Baxter writes off Exeter's worst-ever season

Rob Baxter has been in charge of Exeter since 2009, leading Premiership and European titles

Exeter boss Rob Baxter says he will not refer to his side's worst-ever season again.

The Chiefs' lost 30-26 at home to third-placed Sale in their final Premiership game of the season.

The loss - which was an improved performance on some games this season - saw Exeter end in a club-worst ninth position in the top flight after just four wins all season.

It ends a difficult campaign for Exeter which has seen the club dispense with three coaches and suffer a record 79-17 loss at Gloucester a month ago.

"I'm not going to refer to this season at all," Baxter told BBC Sport when asked about his plans for the next campaign.

"What I'm going to refer to is my expectations of them going forward.

"All I've referred to in the last three or four weeks is that my expectations of them are higher than their expectations of themselves are.

"I'm not going to lower my expectations, so they have to raise theirs, and if they catch up with me they'll be winning trophies and they'll be winning in Europe and they'll be doing all the things that they could do."

Baxter has taken a more hands-on role coaching the side since long-serving assistants Rob Hunter and Ali Hepher were dismissed after the defeat at Gloucester.

That loss was the nadir of a season which saw Exeter lose all four of their European games and win just four league matches - two of them against Saracens and Northampton who were without many of their international stars.

But in recent weeks Exeter have improved and had chances to win the game, against a Sale side who knew victory would secure a fourth play-off campaign in the past five seasons.

"A lot of teams need a dedicated start point - that Gloucester game was a dedicated start point for us," Baxter added.

"No player can come into my office when I'm talking to them and go 'everything was fine, I don't know why we're reacting'.

"You need that sometimes, you don't need anybody having any second doubts that what's on the field isn't good enough.

"We had that and now things are changing, and you can feel a change. But I think we probably needed that and we needed someone to go 'this is not good enough, things have to change' and that's what's happened."