossed, as the visitors escaped from Sandy Park with a hard-fought 22-15 triumph.
With Northampton suffering a surprise defeat against Harlequins on Saturday, the Tigers now sit at the summit of the table for the first time this season.
Cockerill admitted his side had done just enough to come away with the win from their clash against a club that he feels are certainly on the up.
Difficult place
"It was a bit of a workmanlike performance at times," Cockerill said. "I thought our tactics were pretty good and we controlled the game just about enough.
"If you want to try and be top of the Premiership table I think these wins are quite important. It (Sandy Park) is a difficult place to come and other sides will have difficulty getting points here.
"With all respect to Exeter, we know that we are probably the better side and it was just whether we could match that passion and stop them playing and I thought we did that well.
"We've had a lot of rugby over the past few weeks and we knew that they had time to prepare for this game and would be fresh. But I thought our attitude and physicality was spot on.
"We treated this game the same as any other game against a big side because Exeter are an up-and-coming side. They will become a big side if they continue to have the ethos they have at the moment."
Opposite number Rob Baxter believes his Exeter players need to "grow up" after missing out on the chance to claim a famous scalp on home soil.
The Chiefs remained in contention throughout thanks to four penalties from Ryan Davis and a further three points from his replacement, Gareth Steenson.
Frustrating
"I told the boys in the dressing room at the end that we are at the stage now where the physical effort that we put into games is not an issue, we have known that for quite a while," Baxter said.
"But there is an element of also growing up a little and not being satisfied that we put in a big physical effort that keeps us in a tough game.
"The truth is we are still making mistakes in controlling the game that we were making earlier in the season.
"It is frustrating when you concede a penalty at a scrum that you have talked about avoiding all week. We didn't really do what we said we were going to do.
"These are frustrations that we can deal with and, rather than dealing with them one at a time, I'd rather knock them off a little bit quicker. Maybe I am being unrealistic and wanting too much.
"But at home in particular we are letting some games slip through our fingers, London Irish was one and now this one.
"But I am the first to give credit to Leicester as they forced a lot of pressure on us and they scored three tries."
