Rob Baxter has done more than enough for Exeter over the years to deserve a vote of confidence in difficult times and now he has one. Despite six consecutive Premiership defeats, his boss has faith.
The message from chairman Tony Rowe to the Chiefs’ concerned supporters is; don’t panic. A shock loss at Newcastle last Friday night really raised the alarm and heightened fears of a spiralling crisis in Devon, but Rowe is adamant that financial fortunes are improving and an on-field revival will follow.
Exeter are the only winless club in the top division this season and they were an error-strewn rabble at Kingston Park in their last outing. So, for all the golden entries on his CV, director of rugby Baxter admitted on Thursday that he is rightly feeling the pressure.
But Rowe is steadfast in his support for a man who, for so many years, he had to warn the RFU not to try to poach, to take charge of England. ‘I have a really good bunch of coaches, headed by Rob,’ he told Mail Sport.
‘He and I have been working together since I first got involved in the club in 1993, so we go back a long way. I’ve got every confidence in them, no question about it. When you look at the young group of players they’ve got there, they have a massive amount of talent – almost more talent now than we had eight or nine years ago. They just have to remember the coaching for 80 minutes!’
Exeter Chiefs star Ethan Roots looks dejected, with his team having now lost six Premiership games in a row
Exeter’s Director of Rugby Rob Baxter (pictured) knows he is under pressure
Rowe was at Kingston Park last Friday night, to witness first-hand a performance which must have represented one of the lowest ebbs during his long association with Exeter. He is adamant that the experience will serve a purpose in the long run.
‘We held our own in the first half, but Newcastle is a tough place to go anyway and Mr Diamond is coaching them,’ said Rowe. ‘We were just doing stupid things. If you keep giving the ball away, you can’t do anything. The players will learn from that, I can tell you. I was in the changing-room afterwards and those boys had been taught a big lesson.’
The Chiefs have been in transition mode, following a mass exodus which saw Jack Nowell and the Simmonds brothers – Joe and Sam – move to France, while Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jonny Hill and Tom O’Flaherty relocated north to Sale. They were all key figures in the golden era which reached a peak exactly four years ago, when Exeter won the 2020 Premiership Final to clinch an historic league and Champions Cup Double.
Baxter had to mastermind a rebuild by promoting young talent, as he had done almost a decade earlier to such telling effect. ‘We basically put a lot of young guys from our academy together eight or nine years ago and we had a very successful team,’ said Rowe.
‘The problem was that they… they hadn’t quite reached their sell-by date, but talking in terms of this gladiatorial sport, they were becoming old men – and expensive old men. With the salary cap being cut back and various other things, we just couldn’t afford them.
Exeter won the Champions Cup four years ago to mark a golden era at the club
They also lifted the Premiership trophy to complete a historic double, but things have gone downhill since then
‘What Rob and his coaches have done is put together another bunch of young boys and some of the individuals are fantastic, but it’s about getting them working together as a team for 80 minutes. They will get there, it’s just frustrating for the coaches at the moment and you just sit there sometimes thinking, “Why have they done that?”. But I have every confidence. There are some really talented young men in there and the penny will drop. You can’t force it.
‘Lack of experience and a little bit of game naivety – that’s what it’s been about. They’ll get it. It comes. I’m not worried about it. We had the same eight or nine years ago, developing the team before. I’m sure the fans know rugby and will understand.’
There is no doubt that Exeter have missed the reassuring presence of Henry Slade so far this season – prior to his anticipated comeback on Sunday against Harlequins at Sandy Park. Baxter also feels that some of his squad have not ‘rolled their sleeves up’ and embraced the hard graft required to take the next step after an encouraging campaign with a squad full of rookie potential last season.
But that squad is thin in places. The Chiefs have been operating on more limited resources. Money has been a contributory factor. Asked if a reduced budget has had a major impact, Baxter said: ‘Without doubt. We’ve spent a little more this year than last year, but we are miles off the salary cap. There are budgetary things, but we’re a members’ club and have to run as a profit-making business. We can’t run forever as a loss-making business because that’s illegal. Our accountants can’t say we are a going concern, so we have to make decisions (on budgeting). We’ve done that.
‘Some of that is to blame for where we are, but it’s not the whole problem. We’ve got to develop as a group, as individuals and in how we play, quicker than we have.’
Chairman Tony Rowe (pictured) believes Covid and the recession has cost the club, but has backed Baxter to turn things around
Exeter will get a welcome boost from having England star Henry Slade (pictured) back in their team this weekend as they bid to kickstart their season
In theory, Baxter could dip into the transfer market if required, in a bid to belatedly ignite Exeter’s season. ‘We have an amount we could invest, for that player we might need in a key area, if we thought, “This guy has the right experience to come in and make a difference”,’ he said. Much has been made of the Chiefs’ apparent lack of half-back composure and authority, so that may, in time, become an area the management wish to bolster.
Further ahead, the plan is to increase spending on the playing staff, back up nearer the cap, which has been raised to pre-pandemic level of £6.4m per year, plus various extra ‘credits’. Providing the club emerge from their slump and avoid the unthinkable threat of relegation, the financial outlook is brighter again.
‘Covid, the recession and the rest of it cost us £17million,’ said Rowe. ‘It’s been a challenge, holding the club together financially, but we are okay. We haven’t got anyone breathing down our necks for money and we have a budget to make a profit this year, providing we can stay on that budget.
‘I’d be the first to admit that it’s been very difficult. At times in this last four years, we were really struggling, but we’ve got through it, and our supporters and season ticket-holders have stuck with us. Now we just need to get the team in the right place on the pitch. It sounds easy, doesn’t it?!’
