EXETER Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter admitted he was left ‘frustrated’ after watching his side’s unbeaten start to the new PREM Rugby season come to an end in a narrow 18-14 defeat to Bristol Bears on Saturday.

The Chiefs – who had begun the campaign with a draw at Northampton Saints, then a win over Newcastle Falcons – saw their record halted at Ashton Gate despite playing much of the contest against a 14-man Bristol side.

The Bears had Sam Jordan shown a 20-minute red card just before half-time, before Max Pepper followed him to the sidelines after the break for a professional foul. However, they failed to make it count and slipped to sixth in the table.

Converted tries from Henry Slade and Ben Hammersley were not enough to thwart Pat Lam’s side, who responded with scores of their own from Vili Mata and Gabriel Oghre, as well as successful kicks from Jordan and Sam Worsley.

To compound their disappointment, a potential match-winning try in the closing stages was ruled out after a lengthy review, a decision that left Baxter and his players rueing missed opportunities.

“We were up there talking as coaches and going, ‘really, we’ve let this one slip’ – and I think we have,” said Baxter. “I’m not going to run away from that. I think we’ve let it slip.”

Baxter, though, refused to overreact to the defeat and urged supporters to keep perspective on his side’s steady progress after a turbulent 2023/24 campaign that saw the club finish second from bottom, their worst top-flight finish.

“I can’t believe people think we were coming into this season as the finished article and were just going to either win or draw every game and go unbeaten,” he added. “We’ve still got a lot of hard work to do to become a great side. But all we’ve got to do is keep doing that, day by day and week by week.”

The Chiefs have taken a bonus point from every game so far, and after just three rounds have already collected nearly a third of the total points they earned across the entire previous season. For Baxter, that marks clear progress, even if Saturday’s performance left a bitter taste.

“I said to the lads, ‘we weren’t the best team in the Premiership last week when we beat Newcastle, and we’re not the worst team in the Premiership now because we lost by a few points to Bristol.’ It doesn’t work like that,” he said.

Baxter’s young squad has shown greater resilience and attacking intent this term, with several emerging players stepping up in the early rounds. But the coach acknowledged that Exeter must learn how to finish games under pressure if they are to push for a top-four spot later in the campaign.

“I’m not going to get downbeat or hammer the players over just something that wasn’t quite right today,” he added. “We’ve turned up, and we were way closer to winning today than we were this time last year – or indeed most games away from home. Today, most people are going, ‘how did Exeter not win that?’ That wasn’t being said very often last season.”

The Chiefs continue their Premiership campaign this Sunday when they play host to Harlequins at Sandy Park. The Londoners collected their first win of the season with a 20-14 win over rivals Saracens.