Exeter head coach Rob Baxter praised his side after a 21-11 win over Wasps moved them up to third place in the table.
Young laments his side's attacking display as they let slip 6-5 lead
Exeter head coach Rob Baxter praised his side for doing it the hard way in their 21-11 win over Wasps.
The Chiefs turned around a 6-5 half-time deficit to record a victory that moves them up to third in the Aviva Premiership table.
They took advantage of having the wind at their backs in the second half to score a try through Chris Budgen, while their dominance was also rewarded with three penalties.
Tom Johnson had already crossed in the opening 40 minutes for Exeter, who had gone into the game at Sandy Park off the back of an away defeat to Bath.
Grind away
"It was the hard work that we did in the first half, against that strong wind, that laid the foundations," Baxter said.
"We knew that we had to grind away a little and we did that by restricting them to just six points.
"It was getting a decent try on the board that really paid dividends for us in the second half.
"That said we probably created quite a few scoring opportunities in the first half, got some good positions.
"But we fluffed a couple of lineouts and got turned over when we were five metres from their line."
The only disappointment for the home side was the number of injuries they picked up; Nic Sestaret took a heavy knock and lock Peter Short turned his ankle.
Still, Baxter has reasons to be cheerful about the future, adding: "I told the lads after the match that we are not far away from being a very good side.
"We have won that match but we let them off the hook a little bit in that we put in a massive physical effort and took them on at the driving game, which we said we were going to do, but we didn't really get enough out of it to really pay off.
"But we have collected another four valuable Premiership points and ultimately we have to be very pleased with that."
Director of rugby Dai Young felt his Wasps side were "mediocre" in attack, though he could not fault his players for their efforts in a losing cause.
Their only try came when Jack Wallace sprinted away to finish off a flowing move, but it was far too late to make a difference to the result.
Good touches
"Although there are areas of the second half that we can be disappointed with but there were three or four clear opportunities in the first half which we didn't take," he said.
"That was one of the main reasons why we lost and in the second half we didn't keep the ball long enough - because playing in to the wind you have to be very good at keeping hold of the ball.
"Exeter did that well in the first half and it produced opportunities they didn't take - and in the second half I thought Exeter played the conditions better.
"We put a lot of pressure on them but spilled the ball and got the ball kicked back into our 22.
"So we didn't score enough points in the first half and we were always going to be under the cosh in the second.
"The effort and commitment was there as was the desire but our attack was mediocre.
"We showed a lot of good touches, especially from deep, but we need to do the basics a bit better and the scrums are a factor that we need to keep working on."
