Baxter out to add to his options

By Mark Stevens

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter says bolstering his back division remains high on his agenda ahead of the 2015/16 season.

Although Sandy Park is somewhat quiet with the first team squad having departed for their summer break, Baxter himself is still hard at work looking at potential names to bring into the Devon club.

Having seen Tongan flyer Fetu'u Vainikolo and Welsh duo Tom James and Ceri Sweeney depart at the end of last season, Baxter has made no secret of his wish to add fresh firepower to the club's playing ranks.

Part of that process is already well advanced with Italian international Michele Campagnaro (pictured) recruited from Treviso; Olly Woodburn has been brought in from rivals Bath and Will Hooley has been added from Northampton Saints.

Byron McGuigan, who spent much of last season in Devon, is another who is close to agreeing a new deal, but Baxter believes there is still room for one or two fresh faces to be added before next term.

“We’re still looking," said Baxter. "We are probably a little bit light backs-wise, you can see that because we haven’t replaced at the level of numbers as have moved on.

“Forwards-wise we think we’re pretty okay, we’re happy with our recruitment levels and we’re not looking to add any forwards. There are a couple of slots in the backs that we could fill, but we don’t have anything imminent.

“In the back three we look a little bit light, but then again we have got options because Ian Whitten can play wide, Jack Nowell can play wing or full-back, Campagnaro’s played on the wing in plenty of Pro12 games, Max Bodilly has come through strongly so we do have options.

“It’s not a desperate position, and if we get Byron sorted that’s another body on deck and our numbers go up. We’re okay, but that is a position in the squad that if the right player comes along we could make it happen.”

As well as refining his squad, Baxter is also using the summer to carry out some much-needed maintenance work on some of the Chiefs’ key performers from last season.

Hooker Jack Yeandle (pictured) is having a minor procedure to cure a problem affecting his back and neck, while experienced back-row forward Kai Horstmann also looks set to go under the knife.

“Kai and Jack Yeandle are going to have some tidy-ups, but other than that we don’t seem too bad,” Baxter continued. “Jack’s got to have a tidy-up in his neck and back, while Kai similarly has a bit of tidying up to do.

“Damian Welch was likely to be heading for something but he ended up having his ankle tidied up during the season when it locked up. Don Armand was through and back playing by the end of the season – we were pretty full-on by the end of the season - and we didn’t have too many ongoing issues.

“We made a definite decision to look at all the guys who might have needed little bits and pieces of tidy ups and when was the right time to do them and these guys fitted into that bracket.

“Like any team we’ve got guys with niggles, but most of that will be sorted out with physiotherapy and good rehab and prehab stuff rather than operations.”