Rob Baxter: 'We don't walk into rooms, blank each other and ignore each other'

Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter faces one last head-to-head tomorrow afternoon with the man who, for much of the last decade, has been his nemesis, Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall.

McCall, who is standing down at the end of the season, could be leaving after the trip to Sandy Park, with the Chiefs only needing a draw to claim a play-off place for the first time since 2021.

The North London side beat the Chiefs in the 2016, 2018 and 2019 Premiership Finals, which were blemished by the salary cap scandal, leading Tony Rowe to demand that their titles be taken away and their name scratched off the Premiership trophy for those years.

Baxter says that the two once had a close relationship, which has suffered since the salary cap scandal, but he would love to get one over on his long-time rival one last time.

“People might be surprised that our relationship has always been pretty good. I probably spoke to him more before the salary cap stuff than I have since then, but we don’t walk into rooms, blank each other and ignore each other. It’s not like that. I don’t think sport is like that.

“He’s got a lot of respect from the players at Saracens. I think that’s probably the most important thing. If you have respect from the players and they think highly of you, that’s probably the biggest accolade you can have, and I think that’s clearly the case at Saracens,” he said.

Baxter believes that the rivalry between the two clubs has suffered because his side has struggled since completing the Premiership and Champions Cup double six years ago, but Saturday’s game shows that it’s now back on again.

“For me, probably the disappointing thing is that we didn’t maintain the rivalry to the level I’d have liked to have done post-Covid. We had to probably change the team to a higher degree and spend less to a higher degree.

“And that probably has put the rivalry on the back foot for three or four seasons. But it’s nice to see that it’s fully back in place now, because what more could you want?

“The two of us fighting out for top four at the end of the season shows it’s back on, and these games are loaded, and now it’s up to us to take our opportunities more than Saracens take their opportunities,” added Baxter.