Baxter welcomes Salvi on board
By Mark Stevens
17/6/18
Rob Baxter has no concerns that Julian Salvi will be able to make the transition from Exeter Chiefs player to that of Exeter Chiefs coach.
After three seasons of tearing up the Sandy Park turf in top flight action, the 32-year-old has this week confirmed he is to hang up his boots and make the switch to that of the club’s new defence coach.
The Australian will take office alongside Baxter and his fellow coaches when the Devon club report back for pre-season training later this month. However, the Chiefs Director of Rugby has given a glowing endorsement to his new recruit ahead of him starting his new post.
“It’s fantastic that Jules is still going to be a part of the club moving forward,” said Baxter. “He’s been a very popular member of the squad over the past few years and to have someone of his experience and his character remain within the team, it’s a good fit all round for us.”
Having worked closely with Salvi since his arrival from Leicester Tigers during the summer of 2015, Baxter has seen first-hand how the aspiring coach has made significant steps forward in terms of his game development.
“As a side we want to keep improving and do that you have to be able to give players detailed feedback as often as they want it,” explained Baxter. “You also need to be working on aspects of your game with real energy and enthusiasm as much as you can.
“The whole process and the business of what is Exeter Chiefs is increasing all the time, so from my own position and that of the other coaches, we actually have to be careful that we don’t spread ourselves too thinly across things. Part of the reason of bringing Jules into the group is that we want to focus even more on improving the quality of the team, both collectively and individually.
“What I like about watching Jules and with the work he has done down at Plymouth, especially working with some of our younger players, is that we believe he can add not only an element of individual coaching, but also group and collective coaching, as well as adding a vibrancy about how we want to defend and work, especially around the breakdown area and in our defence, because that’s still an area we can always look to improve.”
Not that Salvi will be coming in and changing too much in terms of the grand plan. As Baxter rightly points out, the Chiefs have consistently positioned themselves in the Premiership top three performers in terms of defence – and with that success, so the results have continued to flow out on the field.
“We’ll expect Jules to dive in from day one,” continued Baxter. “He’s 100 per cent part of the coaching team now, so he has a role to perform and we’ll expect him to work just as hard as all the other coaches here. From my perspective, we won’t want to shake up our defensive systems or how we defend too much, but we do want to improve and that will be part of his role.
“Jules is very much up to speed on how we defend already, but he also knows we need to work on specific elements to push forward. I’ve no doubt he will be a great addition to our team.”