High praise for Slade and Cowan-Dickie

Hooker Cowan-Dickie scored the crucial second-half try and Slade was named man of the match for his 10 points with the boot as the Chiefs made amends for their defeat at Sandy Park last weekend.

Thomas Waldrom scored the visitors' other try as a red card for Bordeaux wing Nans Ducuing proved to be the crucial moment.

"Some of Henry's passing was wayward at times and his performance was like ours as a team," Baxter told epcrugby.com.

"But the important bits were there and that's the most pleasing thing. Hopefully, Henry will keep driving forwards now. He hasn't played at flyhalf for a long time and this was Luke Cowan-Dickie's first game back so it was always going to be a bit fractured but this is a win we'll celebrate.

"Then there's Jack Nowell who has a lot more in the tank. Hopefully, we should see some pretty special things from these players moving forwards."

Exeter were always kept in the game by the boot of Slade, Bordeaux's points coming via three penalties from Lionel Beauxis and one from replacement Baptiste Serin.

The home side were always up against it once Ducuing was red carded for clashing with Olly Woodburn in the air. Exeter remain outsiders to reach the latter stages despite their first win in Europe this season, and Baxter added: "From a coaching perspective we have to keep challenging the players but ultimately when you sit here and look at the changes we made and the fact we won it's pretty pleasing.

"The pleasing thing for us is some of our players like Henry and Jack will only get better from this. It looks like Dave Ewers has tweaked his knee but we'll assess that and see where we are.

"Overall though it's an excellent result and I was pleased with the attitude we showed in defence. That played a big part in us winning the game."

Source: epcrugby.com