https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union ... s-decline/
Good article. It's too big to copy all of it but some snippets:
Exeter left behind in changing landscape
There will be no simple answers. On the face of it, this season’s struggles can be explained in part by expenditure, with Exeter understood to be spending significantly below the £6.4 million salary cap. A simple comparison between the 2020 side, which contained luminaries such as Nowell, Slade, Cowan-Dickie, Sam and Joe Simmonds, Stuart Hogg, Jonny Hill and Dave Ewers, and the current squad is stark.
Yet behind the scenes the decline has been more nuanced and complex. Some believe that began shortly after the 2020 high point. “We used to always be pushing to be ahead of the curve,” said one source. “After 2020, it is as if that became the blueprint. It was as if we said ‘this is what worked’ and kept going back to it, but the game keeps moving on.”
The financial impact of the global pandemic – both Exeter’s finals in 2020 were severely disrupted, with the European final played behind closed doors and with just a few hundred people at the Twickenham showpiece – was also critical in fast-tracking the decline.
Exeter moved swiftly to exploit a loophole to offer 30 long-term contracts ahead of the reduction of the salary cap to £5 million in the 2021-22 season to keep those players at the club for at least another campaign. That meant that by 2023 the club had to let go of almost all of its front-line internationals to remain under the cap.
Players learning in spotlight
There was confidence within the club that it would be able to start again and bring through a new generation of young players – largely through a strong relationship with the University of Exeter – forged in a similar manner to the group that fought their way into the Premiership in the late 2000s.
“The problem is that these young players have had to find their feet in the Premiership and with much greater expectation from supporters because of what the club has achieved,” said one source. “We were able to learn how to play in the Championship for a number of years. The players are having to learn in the spotlight and without the benefit of a winning environment.”
With squads not as deep because of the financial repercussions of Covid, and with a greater emphasis on attack rather than defence in the Premiership, there has been a trend for sides to suffer blowouts when a contest goes away from them. The options to loan out players to Championship sides like the Cornish Pirates are now limited. The Championship itself is not the testing ground it used to be after the Rugby Football Union cuts.
Others feel the coaching ticket should have been refreshed sooner to bring in new ideas, training methods and game plans, while the changing times have meant that the days of sorting issues over beers have gone.
When Hunter took over from Hepher earlier in the year, there was an intention to instigate change and that is likely to accelerate now that Baxter is to return to a hands-on role.
Baxter is said to have stepped back from coaching in the last three or four years but has been overseeing everything in his role as director of rugby. He has been a member of the club’s board since before Covid and retains a strong relationship with Rowe.
“Tony will back Rob to get things right,” said one source.
Yet even in these dark times, there is hope. Exeter’s foundations are too solid for it to be any other way. Rowe is said to be as passionate about the club as he always has been, even if the vision of his appearance in the dressing room after the Gloucester defeat has been dramatised. “To be fair Tony always comes into the dressing room after games, win, lose or draw,” added a source.
There is a healthy budget for next season, with Wallabies Len Ikitau and Tom Hooper and Springbok hooker Joseph Dweba among the new signings, while Dave Walder is joining the coaching team and there is a hope that the club’s identity evolves.
Exeter moved swiftly to exploit a loophole to offer 30 long-term contracts ahead of the reduction of the salary cap to £5 million in the 2021-22 season to keep those players at the club for at least another campaign. That meant that by 2023 the club had to let go of almost all of its front-line internationals to remain under the cap.
Players learning in spotlight
There was confidence within the club that it would be able to start again and bring through a new generation of young players – largely through a strong relationship with the University of Exeter – forged in a similar manner to the group that fought their way into the Premiership in the late 2000s.
“The problem is that these young players have had to find their feet in the Premiership and with much greater expectation from supporters because of what the club has achieved,” said one source. “We were able to learn how to play in the Championship for a number of years. The players are having to learn in the spotlight and without the benefit of a winning environment.”
With squads not as deep because of the financial repercussions of Covid, and with a greater emphasis on attack rather than defence in the Premiership, there has been a trend for sides to suffer blowouts when a contest goes away from them. The options to loan out players to Championship sides like the Cornish Pirates are now limited. The Championship itself is not the testing ground it used to be after the Rugby Football Union cuts.