Rob Baxter confident Exeter can overcome last season's disappointment

Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter expressed confidence that his side will overcome the disappointment from the previous season as they face Leicester Tigers in the Premiership opener on 10th September.

Having won the Premiership title two times and being runners up on four occasions between 2016 and 2021, Exeter Chiefs were among the top contenders for the 2021/22 season but had to settle for the seventh place after managing just 13 wins from 24 matches.

“Those six points [off fourth-placed Northampton], they’re very easy to see where they could have come from to get us back in the top four. But at the same time, we’ve also got to appreciate that other teams did get in the top four, and we didn’t.

“I think the seeds of us not playing as well as we could have played were already happening, probably towards the end of the previous season.

"So, we had some stuff we needed to genuinely address and genuinely talk about. Probably finishing seventh, in some ways for us is better than finishing fourth.

"The most important thing is just to accept we weren’t good enough. And if you can accept we weren’t good enough and don’t try and make too many excuses then that will give you your best chance to move forward.”

Baxter also felt the Covid pandemic hampered the team's preparations last season.

“Obviously, the previous season and a half, it was difficult with Covid, there was just stuff you couldn’t do,” Baxter added.

“We probably let that drag on a bit too long into last season and then we probably didn’t feel like rekindling it as much as we should have done, so we probably missed out on that and that’s something we’re not gonna do again.

“We’ve spent a lot of time this season working hard, but then playing hard together. That’s all part of a process of rebuilding this group.”