‘Better than sex’ – England star reflects on Exeter’s first win of the season

Louis Chapman Coombe
Henry Slade

Henry Slade in action for Exeter in 2024.

Exeter Chiefs and England star Henry Slade has described his side’s first win of the season as being “better than sex”, but believes a lot of the credit falls on experienced director of rugby Rob Baxter.

Chiefs edged Gloucester 22-15 in a thriller at Sandy Park to secure their first Premiership win for over seven months, with the England ace notching seven points from the tee.

‘Better than sex’ – Slade on first Chiefs win of the season

Speaking on TNT Sports after the game, Slade gave a rather honest, shall we say, assessment of his emotions.

“(Getting the win is) better than sex,” he said. “Don’t tell my wife that! It was awesome, it felt really good.”

The result comes after a torrid run of nine-straight league defeats stretching back to the final day of last season, and also moves them from the foot of the table and into ninth.

Whilst there is still a lot of work to do to get back to their double-winning best, this win will come as a big relief to the whole squad and even to Baxter and the rest of the coaching staff.

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This period has arguably been the toughest in the esteemed director of rugby’s career with the Chiefs since taking the reins in 2009, but Slade was full of praise for Baxter and feels his “level-headed” approach has kept them from imploding.

“The thing with Rob is you don’t get the peaks and troughs or emotional highs. He is always level-headed,” said Slade. “He has stuck to what he believes in and kept hammering the little things.”

He added: “Confidence has been low, naturally when you lose games on the bounce, you do lose confidence but the boys have been scrapping and fighting. There has been a lot of heartache and to come out on the right side today makes it all the better.”

Rob Baxter reflects on first win

Whilst he might not have been as forthright as his talisman, Baxter did say “at my age – I’m not sure”, which added a bit of context to why he felt that way.

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“What it shows you is how hard the players have been working and how much it means to them,” Baxter said in his post-game press conference. “And that’s the big indicator for everyone attached to the club. I know what starts to happen when you go through a losing process, people start saying all sorts of things; but when you come in day-to-day and you see a need to get better.”

He added: “When you’re going through it, it can feel frustrating when you’re repeating the same things over and over again; but the lads have been working really hard.

“We have tried to change things within training and adapt stuff. We want to be a learning team and not have just one way to play for Exeter, we’ve never been like that. There was a period where we were machine-like, but we worked towards that, and now we’re working towards what the finished Exeter article will be. I can see that happening, but sooner rather than later you need to win games.”

Exeter now turn their attention onto a difficult away trip to Mattioli Woods Welford Road, where they face a Leicester side that snatched a win at Sandy Park in the 82nd minute in Round One.

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