Exeter Coach Baxter Calls for More Risk-Taking After Series of Losses

Exeter’s head coach, Rob Baxter, has stated his team must embrace greater risks to resume winning matches, following a season where his side has suffered nine consecutive defeats across the Premiership and European Champions Cup. The Chiefs experienced a significant 64-21 loss on Sunday against European champions Toulouse in their second Champions Cup pool fixture. The French squad scored 10 tries against Exeter, whose sole victories this season have occurred in the Premiership Rugby Cup. Currently, Baxter’s squad occupies the last position in the Premiership standings and avoids the bottom of their Champions Cup pool solely due to points scored. Speaking to BBC Radio Devon, Baxter remarked, “We’ve got to free ourselves up from just almost playing safe a little bit.” He elaborated on his philosophy, stating, “Playing safe is actually playing dangerous nowadays. Playing multi-phase rugby when you can make a pass and move the point of contact and move them to where they’ve got less defenders, that’s safe rugby now.” Baxter acknowledged the challenge, adding, “We keep encouraging the lads to do it, but actually having that confidence to do it when you’re losing some games is hard.” Antoine Dupont, a prominent France player, initiated Toulouse’s scoring with the first of their 10 tries. Exeter managed to narrow the deficit to 23 points with two tries early in the second half, prior to Toulouse adding three further scores. Baxter further commented, “The was a period after half-time where I thought we played some of our best rugby of the season against a very good side and things looked like we were just starting to create the momentum our way.” He continued, “But keeping it up is one thing, but we should have started the game like it.” Baxter described the desired approach: “How that game was after half-time was how we talked about playing the game, about getting them moving, going after them, doing things ourselves, moving the ball to create difficult scenarios.” He also observed, “Sometimes we almost waited to get our players back and then did quite a static play when we can just going.” Baxter concluded by noting, “Some of it’s quite new to the players to know that we’re happy with them just getting on with things and getting the ball moving, but that is the way you’re going to win games now.”