The humdrum results had dramatic consequences for two of the long-serving director of rugby Baxter’s stalwart assistant coaches in recent weeks. Ali Hepher was demoted to an academy role and replaced by Rob Hunter as head coach in March, then both men were suspended after a record Chiefs defeat, 79-17 at Gloucester two weeks ago, then Hunter was shown the door a few days later.
By the time of this week’s press session on Wednesday, Baxter wanted only to look ahead, but he could not answer definitively when asked to confirm ex-Wasps and Newcastle Falcons fly-half Dave Walder had arrived in the attack and backs role vacated by Hepher.
Rob Baxter has assumed coaching responsibilities at Sandy Park (Photo: Getty)
A rumour of the club talking to ex-England head coach Stuart Lancaster sums up the uncertainty of where the Chiefs stand. Can they afford to make the hire? And are the 76-year-old Rowe and the 54-year-old Baxter, who are so tightly intertwined with each other and everything the club have achieved, willing to cede power to a strong voice with new ideas?
The i Paper understands Rowe, who has pumped money for two decades into a club still owned by its 700 members, though they tend to go by his decisions, admits to being dogged by two errors he and Baxter made: one long-term, one more recent.
That in itself was not the mistake, Rowe is understood to believe – rather it was Exeter having not blooded enough other youngsters, and left to rely on middling squad players with little Premiership experience when Cowan-Dickie, Nowell, Dave Ewers, Sam and Joe Simmonds, Jonny Hill and other top players left for more lucrative deals or a different lifestyle at other clubs.
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They lost a super-strength of the team when the try-line drop-out law negated the favourite pick-and-go tactic, while Baxter directing young players to Exeter University – a highly laudable idea, in one way – has meant them missing the grounding they used to receive in the Championship or National League.
Chiefs’ new signings for next season are led by 39-cap Australia centre Len Ikitau – who could be a formidable centre partner to Slade, assuming the latter resists any offer from French clubs – and scrum-halves Stephen Varney and Charlie Chapman.
On the coaching front, assistant coaches Julian Salvi, Gareth Steenson and Omar Mouneimne have come and gone. Another long server, Ricky Pellow, remains on skills and development, with Ross McMillan on the forwards and Haydn Thomas on defence.
“We were once in the fourth tier of English rugby and we had plans then on where we were going, and we made them happen,” Baxter said on Wednesday.
“We’re not suddenly making radical changes. [But] we’ve almost not realised that our expectations have dropped quite low. Our expectations of ourselves have got to change.”
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