Rob Baxter gives Exeter ‘10-minute b------ing' despite Northampton win

Telegraph

11-05-2025

Exeter Chiefs 42 Northampton Saints 14
There has seldom been a dull day at Sandy Park of late. And, off the back of a lacklustre if comfortable victory over a Northampton second string, Exeter's director of rugby, Rob Baxter, gave his side a '10-minute b------ing' to add yet another emotional day to 2025's constantly growing list.
It was less than two weeks ago that first-team coaches Rob Hunter and Ali Hepher were relieved of their duties, with Baxter returning to front-line coaching pending a review of the entire elite operation at the Chiefs.
'I've just said to them now: 'Alright, I've just b-----ed you for 10 minutes, but it's your time now – do what you like,' said Baxter. 'But you had better turn up on Tuesday ready to explain some of the things we are doing.', Baxter said. 'That's always been my approach. That's the Exeter Chiefs DNA. You go hard when you have to, and then you go hard when you don't, too. That's what it is.
'We have got to get back to the core fundamental strengths we built the team on. That we don't beat ourselves first and, if you don't beat yourself, it takes a good team to beat you. We are beating ourselves in so many areas of the game at the moment.
'I am not going to give the lads an easy way out and go in the changing room and say: 'Well done, five-point win, hallelujah, all our problems are solved.' I have gone in there and said: 'Guys, that is a regulation win, if that, against a Premiership second team and we have a lot to work on.' There is only one way you deal with [basic errors], not to say 'play without fear', that is a load of rubbish, everybody knows that. What you do is set your standards high enough in training so it doesn't feel like pressure.
'There are things that aren't acceptable and things that are. Professional rugby players do need to be able to pass the ball to someone who's five metres away. And in front of them. That is not being harsh on a player. That's an expectation they should have of each other.'
Baxter was right to be grumpy. Exeter's opposition on Sunday, Northampton, arrived at Sandy Park having made 15 changes (one positional) from the Dublin dream last Saturday, with their Lions quartet rested. Six members of the Saints' match day 23 – and two starters – were making Premiership debuts. The loss meant that Northampton are now mathematically out of the play-off race but they have other priorities; the squad rotation was very much with one eye on a Champions Cup final against Bordeaux in just under a fortnight's time.
It meant that Exeter were fancied to earn a comprehensive victory, their first league win since March, but the visitors gave it a real lash. The scoreline might look like a hammering but two late Exeter tries – the second of a brace each for Paul Brown-Bampoe and Harvey Skinner – flattered the Chiefs. Thanks to first-half tries from Jake Garside and captain Tom Lockett, it was a one-score match until Martin Moloney's try after an hour but even then a Saints smash-and-grab could not have been ruled out.
Another one for Exeter Chiefs ⚡️
Paul Brown-Bampoe cannot be caught on his way to the try line 💨
What a breakout season the wing is having! #GallagherPrem #EXEvNOR pic.twitter.com/gAe3OG6dRR
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) May 11, 2025
Thankfully, the Chiefs - who will finish this season with their lowest ever Premiership points tally - entered the half-time break with a cushion. Tries from Exeter debutant Nick Lilley and an intercept from Skinner had cancelled out the Saints' pair before an astute finish from Bampoe-Brown gave Exeter daylight. From there, the Chiefs still looked bereft of confidence, but a late rearguard spared a full-scale Baxter meltdown.
'We made some mistakes in pre-season [last year],' the director of rugby added. 'We didn't challenge the guys enough physically, which probably means that sometimes they don't feel quite as physically prepared as they could be.
'By the time we start pre-season, I will have reviewed every bit of the programme: S&C, physio, everything. And, if it's not absolutely top notch, we'll be changing it. The one thing I can't do is criticise the players if everything off the field is not absolutely perfect; to give them a chance to thrive. If we get that bit right, I can then tell them that my expectations are for them to go flat out, as professional rugby players. If we're not providing it for you, then you need to tell me – because I'm coming after you hard.
'I'll do the review. And I'll get it right. Then, next season, it'll be on me if it's not.'
Match details
Scoring sequence: 5-0 Lilley try, 7-0 Slade con, 7-5 Garside try, 7-7 James con, 12-7 Skinner try, 14-7 Slade con, 19-7 Brown-Bampoe try, 21-7 Slade con, 21-12 Lockett try, 21-14 James con, 26-14 Moloney try, 28-14 Slade con, 33-14 Brown-Bampoe try, 35-14 Slade con, 40-14 Skinner try, 42-14 Hodge con.
H-T: 21-7
Exeter: J Hodge; N Lilley, H Slade (Haydon-Wood 77), W Rigg (Tua 49), P Brown-Bampoe; H Skinner, S Townsend (Cairns 51); S Sio (Blose 20), J Yeandle (Frost 51), M Street (Iosefa-Scott 45), R Tuima (Tshiunza 62), D Jenkins (capt), J Vermeulen (Moloney 51), R Capstick, E Roots.
Yellow card: Rigg 21
Northampton: J Garside; T Cousins, T Seabrook, T Litchfield, W Glister (Witheat 66); T James (Baker 51), J Weimann; T West (Haffar 22), H Walker (Wright 41), E Millar-Mills (Green 41), E Prowse, C Munga, T Lockett (capt) (Hunter-Hill 59), F Brown (Logan 76), A Scott-Young (Benson 68).
Referee: K Dickson
Attendance: 8,899