Rob Baxter sets Premiership title target for Exeter

Rob Baxter wants Exeter to embrace its ambitions after reaching the Premiership final last season. The Chiefs had surprised many by making that showpiece, having finished second from bottom in the 2024-25 campaign.

For Exeter’s director of rugby, the objective must now be clear: “I genuinely think you have to target winning the Premiership if you’ve lost a final.” He believes falling short would not prevent an assessment of whether the campaign had been a good one: “If you come up short, you come up short, and then you can decide whether you’ve had a good season or not.”

Baxter sees no point in playing down the message to a squad which, he says, has not changed very much. “If I was one of the players, I would feel a little disappointed if the head coach was not saying, ‘Come on lads, we’re going out to win this.’”

The coach particularly underlines the importance of the start to the league season. A large part of the campaign will be played by the end of next month and, he notes, more than a quarter of the season will then have gone. “There are only 18 games: once those first five are gone, if you are not established in the top half of the Premiership, it will be tough to chase it back down; you will have to put together quite a lot of back-to-back wins.”

The first block of three matches before Europe will therefore be, in his view, a major stage in building a successful season. “There is no point running away from it: you have to hit the ground running. That is what all the teams have been planning to do, nobody more so than Gloucester, so we have to make sure we are ready.”

Exeter finished third last season before winning a dramatic semi-final at Bath. Northampton then beat them in the final at Twickenham.