Exeter ‘will dwell’ on record-breaking Gloucester defeat – Rob Hunter

The game was Exeter’s fourth since Hunter took over as head coach after the demotion of Ali Hepher.

The coaching change came as Exeter sought to try and improve on what has been their worst Premiership season by quite a large margin.

They have won just two Premiership matches and sit second-from-bottom of the table.

Exeter were beaten in all of their Champions Cup pool games including a new club-record European defeat when they lost 69-17 to Bordeaux.

The Chiefs had appeared to have improved over Hunter’s first three matches – they narrowly lost at leaders Bath last week, having beaten bottom side Newcastle at the end of March.

But Hunter says the loss at Kingsholm has been a “baptism of fire” for the long-serving Chiefs coach.

“The important bit that I’ve got to look at is what I said pre-match, not at half-time,” he said.

“We can’t be in a situation where we need a rescue mission at half-time, it’s very difficult to do and there’s only so many times you’ll be able to press that button.

“What we’ve got to look at is how we start, not how we do the middle.”

He added: “Overall I think we’ve got the right plan, but vibe is just not enough, being emotionally in the right place is just not enough.

“You’ve got to be technically right on it or you’ll run into a side like we did today.”