'I'm a huge believer that the league table doesn't lie'
Rob Baxter has drawn a line under the 2021/22 season at Exeter, accepting that his Chiefs weren’t good enough to be a top-four team on this occasion after six successive campaigns in which they reached the semi-finals. The Devon club have been tailed off in seventh and ahead of this weekend’s final outing versus Harlequins, he has been busy drawing conclusions and holding his hand up that they didn’t have what was needed this time around.
Asked if he felt that Exeter were good enough to make the top four and contest the semi-finals, Baxter said: “No, because the league table says we are not and I am a huge believer that the league table doesn’t lie. Rugby is a pretty good game in a lot of ways, there aren’t many lucky results.
“There is the odd one that can go against you at the end but often the games that go against you at the end are because you really haven’t quite been good enough throughout the other 79 minutes. That has happened to us a few times this season, being on the wrong end of close results late in the game, but if you want to be a top side you take responsibility for that and you move away from that scenario.
“I would say right here and now, no (we weren’t good enough). Have we got the playing ability in the squad to be in the top four and in a game when we were on it to challenge anyone in the top four? Then 100 per cent yes because we have done that this season and we have done it very recently as well and if we got to a semi-final in a week’s time we would probably be well set to give it a good go with the players we would have had available.”
The Chiefs go into the final round of the regular season with 26 points fewer than leaders Leicester who have won 19 matches compared to the Devon club’s twelve wins. Baxter attributes the blame to the early-season Exeter form but rather than feel aggrieved about that, he has lately taken a different perspective on what unfolded.
“I’ll hold my hand up. Initially, I could have guided us as a coaching team and maybe as a player group differently in the early part of the season. We could have been a bit more positive about what was happening within that playing group whether game by game or half by half.
“The huge focus was on the collection of points when actually with that playing group for most of them they were having the time of their lives because they were getting their first Premiership experience, they were getting their first experience playing in front of big crowds. We didn’t focus on that enough. The winning and losing wasn’t the most important thing for them.
“In our individual reviews this week we had quite a few guys who had a great season, their best season. When you have a chunk of your team who think it is their best season because they have got into the team playing and they are progressing and you have finished the worst you have in the league for six years, it feels quite contradictory.
“But that doesn’t mean it is not the truth because for those guys it has been their best and that is probably what we didn’t quite grab together as a group at the start of the season and that then made it hard for us to drive forward.
“The last couple of weeks we have had individual reviews and, on a whole, it has been a positive experience. The first thing that needs to happen is we all need to take our element of responsibility. There are certain things that I have seen and assessed that I have had I had a lot of thought about over the course of the season.
“Hindsight is a brilliant thing to have but you have still got to use it, you can’t ignore the fact that you look back and there are things we could have changed. There are certain things I look back on now that I perhaps could have taken a slightly different view on which may have helped us throughout the season and come through a little stronger than we have.
“There are a lot of things we are talking about as a coaching group, the leadership group of the players and the actual playing group and there are still a lot of positives around a lot of things. That is the thing to make sure you keep remembering because sometimes the bigger picture can weigh you down too much or become too influential on what is happening and that may well be something that had happened a little bit this season.”
Comments on RugbyPass
The rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
76 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
1 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
9 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
12 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
9 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
9 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
9 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
9 Go to commentsWhat’ll happen when the AI models of the future go back in time and try to destroy the AI models of the past standing in their way of certain victory?
41 Go to commentsThanks, Nick. We (Seanny Maloney, Brett and I) just discussed Charlie as a potential Wallaby No 8, and wondered if he has truly realised how big he is in contact (and whether he can add 5 kg w/o slowing down). Your scouting report confirms our suspicions he has the materiel. No one knows if he has the mentality (as Johann van Graan said this week about CJ, Duane and Alfie B) to carry 10-15 times a game.
57 Go to commentsHe would be a great player for the Stormers, Dobbo should approach the guy.
3 Go to commentsGood article. A few years back when he was playing for the Cheetahs, he was a quiet standout for exactly the seasons stated here. I occasionally get to see his games in the UK, and he has become a more complete player and in many ways like an Irish player. His work ethic is so suitable to the Leinster game. I wonder if Rassie would have him listed somewhere.
3 Go to commentsResults probably skewed by the fact that a few clubs have foreign fly halves in their 30s, but most teams have young English scrum halves. Results also likely to be skewed by the fact that many teams rely on centres and fullbacks to provide depth at 10, whereas they will need to stock a large number of specialist backup 9s.
2 Go to commentsI really get the sense that when all is said and done, the path of least resistance will end up being a merger of Wasps & Worcester that essentially kills the Worcester Warriors brand and sees Wasps permanently playing at Sixways. I’m not saying that’s what should happen or what I want to happen. I just think it’s the easiest rout to take and therefore, will be what happens. Wasps will definitely return to play first, and I suppose it all depends on if they can find support at Sixways. If people turn up and support Wasps in that community, at that ground, I bet they drop the Sevenoaks plan and just remain at Sixways. Under the radar but not totally unrelated, it looks as though London Irish are going to be brought back from the dead by a German consortium and look set to return, likely to the remade Championship. It’s set to have 12 clubs next season with 14 in 2025/26, what do you want to bet those extra 2 are Wasps and London Irish?
3 Go to commentsThe shoulder is a “joint” with multiple bones. You don’t “fracture” a shoulder, you fracture any one or more of the bones that make up a shoulder.
2 Go to commentsOh dear, bones too suspect to continue?
2 Go to comments