Baxter refutes Slade rumours

By Mark Stevens
14/12/16

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter today poured scorn on reports linking Henry Slade with a move away from the Aviva Premiership club.

Reports in the media in recent weeks had linked the Plymouth-born playmaker with a potential switch to one of Exeter's top-flight rivals. However, a defiant Baxter said there was no truth in the speculation and that Slade – who signed a new three-year deal with the Chiefs in July – was more than happy with life at Sandy Park.

He said: “One jungle drum rumour that I can put to bed and that’s interesting everyone is that of Henry Slade. I’ve had a couple of chats with Henry and had a joke with him about all the rumours that are flying around because there is no truth in him having any interest in going to Bath.

“That’s been a talking point for us on the jungle drums this week, but I’d also like to say that if he does end up playing at ten, it won’t be because we are being told by Eddie Jones he needs to play ten – and he won’t be playing ten because I am worried that if we don’t play here there he will go and play for Bath, so there is one jungle drum rumour I can put to bed straight away.”

Baxter continued: “It’s not unsettling to us as a club, to me, or even to Henry, and I don’t believe for one minute it’s unsettling to Bath or any other clubs that get linked into the rumours because it’s unusual if head coaches and players don’t have a close enough relationship for us to know if those sorts of things were going to happen.

“It’s not unsettling for me to read anything about Henry as I know he’s under contract here and I know he’s fully committed to us, and he’s desperate to do good things for us, play well for us, and for us to win things,

“We have a bit of a laugh about it, it’s one of those things that happens, but that is what sport is all about. It is good that people want to talk and chat and find interesting things to talk about, that’s what we want to do, I have no problem with promoting the game and it being something we talk about.

“If anything football can command a 24-hour day radio programme just to talk about football, it would be nice if we could do that about rugby, we can’t do that at the moment, but there is no problem if rugby gets promoted in whatever way it can.”