THE manner of our defeat at Exeter Chiefs was a difficult one to stomach and I can assure you no-one is hurting more than the players.

We were all bitterly disappointed by the result and the way we performed in front of our dedicated travelling fans who made the long journey south.

Across the board we were not accurate enough and a poor start meant we were always playing catch-up against a team with one of the best home records in the Aviva Premiership.

It’s not good enough and we need to address how we are starting games. In a league where the margins are always so tight, you need to press home any advantage early on and we can’t afford to keep having to come back into games.

Exeter are a tough and well-drilled outfit with a formidable home record having already beaten the champions Harlequins at Sandy Park.

They didn’t make many mistakes which put pressure on us and we know we lost too many of the breakdown battles. Out line-out was better and players like Ed Shervington can certainly be pleased with that aspect of the game.

While that was a positive to take, we couldn’t get our driving game going, which was disappointing because we do a lot of work on it and it has been functioning well. We will look at that aspect and aim to get it working in the coming weeks before we play Saracens in the league.

I was certainly pleased with the attitude we showed to battle back into the game and get to 19-9 in the last quarter. We did have an opportunity to really put the pressure on them underneath the posts with 10 minutes to go but unfortunately knocked-on.

If we had scored that, it might have put a few doubts into Exeter’s mind, but we let them off the hook then and they came back and finished very strongly.

We must learn the lessons of Sandy Park and look to respond in the right manner in the LV= Cup this Saturday against Scarlets.

Sixways has been chosen to host the cup final this season and there would be no better feeling than making that fixture on home soil.

The coaching staff have already indicated they will be selecting a strong side and we all want to get back out on the field as soon as possible and start putting things right.

A number of players, such as David Lemi and Aleki Lutui, will be missing as they are away on international duty, while Josh Matavesi and Ravai Fatiaki will hope to line-up for Fiji against England at Twickenham. We all wish them well — just not too well against England!