When you think about Exeter Chiefs, the first person that comes to mind is likely their director of rugby, Rob Baxter.
Before the glitz and glamour of professional, top-flight rugby, in an era where they were fighting for mid-table stability in National One or competing for Devonian superiority with Plymouth Albion, Baxter was a rock of consistency for Exeter.
300+ career appearances for the club, while serving as captain for 10 years, too, tell the story of a club legend that is often forgotten.
It’s largely forgotten due to his career as the man in the hot seat following his appointment as head coach in 2009.
Even the bravest Exeter fan would not have dreamt of the success Baxter would herald.
It started almost instantly, with the Chiefs earning promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history in just his first year at the helm.
‘I’ve always really tried to look at it as being a privilege’
A year in the Premiership was likely more than any Exeter fan would have expected after the days in the County Ground. The match-day programme had an advert about Exeter winning the league as almost a tongue-in-cheek bit.
It was soon no longer tongue-in-cheek, though. After progressing gradually up the table, the Chiefs reached the showpiece final in 2016 for the first time, and a year later lifted the trophy after beating Wasps.
‘The rugby story that brought a smile to every neutral’s face in the land has its happy ending,’ said Nick Mullins, as Gareth Steenson and Jack Yeandle threw the silverware into the air at the home of English rugby. Exeter, little old Exeter, were the Kings of English rugby.
England wasn’t enough for them after that, and in 2020, they got their crowning moment. The Champions Cup.
Exeter, little old Exeter, were the Kings of European rugby.
And Baxter was the mastermind behind it all.
“I don’t think you could ever look at one thing being your life,” the DoR says honestly, when reflecting back on his time at Exeter. “Not when you go through having a family and your family grows up and leaves, and so it’s never been everything.
“I spend a lot of hours and a lot of days working in the job, and I’ve always really tried to look at it as being a privilege. The minute you forget that is when you’re of getting it wrong.
“It doesn’t mean it can’t be tough at times physically and emotionally, of course it can. But at the same time, you’re in a job that most people at some stage have done purely for fun, and they’ve done it for the enjoyment of it.
“I never really took the job initially to be a career coach,” he continues.
“I never went ‘a couple of years of this, that would be a good experience’, and then I can move here, move there, trying different things. That was never really my aim.
“I was enjoying coaching at the same time as I was finishing my playing career, and then a job opportunity came. I always enjoyed doing it, and it just slowly evolved.
“At no stage did I do it just purely as a job and a step in the next direction. I’ve just done it as well as I can day by day, and trying to keep the future progressive for myself, the club and the team.
“That’s all we’ve done.”
“Rob has been front and centre of the growth of this club, having helped build its foundations as a player,” adds club CEO and chairman Tony Rowe. “He is an Exeter Chiefs man through and through and has led us through some of our most memorable moments.
“He has also built a new coaching team and a young squad that are already keen and able to compete at the top level. It will be exciting to see where he can take them in the next few years.”
‘Of course there were times’
But, while the limelight will, and quite rightly so, be on the good times he has brought to Exeter, there have been some bad parts in there, too.
The Chiefs came into this campaign off the back of their worst-ever season in the top-flight, finishing the campaign ninth with just four wins from 18 matches and losing all four of their Investec Champions Cup pool fixtures too. Only the run to the PREM Cup final put a bit of shine on what was a dark year for the Chiefs, and even then, they lost 48-14 to Bath at Sandy Park.
Within that, they also saw huge turmoil in their coaching staff, with Omar Mounamie departing in the early stages of the season before long-serving duo Ali Hepher and Rob Hunter made their exit in the wake of a horrific 79-17 defeat to Gloucester.
And, he even felt his time could have been drawing to a close as well.
“That year was the standout that perhaps was the refresher we needed. I don’t mind admitting that, it was the slap in the face and the refresher we needed, and it happened,” said Baxter.
“Last season, yes (he was thinking his time was coming to an end). Of course there were times.
“There were times when you look at what we can do to change the momentum of the season, and whatever we tried couldn’t get us there.
“We had an upturn around Christmas where we won a couple of important games, which bought us some genuine time. There were times, of course there were. I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to get on with things again towards the latter end of the season, which highlighted the way we were going to head.
“It just shows you can turn things and get them on a positive arc with a few fundamental issues dealt with.”
Exeter will have to consider a time without Baxter as well, even if he is as essential to the foundations of the club as the concrete that holds Sandy Park together, but that isn’t in the here and now.
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“Who knows,” he adds when asked if this is his last deal. “A year ago, the future could have said I wasn’t getting another contract, and the future in a years time could say the same.
“I’ve got a bit of time to consider whether more contracts keep coming, it’s not something I’m going to think about right now. I’m a big believer that contracts look after themselves, and you’ve got to look after what you’ve got to do day-by-day.
“There will be a time when it’s the right time for someone else or for me to move, but I’m not foreseeing that in the near future.”
One thing is for sure, though. The Baxter story gets another chapter. The Exeter Chiefs gets another chapter. The story that once brought a smile to every neutral’s face gets another chapter.
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