Exeter Chiefs announced today that their director of rugby Rob Baxter has committed his future to the club by signing a new multi-year contract extension, ahead of their last 16 encounter with Munster in the EPCR Challenge Cup at Sandy Park this weekend.
Baxter “Excited and Enthused”
Talking about his extension, Baxter said “I’m delighted to have signed a contract extension. I’ve been involved here a long time, had some fantastic experiences, and some tough ones along the way too, though thankfully those have been few and far between.
“To have the club be happy to extend my time here makes me proud. The key thing for me is how excited I am and how enthused I am to work with the current crop of players we have here at Chiefs as well as the players we’ve already signed for next season, the young academy players coming through our pathway, and the group of coaches.”
Family Affair
The Baxter family has a massive history with Exeter. Rob’s father and uncle both played, as well as his brother Richie, who leads the modern era in appearances made for the club with over 400. Baxter himself played 312 times for bath, over a 10-year period, as captain, before retiring in 2005. He joined the coaching team on an interim basis at first, but it became a full-time arrangement before the 2009/10 season, the season the Chiefs earned promotion to the top-flight.
Over the next 15 years, Baxter has seen the club to six PREM Finals, winning two in 2016/17 and 2019/20. During that 2019/20 season, that was elongated due to COVID, the Chiefs secured a historic double as they won the Champions Cup as well, beating Racing 92 in the final.
“A Bright Future”
Baxter continued “I can really see a bright future for the club. I genuinely feel we’re going to be challenging others at the right end of the PREM and hopefully we’ll grow into a team who battles it out in the latter stages of European competition in the future too. That is certainly my aim, and I know the club are very ambitious in what they still want to achieve. Hopefully, things align and we go on to achieve great things.”
Baxter’s commitment to the Chiefs ensures a solid structure to the coaching staff with attack coach Dave Wilder, defence coach Haydn Thomas and forwards coach Ross McMillan, joined by assistant backs coach James Wilson and assistant forwards coach Glen Townson this season.
