Baxter puts plans in place

By Mark Stevens
4/1/18

Exeter Chiefs Director of Rugby Rob Baxter says the futures of a number of his out-of-contract stars are close to being sorted and that supporters can expect to hear announcements imminently.

With a clutch of his present squad set to see deals run out at the end of the 2017/18 campaign, Baxter has moved swiftly to ensure that disruption amongst the playing squad at Sandy Park will be kept to a minimum moving forward.

Talking at his weekly media briefing ahead of Sunday’s Aviva Premiership Rugby trip to Newcastle Falcons, Baxter said it would be “unlikely” he would be adding many new additions moving forward, insisting his priority was to tie down the future of many currently in place with the reigning champions.

"You're not going to see six new signings next season," said Baxter. “Will there be one or two? Yes, potentially. Will most of our retention and recruitment work be based around the players who are here? Yes, it certainly will be.

"Of the majority of what you'd describe as our frontline 30 senior players, the majority of those contract situations have been settled now and we'll be making announcements over the course of the next month.

”We've still got a handful to do, but I'm very comfortable already where our squad is going into next season."

Never one to carry our major overhauls of his squad, Baxter acknowledges there will be incomings and outgoings come the end of the season, but as always says openings will arise for some of the club’s more younger players moving forward.

He added: "When you look at some of our academy players, particularly if you think about front row forwards, really you're almost putting in place a three or four-year plan for some of those guys as to when you'll potentially see them coming through.

"That doesn't always come to fruition, but you have to have that in the back of your mind when you start signing players or when you look at the age range of the guys you want to keep on.

"It's like any other planning situation, you don't want to look so far ahead that you don't see what's right in front of you, which is the day-by-day stuff.

"But at the same time, you don't want to get so engrossed with the day-by-day stuff that in two years' time you look around and wonder where everyone is, why has everyone got old and why is the squad thinning out."