ROB Baxter is coming out swinging at Exeter Chiefs, determined to reignite the fire at Sandy Park after a turbulent period marked by poor results, the departure of key coaching staff, and a stark drop from their title-winning highs.

With trusted lieutenants, Ali Hepher and Rob Hunter, stepping away and the club’s momentum faltering, Baxter is back into the frontline coaching arena - ready to take control himself and lead from the front.

No longer just the overseer, the long-serving Director of Rugby is once again rolling up his sleeves, reclaiming hands-on influence over training and tactics in a bid to restore the Chiefs’ identity and edge.

Amid external doubts and internal transitions, Baxter’s message is defiant and clear: this is no time for excuses, only action.

With his trademark steel and clarity of vision, he’s rallying players and staff alike, determined to fight their way back to the top of English rugby.

“The things that have happened, both financially and with the squad, they’ve happened,” he said. “The things that have happened with the coaching and the coaches, they’ve happened. The only thing I’m preparing for with the players and with the coaches who are here now - is how we move forward in a positive way.

“I can go round and round and round talking about all kinds of details about every player we signed; what the size of the squad is; what we’ve done with salary cap; what we’ve done with budgets, but it’s all largely irrelevant. What’s relevant is now.

“The only thing that is success is a win. That’s where we’ve got to reset our expectations. I think, without realising it, our expectations have dropped to a relatively low level. We’ve almost not realised that actually our expectations have dropped quite low.

“We’re a Premiership club who had three seasons once where we lost one home Premiership game. Our expectations have got to change of ourselves and that will hep us be a better team straight away, both in training and in playing.”

Baxter’s defiant message comes in the wake of his side’s record-breaking 79-17 loss at Gloucester last time out.

In a savage humbling at Kingsholm, the fall-out was considerable. Club CEO and chairman Tony Rowe tore into the playing side in the changing rooms post-game. Hunter and Hepher were both suspended under review 24 hours later, before the former left the club by mutual consent just days later. Baxter was entrusted with taking over coaching duties once more.

It’s certainly been eventful.

On Sunday, they have to get back to on-field matters against a Northampton Saints side, who themselves are brimming with confidence after sinking a star-studded Leinster in the semi-finals of the Investec Champions Cup last weekend.

It won’t be easy for the Chiefs, nor should it be, but Baxter remains bullish in his approach, adding: “It’s not been down to these last two or three weeks, the whole season has been difficult. We’ve not had a great season. We’ve had spells where we thought things were getting better and then we found out a bit of a lapse, so the whole season has been a challenge. This is probably just a little bit of a magnification of that.

“But just like anything else, we’ve got on with things. I always used to say our biggest strength when we were in the Championship was we failed to get promoted loads of times. We got relegated down to the fourth tier of English rugby. We had plans then on where we were going - and we made them happen. We’ve got plans on where we’re going now, and it’s my job to be part of making that happen.

“This is a scenario that we’ve done before and my expectation is we’ll do it again.”

Although soundly beaten by Gloucester, Baxter has stuck with many of those who took to the field that afternoon. Ten remain in place, including skipper Dafydd Jenkins, who lines up in a pack which sees Jacques Vermeulen and Richard Capstick brought in for Ross Vintcent and the injured Greg Fisilau.

Behind the scrum, Stu Townsend returns at scrum-half, Will Rigg comes into the centre, while there is a debut for highly-rated England Under-20s back, Nick Lilley on the wing. On the bench, Dan Frost, Christ Tshiunza, Martin Moloney, Tom Cairns and Tamati Tua are also recalled to the fray.

EXETER CHIEFS: Josh Hodge; Nick Lilley, Henry Slade, Will Rigg, Paul Brown-Bampoe; Harvey Skinner, Stu Townsend; Scott Sio, Jack Yeandle, Marcus Street; Rus Tuima, Dafydd Jenkins (capt); Jacques Vermeulen, Richard Capstick, Ethan Roots. Replacements: Dan Frost, Kwenzo Blose, Josh Iosefa-Scott, Christ Tshiunza, Martin Moloney, Tom Cairns, Will Haydon-Wood, Tamati Tua.