Exeter’s Rob Baxter Confident in Haydn Thomas to Revitalize Defence

Rob Baxter, Exeter Chiefs’ director of rugby, expressed his belief that Haydn Thomas possesses the ability to improve the team’s defensive performance. Thomas, a former scrum-half for the Chiefs who helped Exeter win promotion to the Premiership in 2010 as a player, has taken over from Omar Mouneimne, who departed the club last week. This change follows Exeter’s worst-ever start to a Premiership season, during which Baxter’s side has lost all six of their league fixtures and conceded 176 points. Thomas, who previously served as backs and attack coach at Sandy Park, also holds the position of England A’s defence coach and has coached Exeter University’s team, which maintains a strong connection with the Premiership club. Speaking to BBC Radio Devon, Baxter stated, “I watched the England Under 20’s game as we had a lot of player involvement and they had a lot of very good qualities around what they were doing defensively, which was Hayden’s key area.” Baxter further commented, “He’s got a good way of putting things over to the players.” He elaborated on Thomas’s approach, saying, “I think he’s got a slightly different way of looking at defence to Omar, which I think probably aligns a little bit more to what we’re looking for in every element of how we play, both in attack and kick chase and how we want the game to tie together.” Baxter concluded, “I think those things make it a pretty simple situation for us to promote Hayden into that position.” Thomas and Mouneimne were observed sitting together during Exeter’s 36-19 home defeat to Harlequins last month. Addressing the media for the first time since Mouneimne’s exit, Baxter characterized the decision to separate as “amicable.” Mouneimne, who previously coached for Worcester Warriors and Bristol Bears, had been at Sandy Park since the summer of 2022, joining a coaching staff that includes long-serving members, such as Baxter, who has been with the club for over a decade and a half. Baxter commented, “Omar’s got a system that he believes in, and can work very well and has got some real strength to it.” He continued, “We at times have caused some teams a lot of problems, but we’ve had to do it very well to cause them a lot of problems.” Baxter further explained, “You can say, ‘that’s the whole point, you should do everything you can as well’, but the reality is to actually start the process, to get on the front foot, to get a team moving forward, you have to make sure that you can maximise everything you can do and you can start to slot guys into systems a little bit more efficiently than we have been able to this year.” Baxter concluded, “So when you collectively put it altogether I just felt it was the right time for us to move on.” He added, “Omar’s aware of that. He’s very kind of driven on what he wants to see from a team defensively.” Baxter elaborated on the process, stating, “So, really, between us we had a few conversations over a period of time and kind of came to the conclusion was it was the right time for us to part company.” He summarized the situation by saying, “Sometimes you have these things and you know you have to make a change and you have to move in slightly in a different direction, and that’s what we’ve done.”