Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter has conceded that his side were second best in Saturday evening's meeting against Gloucester Rugby.
Baxter's men battled back from 10 points behind to set up a tightly-contested finale to the European Rugby Champions Cup semi-final, but tries from Tom Savage and Jonny May helped the Cherry and Whites progress through in the end.
Despite the disappointment of missing out on the final, the 44-year-old was quick to find positives from the 30-19 defeat.
"Gloucester got enough things better than us that they deserved to win. I am not afraid to say that," he told reporters. "I was delighted with how we performed for large parts of the game. There were a couple of areas where Gloucester performed better than us and they were pretty much the deciding factors.
"The penalty count was largely in Gloucester's favour at the scrum and they gave them territory and position which hurt us. They managed that area better than we did.
"Other than that really, we defended well with good discipline for large periods, we looked dangerous on the counter and created some try-scoring opportunities we didn't see off but overall we came up a bit short."
Exeter, who reached the final of the LV= Cup earlier this season, are currently fourth in the Aviva Premiership table.
Daniel Lewis
