Rob Baxter: Exeter Chiefs director of rugby agrees contract extension
- Published
Rob Baxter took over at Exeter in 2009 when the club was in the Championship
Director of rugby Rob Baxter has extended his contract at Exeter Chiefs.
Baxter, who has led the club since 2009, has not disclosed the length of his new deal, but his previous contract was due to run out next summer.
The new contract rules the 51-year-old out of being a possible successor to Eddie Jones as the next England boss.
Under Baxter's leadership Exeter have reached six Premiership finals - winning twice - and lifted the 2020 European Champions Cup.
He guided Exeter to promotion to the Premiership from the Championship in his first season in charge in 2010 and led the club to their first trophies when they won the Anglo-Welsh Cup in 2014 and 2018.
Head coach Ali Hepher, forwards coach Rob Hunter and skills coach Ricky Pellow have also signed undisclosed-length "long-term" contract extensions with the Premiership club.
"I've got a close affiliation to the club, my family have got a close affiliation to the club, it works for me family-wise," Baxter told BBC Sport.
"It really bothers me and hurts me when we don't play to our potential, and we haven't done that now for 18 months.
"I'm very determined and very driven to get us back to playing a lot closer to our potential than we are at the moment."
Baxter led Exeter to a domestic and European double in 2020 - a decade after guiding the Chiefs into the Premiership
Baxter's side missed out on the play-offs for the first time since 2015 last season and salary cap cuts have resulted in the club losing a host of long-serving internationals.
Homegrown British and Irish Lions and England players Luke Cowan-Dickie and Sam Simmonds are joining Montpellier next summer.
Their departures come after Sam Skinner, Jonny Hill and Tom O'Flaherty left last summer, while Jack Nowell and Dave Ewers are among some of the frontline players yet to commit beyond the end of this season.
But Baxter says his role now is to shape the next Exeter squad and bring it back to where it has been over the past decade or so.
"If you start to go through the team, where the spine is and what we can come through with, it's very exciting," he added.
"I've got to add to that, to grow it, put in the right senior players who can help that group grow.
"If we can put the right combination of experienced players with the right group of youthful exuberance, we've got to get back on that five-year success cycle again.
"My job is to make sure it's not 10 years until we get to another final, which has happened to some big clubs in the Premiership.
"My job is to make sure that our cycle is as short as possible, but it's going to be one."
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