Exeter beat Bath 27-26 in Northampton vs Exeter’s semi-final last week and booked a place in the Prem final. The one-point win took them back to the showpiece for the first time in five years. It also capped a year that began with Exeter second-bottom and ended with them in the final.
Bath’s late push
Bath pressed hard late, but Exeter held on by one point. Rob Baxter walked into the away dressing room after the win and joined the celebration as Exeter secured their place in the Prem final.
The margin was tight enough to expose how far the game swung before Exeter closed it out. Last week’s 27-26 result was the direct route back into the final, and it came after a season that moved the club out of the bottom end of the table and into contention.
Baxter on Exeter’s reset
Baxter said the turnaround was not down to one thing. “It's never come down to one thing, it never does,” he said in an interview with Sport. He added: “There were lots of things that led to the Gloucester result, just like there's lots of things that have led to us having a better season and getting to the final.”
He pointed to competitiveness as the first change. “It's one of the first things we addressed right from day one of the off-season, let alone the pre-season - if you can't win, you draw and if you can't draw, you lose by one point. If you can't lose by one point you lose by two, because that's the easiest way for me to wrap it up,” he said. That is the clearest line from the club’s worst day at Gloucester to its place in the final now.
Steenson and the old standard
At the end of April last year, Tony Rowe was filmed laying down the law after a club record 79-17 loss at Gloucester. Less than 14 months later, Exeter had moved from second-bottom to Prem finalists. Baxter said the club’s response was built over time, not from a single speech or match.
Gareth Steenson, who spent 12 years as an Exeter player and four years as a coach before leaving two years ago, saw the shift from the outside. “Rob is an emotional guy, very emotional about the club, passionate about it,” he told South West. “I think it's probably just that connection again with the squad, it looks like they're all connected in what they do and they've all bought into what they're trying to achieve.”
Steenson scored the extra-time penalty that won Exeter their first Premiership title in 2017, so he knows the standard the club still measures itself against. Exeter now carry that history into the Prem final, with a one-point semi-final win and a year-long reset behind them.
