Rob Baxter reveals ‘genuine danger’ as pressure mounts on Exeter Chiefs’ coaching ticket
Rob Baxter watching his side warm-up before facing Toulouse.
Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter admits there is a ‘genuine danger’ of the Exeter Chiefs coaching group going stale, but believes his staff are still the right people to lead the Devonians.
Baxter’s side have won just four of their 17 matches in all competitions this season and have just crashed out of the Champions Cup after a sixth-placed finish in Pool One.
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With his side’s dramatic downturn in form, pressure has begun mounting on the coaching staff. Defence coach Omar Mouneimne was sacked in October and pressure continues to grow on the likes of Ali Hepher and even Baxter himself.
But, speaking to BBC Spotlight, Baxter still feels his coaching ticket are the ones to turn things around at Sandy Park.
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“There is a genuine danger of that happening,” Baxter said when asked if the coaching group were going stale. “But, the danger of it and it actually happening are two different things.”
He added: “If you spoke to the players now and asked if we train the same way as he did a year ago, they would all say, ‘no’.
“If they say, ‘do we talk about how the game is changing what the better teams are doing?’ They would go, ‘no, we’re not doing the same things, we’re not seeing the same things, we’re not trying to repeat the same things that we did five years ago or three years ago or two years ago.'”
Baxter has become synonymous with the Chiefs. He played 275 games for the club during his playing career and later became head coach in 2009.
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In his first full season in charge, Exeter won promotion to the Premiership and have only improved from there. Since making the step up to the top flight, the Chiefs have won three Premiership Rugby Cups, two Premiership titles and one Champions Cup.
Baxter under pressure?
This isn’t the first time Baxter has fielded questions regarding mounting pressure on his position. Following his side’s horrific 69-17 loss to Bordeaux, the biggest in the club’s history, the experienced director of rugby spoke candidly about the “reality” of the pressure surrounding him.
“The reality is I’m a professional sports coach and we’ve just been well-beaten in a competition we qualified for,” Baxter said.
He added: “It might not be the competition we need to be in at the stage we are as a team, but we are and we need to do better than that.”
Exeter have since been thumped 52-24 by Ulster – albeit with a rotated squad – but they now prepare to face arch-rivals Saracens at Sandy Park this weekend.
A win could give their slim Champions Cup hopes a huge boost, but a defeat would all-but end any chance of qualifying for Europe’s premier competition next season, and even see them end the weekend back at the bottom of the table.
