Baxter confident Thomas can make difference at Exeter

As a player Haydn Thomas helped Exeter win promotion to the Premiership in 2010

Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter is confident Haydn Thomas can turn his side's defence around.

The former Chiefs scrum-half has replaced Omar Mouneimne who left the club last week after Exeter's worst-ever start to a Premiership season. Baxter's side have lost all six of their league fixtures this season, conceding 176 points.

Thomas, who had been backs and attack coach at Sandy Park, is England A's defence coach and has also coached Exeter University's side, which has a close relationship with the Premiership club.

"I watched the England Under 20's game as we had a lot of player involvement and they had a lot of very good qualities around what they were doing defensively, which was Hayden's key area," Baxter told BBC Radio Devon.

"He's got a good way of putting things over to the players," he added.

"I think he's got a slightly different way of looking at defence to Omar, which I think probably aligns a little bit more to what we're looking for in every element of how we play, both in attack and kick chase and how we want the game to tie together.

"I think those things make it a pretty simple situation for us to promote Hayden into that position."

Thomas (left) and Mouneimne were sat next to each other during Exeter's 36-19 home loss to Harlequins last month

Speaking for the first time since Mouneimne's departure, Baxter said the decision to part way was "amicable".

The former Worcester Warriors and Bristol Bears coach has been at Sandy Park since the summer of 2022, joining a group of long-serving coaches that have been at the club for, in the case of Baxter, more than a decade-and-a-half.

"Omar's got a system that he believes in, and can work very well and has got some real strength to it," Baxter added.

"We at times have caused some teams a lot of problems, but we've had to do it very well to cause them a lot of problems.

"You can say, 'that's the whole point, you should do everything you can as well', but the reality is to actually start the process, to get on the front foot, to get a team moving forward, you have to make sure that you can maximise everything you can do and you can start to slot guys into systems a little bit more efficiently than we have been able to this year.

"So when you collectively put it altogether I just felt it was the right time for us to move on.

"Omar's aware of that. He's very kind of driven on what he wants to see from a team defensively.

"So, really, between us we had a few conversations over a period of time and kind of came to the conclusion was it was the right time for us to part company.

"Sometimes you have these things and you know you have to make a change and you have to move in slightly in a different direction, and that's what we've done."