'A lot to come' from Exeter after Bath thriller - Baxter

Exeter boss Rob Baxter says his side's dramatic Prem Rugby loss at Bath shows how far his side have come this season.

Arthur Green's last-minute try secured a 33-26 win for the hosts after Exeter had battled back from 26-0 down to level the scores in the final five minutes.

The Chiefs won just four games last season as they finished a club-worst second-from-bottom of the Premiership.

In contrast they are third this season with six wins and just two defeats after nine matches, sitting four points off leaders Northampton and two behind Bath.

"At the start of the season if someone had said where we would be, that we'd be disappointed with two points away at Bath in a top-four clash, you would take that every day of the week," Baxter told BBC Radio Devon.

"We are a team that's growing, we're not a team that's going backwards, we're not ageing, we're the right age range, we're getting experience into players.

"Someone like Bachuki (Tchumbadze), I think that's his fifth game of paid professional rugby.

"There's a lot to come from these guys and I'm really enjoying working with them."

The game turned on young winger Campbell Ridl's 20-minute red card for taking out Henry Arundell in the air in the second minute.

The hosts ran in four tries in that period, building up their 26-0 lead, before Exeter staged their fightback when they returned to their full compliment.

Baxter says the performance is a real positive for his side as they take a two-week break from domestic rugby with a return to European action.

"Actually we can work from this in a lot of positive ways," he said.

"We can assess what we're going to do against yellow cards off set-piece and how we get organised when it's a back down, where we can manage those situations a little bit better and we can just give ourselves some clarity.

"We're knock one try off that 20-minute period and maybe get some field position to knock a penalty over that eats up a minute of the clock, you're looking at a totally different game, you're looking at knocking 10 points off that final score of Bath's and it's them struggling to get the win at the end not you.

"Those are the real positives we can take from today."

Twenty-year-old Ridl has had an eventful start to his first-team career at Exeter.

The England youth player broke his hand in pre-season, meaning he did not get his first-team debut until the Prem Rugby Cup win over Bristol in November.

He was excellent a month later in the European Challenge Cup draw at Racing 92 and has started the last three Prem games - scoring his first try in the win over Leicester at Sandy Park just after Christmas.

Baxter says there was no malice in Ridl's challenge on Arundell that cost his side.

"The reality is he's got his eyes up in the air and he just doesn't judge it at all when he should be taking off. He doesn't really take any time to assess where the opposition player is.

"You don't have to be a genius to know it's completely accidental, but at the same time it's completely wrong as well, he's just got it all wrong.

"That has hurt us today, but at the same time it created a rugby spectacle when we got back in it and in the dying seconds we're looking at three points but we get two.

"Bigger picture, get two points in a top four battle and you'll take it nine times out of 10."