Baxter likes what he sees
By Mark Stevens
18/7/18
Rob Baxter says he has been encouraged at the way his Exeter Chiefs squad have attacked the opening weeks of their pre-season programme.
Back in harness ahead of the 2018/19 season, the Chiefs Director of Rugby welcomed the majority of his first team squad back at the start of the month to begin their preparations ahead of the campaign.
A short three-day team bonding trip to Ibiza provided a gentle pre-season introduction, before the hard work and testing began in earnest just a few days later at the club’s Sandy Park base.
“The boys have been working really hard,” said Baxter. “Personally, I’m really pleased with the levels that have committed to physically in training these first few weeks. The days have been long and hard, sometimes four sessions a day, but they’ve all stood up to the challenge, they’ve no whinged or moaned, and they’ve actually looked like guys who are enjoying being pushed to that level.
“These days there is not a great deal of time during the off season for players to really de-condition themselves. All of them kind of tick over in their own way, so it allows us after that first week of settling back into things to really push them hard.
“What I’ve seen so far I’ve really liked. For me it’s kind of like two years ago after the final, we’ve got guys who didn’t feature that day who had big off seasons who then came in really fit, really motivated and wanting to push their claims from day one. If you look at last season, we had a lot of good rugby players who didn’t feature against Saracens who have come back in, extremely motivated and wanting to do well.
“That, I believe, is not only a great motivator for themselves, but it’s a great motivator for those around them and it’s really helped to drive the squad forward.”
Such has been the success of the Chiefs in the past few seasons, reaching three successive Premiership finals, it has meant pre-seasons have shortened for the Devon club and that a greater focus has been put on getting things in place from the outset.
“People will be aware that if you do get to finals, which we have in the last three years, one thing it does hit more than anything else is the time that you have in pre-season,” explained Baxter. “That in turn means pre-season has to be well planned, has to be tough and, most importantly, has to be driving players to a high level quickly so that we can maximise the time we have together.
“In a couple of weeks, the guys will have a week off, but right now it feels okay to push them hard and get the benefits of that work. Right now, what I see is a group of players who are working very hard and giving all they have.
“At the same time, there are one or two things that we’ve been introducing into training that are really starting to sink in. You can see when we’re running 15 on 15 scenarios, some of the work we’ve done already is really coming to fruition.”
Baxter added: “Every year we try to challenge the guys both physically and mentally, but we also want them to be organised, understand their roles, whilst at the same time develop their game.
“It’s not like we are a team who are winning Europe or the Premiership every year, we’re doing OK, but we’re far from the finished article. There is lots we can add individually and as a team and that’s what we will do over this pre-season and going forward.”