Western Morning News (Saturday)
Baxter backs Simmonds to be the hero for Exeter
Fly-half may be young but he can lead the Chiefs to European glory in Bristol today
ROB Baxter has every confidence that captain Joe Simmonds can be the man that leads Exeter Chiefs to European glory in the Champions Cup final against Racing 92 at Ashton Gate this afternoon.
The 23-year-old fly-half has been in scintillating form all season and turned in a superb performance in helping the Chiefs see off Toulouse 28-18 in the semi-final at Sandy Park at the end of September.
Today, Simmonds will be up against Racing 92 and Scotland international Finn Russell, widely regarded as one of the best fly-halves in world rugby. But Baxter has every confidence that Teignmouth-born Simmonds can rise to the occasion, show that he too is world class and lead the Chiefs to glory.
“When people want to talk about leadership, they want to try and make it very complex and very difficult. The reality is that we see him as a young player coming through and playing well,” Baxter said.
“He’s a player with a big future that we have introduced into our leadership group because obviously, as a young fly-half coming through, he had to start taking responsibility for leadership in areas of the game.
“As things have happened over the last two years, he’s become one of that leadership group that has started regularly and we felt if we were going to go down that path, then we would follow it through and give him the opportunity to captain the side and he has done that very well.
“The biggest thing for me – and I will keep it very simple – is to look at the guy’s face at the end of a game. You will see how much flat out emotion he has put into that performance and what people often want more than anything else is an emotional leader, a guy that it means everything to and I see that in Joe all the time.
“That means more to me than anything else. If he makes the wrong decision, or says the wrong thing in a team meeting, it doesn’t mean an awful lot to me. Having a 100 percent emotional buy-in to what we are trying to do as a team, that means everything to me.”
Simmonds is very much the successor to the King of Sandy Park, Gareth Steenson, whose golden boot led the Chiefs to promotion from the Championship in 2009 and their one and only Premiership crown so far in 2017.
In many ways, ‘Steeno’ has been the perfect mentor for Simmonds, although Baxter also highlights the work done by Ali Hepher, himself a former fly-half of some repute.
“The most important thing about coaching is being able to coach players that have a bit of self awareness because if they have self awareness, they can deal with it,” Baxter said.
“What Joe is very good at is that he is probably aware when something is not quite right, but he gets on with it and deals with it. That is what you need from young players, young players need to be able to adapt and move on and realise when things aren’t quite right and push themselves forward.
“That is probably the best feature of his season this year. When it hasn’t felt quite right, it has been better later in the game. It hasn’t happened too often but, when it has happened, he has dealt with it and that is credit to him and credit to those around him.
“Ali has managed him and worked with him fantastically well. You need to remember that Ali was a European Cup winning fly-half for Northampton a long time ago, so he has experience of these things and knows the development it takes and the experiences Joe will go through.
“He works with him exceptionally well on how these things will change and develop through the game and how he can keep helping himself and pushing himself, something he does really well. You have to say that they are a fantastic working pair.”