England experience was key - Rob

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter believes his recent involvement with the England national side will reap rich rewards for his team next season.

The 42-year-old formed part of Stuart Lancaster's coaching team for England's three-game tour of South America, as well as the home friendly with the Barbarians, because regular forwards coach Graham Rowntree is away with the British & Irish Lions in Australia.

And it proved a successful stint for Baxter as not only did England overcome the Barbarians and a South American select XV, but they also defeated Argentina in back-to-back Test matches.

Now Baxter is keen to make the most of his recent experiences to benefit the Chiefs, who again next season will be battling it out with not only the elite of the English game, but also that of Europe, including reigning Heineken Cup champions Toulon.

"I'm very aware I've been at Exeter a long time and it's quite important from my perspective that I don't become too blinkered in anything we do here," explained Baxter. "For me, it was a very good experience. I enjoyed working with a different group of coaches, a different group of players, in a completely different environment to coaching in England and coaching in the Premiership.

"Hopefully I've brought enough ideas and thoughts back with me to allow us to take something really positive out of it for this season.

"Here we question the players a lot on how we play, the way we play and the things we should do and we did a fair bit of that (with England). Overall, though, it will be beneficial to me and the club and it was an enjoyable experience."

Already Baxter has begun next season's planning, outlining his - and the club's - vision for the 2013/14 campaign to his squad who reported back for pre-season last Wednesday.

New signings Dave Lewis, Greg Bateman, Ceri Sweeney and Tom James were able to join up with their Chiefs team-mates for the first time, whilst the majority of last season's squad were also in attendance. Those on international duty, including fellow newcomer Fetu'u Vainikolo, will report back next month when the pre-season programme is expected to crank up a notch.

The Chiefs open their pre-season programme with a trip to Scarlets on August 17, before then entertaining Bristol (August 24) and Glasgow Warriors (August 31).