\n<\/p>\n
That loss precipitated massive change at Exeter.<\/p>\n
Hepher – Baxter’s right-hand man since he first took control at Sandy Park in 2009 – and forwards specialist Hunter, who had taken over as head coach after Hepher’s demotion, were suspended and never returned to the first-team fold. <\/p>\n
In came experienced backs coach Dave Walder, while Ross McMillan was put in charge of the forwards and long-serving skills coach Ricky Pellow eventually left the club late last year.<\/p>\n
And for a club that often signed just a handful of players each summer during their glory days, there was wholesale change in the squad – Australia stars Len Ikitau and Tom Hooper were part of a big recruitment drive that also saw the front row and scrum-half positions bolstered. <\/p>\n
It appears to have worked.<\/p>\n
While ‘Exeter 2.0’ – the side that came about after their stars that took them to a Prem and European double left the club three to four years ago – failed to trouble the play-off places, this new-look side could return them to former glories.<\/p>\n
They lie fourth in the table, are into the semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup, and, but for two yellow cards in the final quarter, could have beaten league leaders Northampton last week. <\/p>\n
“If you compare it to this stage last year it feels a lot better,” added Baxter.<\/p>\n
“But in other seasons we’d be in first or second in the Premiership and in semi-finals and quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
“It feels better than last season, but we’ve still got a decent bit of work to do to come out at the end of the season and say ‘we managed to hold a consistent level of form together across that final quarter of the season’.”<\/p>\n
However Exeter’s return to Kingsholm ends up, it will not be as seminal a moment in the club’s recent history as that drubbing in April 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That loss precipitated massive change at Exeter. Hepher – Baxter’s right-hand man since he first took control at Sandy Park in 2009 – and forwards specialist Hunter, who had taken over as head coach after Hepher’s demotion, were suspended and never returned to the first-team fold. In came experienced backs coach Dave Walder, while Ross<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}