The No.8 was named Heineken Star of the Match against the side he is joining in the summer, scoring a first-half try at Sandy Park in addition to making 22 carries and 93 metres.

Exeter eventually secured a quarter-final spot on tries scored following the period of extra time, with Jack Yeandle dotting down at the death following effirts from Simmonds, Scott Sio Tom Wyatt and Josh Iosefa-Scott in the 80 minutes.

“He (Simmonds) looked almost impossible to handle sometimes,” Baxter said.

“He very nearly scored a solo try that would have written the game off, and he was one of the guys who got his levels right for what he wanted to achieve today.

“We’ve had a few rollercoasters over the years. I am really pleased for the players. We’ve challenged them a bit this season around some of the highs and lows of performances.”

Exeter were seconds from exiting the Heineken Champions Cup, with Montpellier, who had seen Zach Mercer sent off, levelling the scores with a last-gasp penalty before taking the lead with a try in extra time.

But Baxter was pleased with the resilience his team showed in high-pressure circumstances, especially after disappointing domestic results recently.

“We really looked like a team that wanted to win and wanted to work hard,” he reflected. “I don’t know if them being reduced to 14 men made it harder for us. It seemed to energise them – they grew and grew.

“Overall, those emotional rollercoasters, coming through that,it shows you can make good things happen.

“We were quite rightly criticised after our away performances against Bath and Harlequins, whereas today we controlled what we wanted to do very well.”

Exeter now look ahead to a home quarter-final against DHL Stormers on Saturday, and Baxter believes his team will be underdogs against the South African heavyweights after they beat Harlequins 32-28 in Cape Town.

“I know not many people will give us a chance against them,” he said.

“I know not many people will give us a chance against them.

“They dealt with Harlequins pretty easily (on Saturday) and Harlequins dealt with us pretty easily two weeks ago, so that’s it – game over.

“But that is quite a nice place to start from for us. We are not going to physically change much this week. We have just got to get our emotional batteries recharged.”

Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter has hailed Sam Simmonds’ performance in the 2020 champions’ dramatic extra-time success over Montpellier Hérault Rugby in the Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16.