Hepher demotion not 'knee-jerk reaction' - Baxter

Rob Baxter (right) and Ali Hepher have coached alongside one another at Exeter since 2009

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter says Ali Hepher's demotion from his role as head coach was not a "knee-jerk reaction" to the club's Premiership Rugby Cup final loss.

Hepher was replaced as head coach by forwards coach Rob Hunter last week, with Exeter enduring their worst season since being promoted to the top flight in 2010.

They have won just two Premiership matches all season, lost all their European Champions Cup ties and won just twice against top-flight sides in the cup before being thrashed 48-14 by Bath in the final earlier this month.

Hepher is acting as the club's interim backs and attack coach for the rest of this season before taking on a new role helping transition academy players into the first team set-up.

"One thing Ali had already indicated to me was that, if the opportunity arose, he would love to get involved in that transition group and get back to some pure coaching," Baxter told BBC Sport.

"But at the same time, if that opportunity didn't arise he was going to look for other opportunities.

"I just felt with the break coming out of the Premiership Cup, with the opportunity now to rebuild almost into next season and what we can achieve over the end part of this season, the time was right now."

Exeter have a promising group of young players coming through with Ben Coen and Kane James breaking into the first team and among five Chiefs players in the England Under-20 squad.

The club also had three players in the recent England Under-19 squad as their deep links with Exeter University continue.

"The players from the uni have a well-structured coaching process there, but the transition from uni into the club is something we can definitely do better," Baxter added.

"We really want them to be getting high level coaching as soon as possible within that process to accelerate their transition.

"It's been a position I've been wanting to fill for a period of time, but actually getting the right level of coach to do it and someone who knows how Exeter works, how the academy system works, where you can target the young players, those things are quite difficult to get hold of."

Meanwhile, Baxter says Exeter are close to appointing Hepher's replacement as their new backs and attack coach for next season.

The Exeter boss said he would not be drawn on who the new coach would be, but added that talks are at a very advanced stage.

"The depth of conversations we've had, there is an awareness of where we want to head, how we want to play and what we want to do," he said.

"We're pretty much done on the whole process of who the person is going to be."