Rob Baxter: 'A few people have got a little ahead of themselves'

Rob Baxter admits that the next month will determine whether Exeter Chiefs’ season has been a success, starting with their Challenge Cup semi-final against Ulster on Saturday evening.

A month ago, they were chasing a treble, but they lost the PREM Rugby Cup Final to Leicester Tigers, and back-to-back defeats to Northampton Saints and Gloucester in the league has now loosened their grip on a place in the top four.

Avenging their 52-24 defeat in January 2025 at the Affidea Stadium would see them book a place in the May 22nd final in Bilbao, while they have PREM games against play-off rivals Bath and Leicester, and a trip to Harlequins, before the end of the month.

“The season now for us is going to be defined by the next month, the next month of fixtures. So May will determine whether we feel really good about ourselves, or we feel okay about ourselves, or we feel bad about ourselves.

“It’s a really interesting scenario, this next month of fixtures. I wouldn’t say we’ve had a wake-up call, but I think what we’ve highlighted is that you have to get it right on a regular basis, and you can’t lose focus.

Fixture

Challenge Cup

Ulster

29 - 12

Full-time

Exeter Chiefs

All Stats and Data

“Maybe you could say that’s a wake-up call. That’s what some people would say, but I think it was a little bit more of a reminder of just the things we’ve been focusing on all season. We’ve been doing that for a reason.

“Don’t go looking too quickly for other bits and pieces because if I’m honest, I think probably we’ve got a few players we’ve got a bit guilty of going, ‘Oh, things are going well. What’s the next thing we can do? What’s the next thing we can add?’

“And actually, that’s a distraction because the key things that we’ve been doing very well through the season, they’re still the most important things. And they have to happen every week before you can even talk about adding something on top.

“And so perhaps that’s the reminder to keep it simple and do the things we want to do very well. I think quite a few people have got a little ahead of themselves on where we’re going. So it was probably a good reminder for us to lock ourselves back down into what we do well,” he said.