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Baxter does Premiership fixtures U-turn, issues update on Simmonds injury
Exeter boss Rob Baxter has admitted he has no hang-ups about the Gallagher Premiership deciding not to bring forward fixtures to ensure there was action over the coming two weekends in England.
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Last Saturday’s high octane Exeter vs Bristol clash at Sandy Park was followed by a call by Baxter and opposite number Pat Lam for Premiership officials to bring forward two rounds of fixtures from later in the season to fill the void left by the suspension of the final two pool rounds of fixtures in Europe.
The reasoning was to avoid a potential fixtures backlog later in the 2020/21 Premiership campaign that would force clubs into playing midweek games.
However, the clarification since then from Europe that they will look to change their format rather than seek extra weekends to play the suspended pool games has left Baxter making a U-turn on his initial call and instead voice his support for the two-week layoff in England.
“Probably what myself and Pat were both looking at was that we both wanted to play Europe and we were probably concerned that if Premiership games weren’t moved and in theory creating some space, there was a risk of the Heineken Cup games having to be squeezed in or pressure of midweek fixtures being put in place like we had at the tail end of last season (in the Premiership),” he explained.
The ex-England winger isn't happy to suddenly have 2?? weekends off
#GallagherPrem https://t.co/nuVWDJHHcH— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 12, 2021
“Now that the picture seems to be clearing a bit there doesn’t seem to be any drive to compress fixtures, that the weekends that are available are the weekends that are available for the Heineken Cup. They are four weeks (still) available and they will format it around that.
“That changes things a little bit and obviously eases those frustrations of trying to create space. So for me, that was what it was, how are we going to create space without doubling up games in a week? It seems that nobody is (now) expecting that to happen.
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“It means that in the reality of where the country is at the moment – everyone can read the headlines around where the country is at the moment – this (Premiership break) probably now looks like a supportive measure to what is going on in the rest of the country. It feels now, in hindsight, without that need or that worry about doubling up fixtures, it’s less of an issue to me now.”
Exeter had been scheduled to play Toulouse and Glasgow in the coming weekends in Europe but they will now pick up the thread in the Premiership when they travel to Worcester on January 30, a trip that might yet involve Joe Simmonds after Baxter reported that the injury he suffered in the defeat to Bristol wasn’t as bad as it appeared.
“He has picked up a bit of an ankle ligament injury,” he said. “The prognosis is pretty good and with this break dropping in now as it has, he is not going to be far off by the time we resume. That is another positive of the situation we are in. We feel very lucky and Joe has been lucky not to pick up anything too serious there.”
RugbyPass Offload – Episode 12 – Refs call
We're back for 2021 as Zeebs, Ryan and Christina are joined by top referee JP Doyle! ?
The guys chat cancelled rugby, Xmas celebrations and the crazy scenes we witnessed in the PRO D2 ?
?? Full Episode – https://t.co/q6H97kFDUN pic.twitter.com/qx80GjWTiZ
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 13, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments