'If we can’t win, we draw. If we can’t draw, we lose by a point'

Rob Baxter has spent a lot of time this summer re-educating his Exeter Chiefs squad, and he is the first to admit that nobody will be able to claim they are making progress if they aren’t climbing away from the foot of the table.

Last season, the Chiefs finished ninth, winning four of their 18 games and picking up 29 points, finishing 15 points behind eighth-placed Northampton Saints but 16 points ahead of Newcastle Falcons.

The newly rebranded Red Bulls will be a completely different animal this season. The investment from the energy drinks giants has allowed them to bring in over a dozen new faces. This influx of talent will turn up the heat on Baxter.

“We have got lots of targets this year, but the most important one is that we have got to establish and re-educate ourselves on what Exeter Chiefs are really about. We have to have a different position in the league.

“It will be very hard to say we have progressed if we stay in ninth or tenth. So there will have to be an improvement with our standing in the league.

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“But to make that progress happen, we need more emotional consistency than anything else across the course of the season. We go as hard as we can to win. If we can’t win, we draw. If we can’t draw, we lose by a point.

“And if we cannot lose by a point, then we lose by two. That’s the kind of attitude I want to see us play with. That kind of attitude allows you to make good decisions during a game as well,” he said.

Baxter, who takes his side to face the Saints at Franklin’s Gardens on Sunday lunchtime, says that there is a fresh feel to the club, who have a chance to “reset” after the worst top-flight season in their history.

“It obviously feels different, because it is. We’ve got a different group working in the coaches’ office. There are some different players involved in the squad.

“We’ve probably got a little bit of a different approach to pre-season, and we’re trying some new stuff on the field, but for me it feels pretty fresh.

“The one thing I’d like to think is if I was a player and had been involved in last season I couldn’t wait for this season to start and get on and show what I want to be about and how I want to be seen by people around the game.

“So for us, I think it’s just an opportunity for us to kind of reset where we want to be seen within the game, really,” added Baxter.