Exeter Coach Rob Baxter Prioritizes Quality Over Quantity in Squad Additions

Exeter is currently experiencing its poorest performance since Rob Baxter assumed the role of Chiefs boss in 2009. Rob Baxter, the head coach for Exeter, indicated that he anticipates making only a limited number of new player acquisitions for the upcoming season, notwithstanding the team’s current struggles. The Chiefs currently occupy the last position in the Premiership, having suffered defeats in all seven of their matches, with their sole wins this season occurring in the Premiership Rugby Cup. Nevertheless, Baxter expressed confidence in numerous young players progressing through the club’s system, highlighting talents such as Oscar Beckerleg, Lucas Gulley, Kane James, Josh Mann, Nicholas Allison, Benjamin Coen, Nick Lilley, and Campbell Ridl, who are part of the England Under-20 squad, external. He informed BBC Sport, “Where we are as a squad we’d be way better off bringing in two real high-quality players, than four, five or six squad players.” “I think our development is still ongoing, we have got a young team that are improving and are learning and we’ve got young players who were going through some tough times, but that’ll stand them in good stead.” “I don’t want to waste that, but same time we do have to move forward as well, and there’s some key decisions we’ve got to make around that.” Baxter stated that the upcoming months will be crucial for squad members whose contracts are expiring. Historically, Exeter has not typically recruited many first-choice players each summer; however, recent seasons have witnessed increased squad turnover due to the departure of long-serving players following reductions in the salary cap. Baxter further commented, “I’m not going to run away from the fact, we’re the bottom team in the Premiership and recruitment and retention is a little different.” “The main reason being is you’ve got to have a look around the squad and you’ve got to decide who’s standing up and who’s moving forward who are off contract.” “You want to keep your off-contract guys who look like they’re improving players and who are using this period, where we’re going through a bit of pain, to get better.” “There’s still a positive in keeping those guys moving forward, but at the same time you’ve also got to go, ‘are we a strong enough squad, are there things we need to change and improve?’.” “Outside of the squad we’ve got now, we do also have eight players in the coming season’s Under-20 EPS (Elite Player) squad.” “There’s no value in you bringing in somebody just because they’re available when next season we might want to pick one of those guys. I’m only really going to recruit guys who I think will improve us from where we are now.” “I’m determined not to get panicked into signing the wrong players, I’m going to spend a lot of time on it and we’re only going to approach the correct players to make us better.”