It is the first time in their history that the Chiefs have had a last-eight tie in Europe’s premier club competition at Sandy Park and only the second time ever that they have reached the knockout stage.

The Pool 2 winners sealed that home tie by beating La Rochelle at Sandy Park on Saturday, surging clear from 14-14 at half-time to triumph 33-14, notching a try bonus point in the process and stretching their unbeaten European sequence to six games.

“Five points in a Heineken Cup game is not to be sniffed at, because it’s given us a great chance to do something in the quarter-finals,” Baxter told the Exeter website.

“To get a home quarter-final, that’s hugely satisfying. It gives us everything we want out of the competition at this stage, which is an opportunity for as many of our supporters as possible to watch us here; it cuts down on travel; and the seedings should help us in some way.

“Saying that, it won’t be easy. All the sides getting to this stage of the competition will not only be quality, but they’ll be bang on form too. It will be a humdinger of a game and a fantastic challenge for us.”

With their quarter-final spot already guaranteed, Baxter admitted it took until the second half of Saturday’s match for his team to hit top form.

“If we’re honest, we didn’t really have that emotional, physical, edgy, noisy type of performance that we’ve had in other rounds,” he added.

“We were OK, but at half-time we simplified things. We talked about getting tough and emotional - and that we had to be prepared to knock ourselves around a bit.

“You could see how the game changed when we started to do that. We looked like a completely different team and you have to give great credit to the players for that.

“It’s very easy as a coach to say ‘do this or do that’, but it’s actually the players who have to decide to play the game and take it into their own hands. We’ve done it in every round.”

Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter feels the English club “have a great chance to do something” in the Heineken Champions Cup, after landing a home quarter-final against Gallagher Premiership rivals Northampton Saints.