Baxter: ‘It feels like a long journey’

Exeter boss Rob Baxter reflected on the emotion of guiding the Devon club to a first Premiership title against Wasps at Twickenham.

Gareth Steenson's 97th-minute penalty was the clinching score in the 23-20 win, with Exeter keeping hold of the ball in the closing stages desperate to lift the title.

Visibly emotional after the final whistle, Baxter admitted the journey to winning a first Premiership crowd had been a long one over the last seven years since the Chiefs won promotion.

"It just happened. The wife and family were here and they have probably taken the brunt of what we go through day by day," Baxter reflected.

"For a long time at Exeter things have not gone our way and we have had to work hard. Every one of the players have played their part over the years into building us into the side we have.

"A lot of players who have been massively emotionally involved in this club are not here. I feel a lot for them and the things we have gone through.

"It does feel like a long journey. The players have reaped the rewards today."

Looking to the future, the Exeter boss refused to accept that this was the peak for the club, with maintaining their status and success in Europe next on the agenda.

"We have to look at it like that. As great as today is, it cannot be the defining thing about Exeter," he admitted.

"If it goes into a downward spiral now I will be massively disappointed. We will enjoy today to the max, but we want it to stay that way. We have let ourselves down in the first round in Europe and it should be a marker that it will not happen again."

Exeter went in ahead 14-10 at half-time but only after Wasps had hit back with a score from Jimmy Gopperth, before taking the lead shortly after the break.

However the Chiefs were the dominant side in the final stages, battering away at Wasps' line including one set of 34 phases, before doing the same again late on in extra-time.

"At half-time [the coaches] demanded the ball, to make it about ourselves. That grew through the course of the game, particularly in that second period of extra-time when we didn't go into our shell."