Royal email is no prank for Baxter
EXETER GLORY HONOURED
EXETER director of rugby Rob Baxter was convinced he was the victim of a prankster when he was told he was going to be given an OBE.
Baxter was rewarded for a decade of excellence in which he has steered the Chiefs’ rise from the Championship to be European and Premiership double- winners, as well as providing a raft of players for the England squad.
Joe Simmonds, 24, was given an MBE after captaining the team this year and excelling at fly- half.
Baxter has been with Exeter every step of the way after playing more than 300 games for the club, before moving upstairs in 2009 with Chiefs still in the second tier of English rugby.
But Baxter was sure he was being wound up when he showed an email from a Buckingham Palace official to his wife Jo.
He said: “I couldn’t quite work out if it was real or whether it was spam or someone having bit of a prank.
“It turned up by email and not in an official letter. You download it, read it, check who it has been emailed from with a Google search! I was sat there with my wife, both of us in slightly bemused style.
“People are looking at the journey the club has been on and how fantastic it has been, but you still never expect anything like this.
“There was a little bit of embarrassment on my end that I was the guy with the award. It started a long time ago and has involved a lot of people.”
Local boy Simmonds did not make his first- team debut until March 2018, but became the youngest player to captain a
Champions Cup- winning side when Exeter beat Racing 92 in October.
Baxter said: “His quality of performance made him a really important leader for us, because he was an easy person to follow. He’s emotionally involved in the club and that’s what leadership is
DOUBLE
Baxter and Simmonds, top, have been recognised after BUBBLE
Exeter’s sensational year about. You want to see that it really means something to the guy who is doing the talking.”
Exeter have been playing in front of small or non- existent crowds – like the rest of the Premiership – because of Covid and the boss is desperate to get them back.
“If you are sitting in the middle of the Sandy Park grandstand and the crowd are going bananas, the game feels totally different to if you are watching it in a sterile environment,” Baxter said.
“A 9- 6 win can feel like the most emotive incredible game you will ever witness. That is what we need back.”
SCOTLAND full- back Stuart Hogg is expected to be back in action by the time Exeter’s European campaign resumes on 16 January against Toulouse and will also be ready for the Six Nations.
Hogg injured his ankle in the Boxing Day win over Gloucester.