‘Exeter must confront demons to finally win the Champions Cup’
Director of rugby Rob Baxter reveals contract extension and backs his team for European title
Rob Baxter is not one of those who doubts the value of being in Europe. The Exeter Chiefs director of rugby has long set his sights on his team performing at the high end of the Champions Cup, a goal that they have almost singularly failed to meet in their six previous years among the elite. This is a reflection not so much of their intrinsic ability, for they have won one Premiership title and reached three other finals in that time only to be denied by serial European champions (and salarycap transgressors) Saracens, but of a combination of factors.
The Chiefs have had the pedigree, but they have lacked either physical heft or mental fortitude. They have come up short in five of those six seasons, only once making the quarter-finals, in 2016, where they lost to Wasps, 25-24. Until they cross that frontier, accolades will be hedged and judgment on their true standing will be qualified. Is this to be the season of change?
On a bracing, rain-flecked Devon winter’s morning, as cries and occasional curses rent the Sandy Park air, there was plenty of evidence during a full-on training session to believe that the players are wholly committed to righting that failing. Baxter admits that he was delighted to oversee such a “narky, barky” session. “It shows we’re not satisfied,” he said.
The Chiefs are one of only four teams with a 100 per cent record in the tournament, topping Pool Two after three successive victories, their best run of results in Europe yet. They could even qualify for the knockout stages as early as tomorrow if they were to rack up a bonus-point win over Sale Sharks and Glasgow Warriors fail to get any return against La Rochelle today. It could be a breakthrough moment with the prospect of a home tie in the quarter-finals.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Baxter as that scenario was painted. “Doubleheaders can bite you, but getting further in Europe is the next step for us. We are not running away from that. We have decided to embrace it, to confront those demons early on and show ourselves that we mean business. We’re talking up the significance of games now rather than downplaying them.
“You can’t really say we have let ourselves down [in previous seasons] because we have had some terrific performances against quality opponents, but there has been a sense of annoyance and frustration that we haven’t been able to build in Europe.
“It was interesting for me in pre-season during one-to-one chats with the players and, without me bringing it up, they came out with all the pain and hurt they felt about Europe to the curious extent that we didn’t perform that well in the league and then, bang, two five-pointers in our opening two pool games [at La Rochelle and home to Glasgow Warriors]. All that emotion fuels hunger. You saw that in the way we clung on last week at Sale when they came right back at us. The manner of that win there, backs-to-the-wall in the end, pleased me more than even that good victory away at La Rochelle. It showed character. There were no smiles and laughter at training today either, not a shred of complacency that we might be thinking we’ve already cracked it.”
The Exeter Chiefs project continues apace, with Baxter letting slip to The Daily Telegraph on Thursday that he (and his coaching staff) had all signed contract extensions through to 2023. There is plenty still to tend to even though Baxter’s decade in charge has yielded such success, the former Exeter player and captain taking them up from the Championship and on to the European battlefield with genuine prospects. Ten years and still eager for more. What keeps Baxter sharp and motivated, his messages fresh and his judgment in the recruitment market so keen?
“What has perhaps helped us be good is that I worry a lot about what we might get wrong,” said Baxter. “I’ll be the same before kick-off on Sunday as I was before my very first game in charge, away to Moseley in the Championship: fretful, nervous, full of butterflies, concerned as to whether I’d got everything covered.
“We make a good [coaching] team. Ali [Hepher] is far more optimistic, while Rob [Hunter] is somewhere in between. I guess there might be a day when I’d be content to sit in the stand with a beer and watch someone else be in charge, but we’re not there yet.
“I am proud of what we’ve achieved, but you can’t rest on any laurels. At least now the fans come to Sandy Park with an expectation of not seeing us lose.”
Exeter have a full complement on parade, with Scotland full-back Stuart Hogg fit to play after leaving the field with nausea and dizziness at the AJ Bell Stadium.
“I remember travelling back from Newcastle several seasons ago where we had won and it suddenly occurred to me, in middish season, that we were free from any relegation concerns,” added Baxter. “We could start to build for the future and not be bogged down about battling the drop. It’s about recognising and taking those next steps. Are we good enough to win the Champions Cup? If we qualify strongly with a home quarter-final then, yes, we are good enough to win three knockout matches.”
You can imagine the next sentence. “But first there’s Sunday.”
‘I guess there might be a day when I’d be content to sit in the stand with a beer, but that’s not yet’