Exeter Chiefs: Rob Baxter hands players ‘expectations’ ultimatum after woeful Premiership campaign
Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter watching his side warm-up before a Premiership game
Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter claims his players’ expectations still need to rise in the wake of their worst-ever Premiership season.
The Devonians have endured an incredibly challenging campaign. On the pitch, Exeter won just four of their 18 Premiership matches and finished the campaign in ninth, while off the pitch, they also saw three coaches head for the exit door in the form of Rob Hunter, Ali Hepher and Omar Mounamie.
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Exeter’s season came to an end at Sandy Park yesterday with a 30-26 defeat to Sale Sharks, but speaking after the match, Baxter said he’s glad to see the end of this sorry campaign.
“I’m not going to refer to this season at all,” Baxter told BBC Sport. “But I’ll refer to my expectations of them (the players) going forward.
“For the past three or four weeks, all I’ve spoken about is that my expectations of them are higher than their own expectations of themselves.
“I’m not going to lower my expectations, they have to raise theirs. If they catch up to me, they’ll be winning trophies, winning in Europe, and they’ll be doing all the things that they could do.”
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The low point of Exeter’s season came last month, as they were humiliated by West Country rivals Gloucester in a 79-17 thrashing.
That defeat put a spotlight onto their faltering season, and ended with coaches Hepher and Hunter departing the club.
In the time since, Baxter has taken on front-line coaching duties once again and new attack coach Dave Walder has also joined the set-up. Performances have improved, too, with Exeter securing a 42-14 win over Northampton Saints before pushing both Harlequins and Sale close in the final two games of the campaign.
“A lot of teams need a dedicated start point, and that Gloucester game was that for us,” he said. “You need that sometimes, you don’t need anybody having any second doubts that what’s on the field isn’t good enough.
“We probably needed that. We needed someone to go ‘this is not good enough, things have to change’ and that’s what’s happened.
“We’ve had that now, and now things are changing. You can feel a change.”
Things are also looking up on the squad front, too. Exeter have drafted in Wallabies stars Len Ikitau and Tom Hooper, Springboks hooker Joseph Dweba and Italian internationals Stephen Varney and Andrea Zambonin.
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