Opposition view: Baxter gives angry 10-minute speech to players after Exeter beat Saints

The Chiefs struggled for long periods against Phil Dowson’s men, who had made 14 changes following the superb win at Leinster eight days earlier.

The black, green and gold handed out six Gallagher Premiership debuts at Sandy Park, giving plenty of young players a chance.

And though the scoreline looked sizeable, it didn’t tell the tale of the game as Saints were level at 7-7 five minutes before the break, having enjoyed 66 per cent possession and 72 per cent territory.

Exeter scored twice before half-time to go in 21-7 ahead, but Saints fought back to just seven points behind before the Chiefs took the game away from them late on.

And Baxter was far from happy at the full-time whistle.

He said: “That was barely a regulation win against a wholly second-string side so I’ve issued a 10-minute b******ing to the players in the changing room as their performance was nowhere near good enough.

“There were very basic mistakes in there; our pure error count will be through the roof as will our penalty count.

"The first rule is not to beat yourself, the opposition have to beat you, but we are beating ourselves in many areas.

“We just can’t keep the ball and I will be repeatedly telling the players that I need more from them.

"We want to contest for a top-four spot next season, but on that performance we are miles off and the next two weeks against sides in contention for the play-offs will be hugely challenging with pre-season training needing to be harder.”