Baxter has one eye on the future
By Mark Stevens
21/12/22
Rob Baxter has told Exeter Chiefs supporters they will need to bide their time as he continues to mull over his team plans for next season and beyond.
Whilst rival clubs have already outlined future incomings, the Devonians have yet to confirm any new arrivals onto their roster for the 2023/24 season. Indeed, the only news that has come from Sandy Park in recent times is that England and British Lions duo, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Sam Simmonds, will be heading to French side Montpellier after next year’s Rugby World Cup.
Director of Rugby Baxter, though, is not overly concerned and says there is plenty going on in the background as to the direction of his side moving forward.
“Things are not too advanced,” he said. “Right now, we’re looking at the squad in as much detail as we can. We’re in no rush to get people in. This is a good time to assess where we stand on a lot of our current players and it’s a good time to assess what is on the market and what will become available later in the day.
“We’re talking to players and things are ongoing. What people need to remember, however, is that a lot of players are also assessing their options. It’s not like we are talking to people and they are all saying ‘no’ to us. Some markets don’t even open until late. Take for example Southern Hemisphere players, they are not even in pre-season yet - they’ve still got a Super Rugby season to play - so those players are on a completely different cycle again.
Baxter continued: “Where we are is as a club, as a coaching group, as players, we want to be competitive every year and we want to win every game we play and be in the dying stages of every competition. That’s a huge focus for us, we want to be a successful club.
“That said, every club in the Premiership has had that period where they’ve not necessarily felt great, but it’s how quickly you come through that. Right now I think we are climbing through that and some of our future recruitment will be based around how we align a group together for a coming period.
“I don’t think we are a group where one new recruit will turn us into ‘the team’ of next season. It will take some development with the group that we have, plus two or three who can develop with this group. My views are not just looking at the here and now, it’s more of a long-term approach. I’m against throwing away where we will be in two or three years’ time for just next season.”
Indeed, Baxter has already seen the emergence of a number of up-and-coming youngsters in recent times, including the likes of Will Becconsall, Greg Fisilau, Alfie Bell, as well as the likes of Richard Capstick, Dafydd Jenkins and Christ Tshiunza.
“These last few weeks we’ve seen Will Becconsall, he’s only in his second year at university, play in two huge European games,” said Baxter.“Greg Fisilau is up and running and could well feature this weekend; Alfie Bell looked great in the Premiership Cup recently, so we need to keep going with that development of players. It could that we have one of the best players in the Premiership moving forward already here, so we need to make sure we give them every chance to fulfil their potential.”