EXETER Chiefs produced one of the Gallagher PREM’s most remarkable fightbacks as they clawed their way back from 33-7 down to snatch a dramatic 33-33 draw against Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens.

Head coach Rob Baxter admitted he feared the worst after watching his side capitulate during a dismal first half in which the hosts ran riot. Saints, despite missing several key men, punished Exeter’s sloppy errors to storm into a commanding lead and appeared to have the contest all but wrapped up.

Two tries from debutant Edoardo Todaro, plus scores from Alex Coles, Tom Pearson and Tom Litchfield appeared to have the Saints in cruise control at the interval.

However, the Chiefs – no doubt warmed by the words of Baxter himself – rallied impressively in the second half, building on Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s opening score to add further efforts from Ross Vintcent (2), Paul Brown-Bampoe and Feyi-Waboso once more.

“We have to be better, don’t we?” Baxter conceded afterwards. “The reality is there are a lot of good players missing from that Northampton team – you can’t run away from that – and we wobbled. The first couple of things that went against us in that first half created a wobble that we didn’t recover from.”

But whatever Baxter said at half-time clearly struck a chord. With nothing to lose, the Chiefs tore into the second half, tightening up defensively and unleashing wave after wave of pressure that slowly dragged them back into contention.

“Right now, I’m relieved with the response of the players in the second half because we literally had nowhere to go at half-time,” Baxter explained. “We could either roll over and die or stand up and fight – fair play, the lads stood up and fought. To me, that’s a good indicator of where we are, a good indicator of our conditioning levels and also our squad strength. At the same time, we still have a lot of work to do.”

The Chiefs’ rally embodied their traditional resilience, something Baxter admitted he had reminded his players about during the close season.

“We said in all of our meetings, the DNA of the team was if you can’t win, you draw, if you can’t draw, you lose by a point,” he said. “That’s the competitiveness we need. I promised people we’d be more competitive than last year and today we showed glimpses of that.”

The three away points salvaged at Franklin’s Gardens will certainly prove crucial in the seasonal aspirations of the Chiefs, but the manner of their revival could be even more valuable in restoring belief.

This Saturday, the Chiefs welcome Newcastle Falcons – who lost their seasonal opener at home to Saracens – to Sandy Park (3pm).

Baxter will wait to see the after effects of Sunday’s success, which saw England international Feyi-Waboso forced off with cramp in his first league game since last December; Josh Hodge shown a red card for a high tackle on Sam Graham, and back-row forward Ethan Roots forced to withdraw ahead of kick-off with a neck injury.

With or without the trio, the Chiefs director of rugby acknowledged the threat the Falcons will pose to his side.

“Watching them play on Friday night against Saracens, you could see they were very competitive for long periods of that game,” warned Baxter. “No doubt, they’ll come down without any fear, so we have to be ready for them.”