Rob Baxter: Exeter lacked experience to beat European heavyweights Leinster

• Exeter 22 Leinster 34

Exeter’s defence of the Champions Cup is at an end. So, too, the English representation in this tournament as Leinster delivered as comprehensive a performance as any in their glittering recent history to reach the semi-finals.

The telling snapshot came in the final 10 minutes with Exeter trailing by eight points and deep inside the Leinster 22. The masters of the short-range pick-and-go were not just repelled but driven back from the try line before conceding possession through an accidental obstruction. It was a final psychological blow to an Exeter side who could not build any sustained momentum after a red-hot start.

Dominant physically and especially at the breakdown, which was a free-for-all under referee Mathieu Raynal, Leinster also had the weapons in the wide areas to punish Exeter as wings James Lowe and Jordan Larmour (two) combined for three tries. Robbie Henshaw continued his excellent form from the Six Nations as he set much of the tone for Leinster in attack and defence.

For all the superstars and Lions hopefuls on display, it was many of the lesser lights who shone the brightest. Tom O’Flaherty was an elusive runner while Dave Ewers supplied more grunt than a 300lb wild boar. For Leinster, Ronan Kelleher and Josh van der Flier were constant menaces on the floor while Ross Byrne, who came on for the concussed Jonathan Sexton, and full-back Hugo Keenan supplied class.

Exeter surged into a 14-0 lead, thanks to a pair of excellent O’Flaherty tries, but after that were slowly suffocated by Leinster. “They kept an intensity in the game and we never really settled and that is great credit to them,” Rob Baxter, the Exeter director of rugby, said.

“The game slipped away from us. We went off script a bit and every time we did that they hurt us. The last 20 minutes was frustrating as we went into chase-the-game-down mode, but the scoreboard didn’t say that was needed. We got ragged when we didn’t need to.”

In a reverse mirror image of last week’s last-16 match against Lyon, in which they went 14-0 down, Exeter surged into the lead with the diminutive but elusive O’Flaherty twice slipping through tackles as if he was coated in Vaseline. The first was from a set-piece strike move while the second owed everything to Henry Slade’s intelligence.

Yet Leinster did not become four-time champions through panicking. For the rest of the half, Exeter were on the back foot as Leinster controlled territory through their dominance at the breakdown and an astute kicking game. Ollie Devoto and then Jonny Gray held up Leinster charges over the try line but the pressure eventually told.

Lowe made ground down the left, Sexton timed his pass perfectly and then Keenan offloaded out of a double tackle to enable Lowe to score. By the half-hour mark, Leinster were level, even with Sexton departing for a head-injury assessment. Exeter will feel aggrieved the score originated from a penalty when Henshaw was clearly not supporting his own body weight in the jackal, from which Leinster kicked to the 22. Leinster spread the ball through Henshaw, Byrne – with a peach of a pass – and Keenan to Larmour, who finished spectacularly in the corner.

Byrne kicked Leinster in front after Van der Flier had isolated Joe Simmonds. Then, in the final play of the half, Jonny Hill rushed out of the line and caught Byrne with a tackle that made contact with the fly-half’s head. Raynal seemed to ignore the advice of his own television match official to impose a sanction of a penalty, which Byrne converted. The referee also let off Exeter replacement Jannes Kirsten for a similar offence. Exeter were more than relieved to go into half-time only a score adrift.

That deficit was immediately overturned as O’Flaherty again burst through the Leinster defence leading to a penalty for not rolling away. Exeter kicked to the corner and formed a perfect maul, with Ewers taking the kudos for the collective effort. Simmonds missed the conversion but converted a penalty soon after to nudge Exeter back into the lead.

It did not last as Byrne replied with his third penalty. Slade then tackled Lowe into touch but Exeter’s celebrations were short-lived as Ryan Baird pinched the line-out. Leinster went wide at speed and Larmour again finished superbly in the corner. A pair of Byrne penalties confirmed Leinster’s place in the last four as they search for a record fifth European title. On this evidence, something very special will be required to stop them in that mission.

Rob Baxter calls on Exeter players to bounce back after defeat

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter claimed Leinster’s big game experience played a decisive role in his side’s Champions Cup quarter-final defeat.

While Exeter entered the game as the title holders at Sandy Park, Leinster as four-time champions possess far greater European pedigree. That showed as the hosts struggled to maintain momentum bar the two purple patches at the start of each half in which they built an immediate 14-0 lead, through a pair of Tom O’Flaherty tries. After Dave Ewers had crashed over from a maul, Joe Simmonds penalty at the start of the second half nudged them 22-20 in front, but that proved to be their final score.

Leinster dominated thereafter and by Baxter’s own admission his team went into “meltdown mode” in the final quarter.

“When you are in that desperation mode to win games, mentally you can just go off track,” Baxter said. “We almost needed another break with 20 minutes to go. Those moments added up today whether it was our defending on the edge, which let us down a couple of times, breakdown penalties, missed lineouts. Normally we would like to say we are the team that creates that pressure in most areas of the game but today it added up for Leinster.

“This was only our third quarter-final. I think it was Leinster’s 17th or 18th. Ultimately, we set ourselves high standards, we want to be very good in Europe but it takes more than one go. We have to decide whether we are going to be back in these type of games over and over again because that’s how those trophies get added up. You have to keep going at it.”

Leinster’s victory continues a theme of Irish dominance in sporting competition against English opposition that started at Cheltenham, continued into the Six Nations and the Grand National. Taken together with England’s fifth place in the Six Nations, this could easily be interpreted as a further sign of Anglo decline.

Given that English clubs have won four of the past five Champions Cups, the lack of a representative in the semi-finals for the second time since 2013 should not be a cause for undue panic, particularly in this strange year.

“Without doubt this season is challenging for us in a way that we have never had to deal with before,” Baxter said. “Never had to deal with going into Europe on the back of coming in from a three-month camp. Jonny Hill and Henry Slade had featured in two games before last week’s European round because they have been away with England. On the whole there are big chunks of your squad whom you have not seen for nearly the whole season. That has created more of a challenge.”

If this counted as a final audition for Lions places then it was Leinster’s cubs who seized their chance. Fullback Hugo Keenan, hooker Ronan Kelleher and No 8 Jack Conan all laid down considerable markers against more celebrated opposite numbers. Sam Simmonds picked the wrong moment to produce his quietest game in quite some time.

Baxter says he will give his side time to digest their defeat before their sights turn back to the Premiership where Exeter have lost the sheen of their all-conquering aura in recent weeks. All the physical tests reveal that Exeter’s players are in a good place.

The question is whether Exeter can rediscover their inner drive after such a crushing disappointment.

“I think we are going to accelerate through the season,” Baxter said. “That’s the plan anyway. The key is whether we can do that mentally. I am sure we can do it physically, but it is whether we can do it mentally.

“We can talk about moving on with league rugby but we have to let this settle a bit first, we can talk about it on Monday. Let’s go hard for two rounds of rugby now and then we will have a break. Then we can start to redefine the season based on the last 7-8 games.”

Match details

Scoring sequence: 5-0, O’Flaherty try; 7-0 J Simmonds con; 12-0 O’Flaherty try; 14-0 J Simmonds con; 14-5 Lowe try; 14-7, Sexton con; 14-12, Larmour try; 14-14, R Byrne con; 14-17, R Byrne pen; 14-20, R Byrne pen; 19-20, Ewers try; 22-20, J Simmonds pen; 22-23, R Byrne; 22-28, Larmour try; 22-31, R Byrne pen; 22-34, R Bryne pen.

Exeter: S Hogg; O Woodburn (I Whitten, 61), H Slade, O Devoto, T O'Flaherty, J Simmonds, J Maunder (S Townsend, 58); B Moon (A Hepburn, 48), L Cowan-Dickie (J Yeandle, 64), T Francis (H Williams, 48), J Gray (S Skinner, 58), J Hill, D Ewers, J Vermeulen (J Kirsten, 52), S Simmonds.

Leinster: H Keenan; J Larmour, R O’Loughlin, R Henshaw, J Lowe (D Kearney, 80); J Sexton (R Byrne, 28), L McGrath (H O’Sullivan, 80); C Healy (E Byrne, 48), R Kelleher (J Tracy, 71), T Furlong (A Porter, 56), S Fardy (R Baird, 48), D Toner (R Moloney, 71), R Ruddock, J Van der Flier, J Conan.

Referee: M Raynal (France).