What has 'really pleased' Rob Baxter about new recruit Stephen Varney

Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter has hailed the contribution that Italy scrum-half Stephen Varney has had at Sandy Park since moving from French club Vannes in the summer.

The 24-year-old Welshman, who qualifies through his Italian mother, Valeria, was superb in last weekend’s win for the Azzurri over an Australian side that contained Chiefs team-mate Tom Hooper.

Varney has played a key role in the Chiefs’ superb start to their PREM Rugby campaign and carried it on in the 26-19 win over the Wallabies in Udine, much to the delight of Baxter.

“He was in fantastic form. The thing I’m really pleased about with Steve is that he really looks emotionally involved with the team. We score a try and he is the first guy there celebrating with the guy who scored the try.

“His emotional involvement looks real to me, and that’s what I really like. That is on top of the quality that he is playing with. The big thing we saw in him was talent, and you want half-backs to create game-defining moments.

“And you also need a low error count from them, not the highest error count in the team. If your nine is going to make three errors out of ten, he is going to end up making a lot of errors in the game.

“But if he is someone who is going to make one error a game, that’s a great game because of the amount of touches they have. That’s what we are seeing with Steve. Good quality of passes and good kick.

“He has got good speed, which means he can cover the ground to get to the ball and create good speed of ball, and can give you some cover defensively because of his break.

“If a half break happens, he is there in support. It was the core basics of his game — the fundamentals — that we really liked, and I cannot have asked for any more from a player,” said Baxter.