Gloucester v Exeter Sunday 3pm

[FKAS]

Well sounds like something has kicked off behind the scenes doesn't it. We'll see if Baxter can summon a better performance out of them for their next game.

[Puja]

Blimey, that's quite a step. Odd timing too, they aren't going to realistically improve their position in any meaningful way before the end of the season. Feels a bit like pulling Hunter and Hepher's pants down for a public spanking to appease the fans.

Very much seconded. Don't really see how that statement can be anything other than constructive dismissal - their positions can't be tenable after that.

It's wild, cause both of them were very highly rated as coaches until this season.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Something is fundamentally wrong at Exeter and has been all season.

Seems Hunter is this weeks fall guy, having had 4 games to sort out the mess the club is in. Odd given that last weeks narrow loss to Bath was considered a big step forward in performance.

Meanwhile Baxter gets a free pass.

[Oakboy]

It all seems odd but it would have seemed even odder if they had NOT done something now. The players performed as a team to some sort of pitiful level of, say, 50% of their best. On paper, the team was simply not that bad (not good in 5 or 6 positions but capable of being competitive). No matter how good Gloucester may have been, that level of performance must be indicative of bad preparation and motivation. That means the coaches. Maybe, it is better to identify that now than at the start of next season.

[Danno]

I suppose it gives old fella Rowe a few more weeks to seek new coaches, but it feels incredibly harsh and disrespectful to treat them this way, as opposed to a quiet 'sorry lads' after the last game of the season

[Oakboy]

I suppose it gives old fella Rowe a few more weeks to seek new coaches, but it feels incredibly harsh and disrespectful to treat them this way, as opposed to a quiet 'sorry lads' after the last game of the season

I get that. It makes me wonder if the magnitude of defeat/level of performance on the day is the reason in itself or the symptom of something else.

If nothing else, it must have motivated players for the rest of this season.

[FKAS]

Something is fundamentally wrong at Exeter and has been all season.

Seems Hunter is this weeks fall guy, having had 4 games to sort out the mess the club is in. Odd given that last weeks narrow loss to Bath was considered a big step forward in performance.

Meanwhile Baxter gets a free pass.

Or has he taken hands on responsibility for the coaching because things have gone so badly he's taking a lot of heat? He's allowed Hunter and Hepher to move things around and improve things themselves but it's not gone well so he's stepping into the HC role. That may have been received badly by the other two. Sounds very messy and largely unpleasant.

[twitchy]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union ... s-decline/

Good article. It's too big to copy all of it but some snippets:

Exeter left behind in changing landscape

There will be no simple answers. On the face of it, this season’s struggles can be explained in part by expenditure, with Exeter understood to be spending significantly below the £6.4 million salary cap. A simple comparison between the 2020 side, which contained luminaries such as Nowell, Slade, Cowan-Dickie, Sam and Joe Simmonds, Stuart Hogg, Jonny Hill and Dave Ewers, and the current squad is stark.

Yet behind the scenes the decline has been more nuanced and complex. Some believe that began shortly after the 2020 high point. “We used to always be pushing to be ahead of the curve,” said one source. “After 2020, it is as if that became the blueprint. It was as if we said ‘this is what worked’ and kept going back to it, but the game keeps moving on.”

The financial impact of the global pandemic – both Exeter’s finals in 2020 were severely disrupted, with the European final played behind closed doors and with just a few hundred people at the Twickenham showpiece – was also critical in fast-tracking the decline.



Exeter moved swiftly to exploit a loophole to offer 30 long-term contracts ahead of the reduction of the salary cap to £5 million in the 2021-22 season to keep those players at the club for at least another campaign. That meant that by 2023 the club had to let go of almost all of its front-line internationals to remain under the cap.
Players learning in spotlight

There was confidence within the club that it would be able to start again and bring through a new generation of young players – largely through a strong relationship with the University of Exeter – forged in a similar manner to the group that fought their way into the Premiership in the late 2000s.

“The problem is that these young players have had to find their feet in the Premiership and with much greater expectation from supporters because of what the club has achieved,” said one source. “We were able to learn how to play in the Championship for a number of years. The players are having to learn in the spotlight and without the benefit of a winning environment.”

With squads not as deep because of the financial repercussions of Covid, and with a greater emphasis on attack rather than defence in the Premiership, there has been a trend for sides to suffer blowouts when a contest goes away from them. The options to loan out players to Championship sides like the Cornish Pirates are now limited. The Championship itself is not the testing ground it used to be after the Rugby Football Union cuts.



Others feel the coaching ticket should have been refreshed sooner to bring in new ideas, training methods and game plans, while the changing times have meant that the days of sorting issues over beers have gone.

When Hunter took over from Hepher earlier in the year, there was an intention to instigate change and that is likely to accelerate now that Baxter is to return to a hands-on role.

Baxter is said to have stepped back from coaching in the last three or four years but has been overseeing everything in his role as director of rugby. He has been a member of the club’s board since before Covid and retains a strong relationship with Rowe.

“Tony will back Rob to get things right,” said one source.

Yet even in these dark times, there is hope. Exeter’s foundations are too solid for it to be any other way. Rowe is said to be as passionate about the club as he always has been, even if the vision of his appearance in the dressing room after the Gloucester defeat has been dramatised. “To be fair Tony always comes into the dressing room after games, win, lose or draw,” added a source.

There is a healthy budget for next season, with Wallabies Len Ikitau and Tom Hooper and Springbok hooker Joseph Dweba among the new signings, while Dave Walder is joining the coaching team and there is a hope that the club’s identity evolves.


Exeter moved swiftly to exploit a loophole to offer 30 long-term contracts ahead of the reduction of the salary cap to £5 million in the 2021-22 season to keep those players at the club for at least another campaign. That meant that by 2023 the club had to let go of almost all of its front-line internationals to remain under the cap.
Players learning in spotlight

There was confidence within the club that it would be able to start again and bring through a new generation of young players – largely through a strong relationship with the University of Exeter – forged in a similar manner to the group that fought their way into the Premiership in the late 2000s.

“The problem is that these young players have had to find their feet in the Premiership and with much greater expectation from supporters because of what the club has achieved,” said one source. “We were able to learn how to play in the Championship for a number of years. The players are having to learn in the spotlight and without the benefit of a winning environment.”

With squads not as deep because of the financial repercussions of Covid, and with a greater emphasis on attack rather than defence in the Premiership, there has been a trend for sides to suffer blowouts when a contest goes away from them. The options to loan out players to Championship sides like the Cornish Pirates are now limited. The Championship itself is not the testing ground it used to be after the Rugby Football Union cuts.

[Captainhaircut]

Exeter really are a dreadful club. All that Covid nonsense, Rowe mouthing off endlessly and now this. Baxter should be having a very hard look at himself- clearly he’s protected because Rowe loves him for what he’s done but it’s bang out of order to allow this treatment of 2 men who were so critical to past success. Baxter seemingly not to blame for anything at all….

I think someone else has said it- literally nothing to be gained by doing this now rather than at the end of the season. It’s just Rowe being a dickhead.

Here’s hoping for nothing but misery for them for years to come.