Rob Baxter: Exeter Chiefs boss says Premiership success could bring negatives

Rob Baxter was an emotional figure at Twickenham after Exeter won the Premiership final

Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter says being defending Premiership champions could have "negative effects" going into the new campaign.

The Devon club lost four of their first six league games last season, something Baxter hopes will not happen again.

"If they react badly to winning a Premiership, and now don't perform very well, that'll probably be what most people remember them for," he said.

"It's a fantastic emotional challenge, that's the best way to describe it."

Exeter have brought in a number of players this summer, including Australia scrum-half Nic White and England international Matt Kvesic.

Baxter has already targeted an improvement in Europe as one of the club's main objectives, after going out of the Champions Cup in the group stage last season.

"I think it would be very easy for the success of last season to have some negative effects, because once you draw breath it's hard to get yourself going again," he added.

"I think that happened a little bit at the start of last season. We managed to address it, [but] I would hope we don't have to do something radical to try to address it this year, because you can't always get things right."

Meanwhile, the Exeter boss says his "gut feeling" is that England wing Jack Nowell will miss the start of the season as he steps up training after being on tour with the Lions earlier this summer.