Baxter buoyed by returning stars
By Mark Stevens
28/1/21
The Gallagher Premiership roars back into action this weekend and for Exeter Chiefs it offers them the perfect opportunity to get themselves back on track after back-to-back defeats against Wasps and Bristol Bears.
Rob Baxter’s side have slipped from top spot to third in the standings following those losses, but they will be hoping to rediscover their winning formula when they travel to rivals Worcester Warriors on Saturday (3pm).
With the division having taken an enforced two-week break after European competition was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Baxter is hoping the past fortnight has allowed Exeter’s players and coaches to recharge their batteries ahead of a crucial eight-game block in the top flight.
Certainly, the lack of action has allowed a number of those recovering from injuries and surgery to edge ever closer to being back on the pitch and the Chiefs Director of Rugby says his squad are getting “progressively stronger” by the day.
Fly-half Joe Simmonds, who limped out of Exeter’s 20-7 defeat to Bristol Bears last time out, tops the bill of players back in full training this week - and he has been joined by Wales and British Lions winger, Alex Cuthbert, whose last appearance was away to Wasps in early October.
Baxter said: “Time going by on all injuries works wonders, so this break means frontline players who have been off so far are closer to returning.
“Alex Cuthbert is back in full training now and available for selection which is great, obviously this break has allowed Joe Simmonds a fair bit of time to get over that ankle strain which wasn’t as bad as anyone initially feared, which is great, and he is back in full training now which is obviously really good news.
“Stu Townsend is now back from his suspension and training really, really well and some key players like Jannes Kirsten, Jacques Vermeulen, Jack Nowell and Ben Moon, are progressing down that pathway to a return.”
Vermeulen had shoulder surgery at the start of the season, while compatriot Kirsten is recovering from a fractured eye socket which required a minor operation.Nowell has not featured for the club so far this season after going under the knife for a toe injury, while Moon is also nearing a return after undergoing surgery on his neck.
The news of those players potentially coming back into the mix is a huge boost for Baxter, who is likely to be without England quartet Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jonny Hill, Henry Slade and Harry Williams, as well as Scotland’s Jonny Gray and Stuart Hogg, plus Welsh prop Tomas Francis for the upcoming Guinness Six Nations Championship.
Baxter added: “Things are looking good, it feels like over the next month we will become progressively stronger despite having our internationals away, so it feels like we are going to have a really interesting block of eight games now.
“It is going to challenge us, but challenge us in the way that we need. We need something quite exciting and new and this could be the making of us. “If we can come through this period stronger than we went into it then that will really excite me.
“Facundo Cordero [full back] is back in full training as well, he only had a relatively minor hamstring issue, he is back in full training so the options we had initially when our internationals went away [in the Autumn] from when we won that first block of games, are all back in the mix now.
“We haven’t had Jacques Vermeulen at all so far this season and he is closing in on a return over the next number of weeks, Jannes with his facial injury is closing in, Nowellsy with his foot injury is a few weeks away again. They are a little way away, they are not going to be involved in these next couple of games but they will progressively start to appear for us.”