Pellow urges Exeter to kick on

Exeter coach Ricky Pellow wants his squad to be both proud and disappointed with their Anglo-Welsh Cup campaign after they lost the final.

The Chiefs went down 16-12 to Leicester Tigers on Sunday at the Twickenham Stoop as they could not break their opponent's resolve.

Pellow said the loss was a tough defeat to take but insists lessons would be learnt in the aftermath and said it was now time to kick on.

"We have just said in the changing rooms that the guys have to be proud of what they have achieved today and throughout this competition, but at the same time they have to let today’s result burn a little bit," he told Exeter's website.

"We have to use the disappointment to kick us on further this season. We're disappointed, of course we are, but we have to reset ourselves quickly as we have another massive game coming up against Sale in the Premiership this weekend."

Exeter now return to Premiership action as they look for a strong finish to the season, eager to put their frustrations to good use in the league.

"We know where we left it out there on the field," added Pellow. "We just gave them too much of a lead in that first half and they ripped momentum away from us.

"We came in at half time and we knew what we had to do in that second half. We threw everything at it, but Leicester defended their line very well and we just couldn’t break them early enough to put points on the board.

"It shows the character that we have within the squad that we didn’t give up and we kept fighting until the very end, but fair play to Leicester they defended their hearts out on the line and they deserved to win in the end.

"We had plenty of other opportunities to score today and we will look at those more than missed kicks. We threw a lot at them in the second half, but we didn’t get that score early enough to put them under pressure, which is the real disappointment."