Henry Slade: Exeter star helped ‘believe’ team back at Twickenham

Slade, who won 74 England caps and played in the 2019 World Cup final, is one of a handful of players left at Exeter who have experienced the club’s former glory.

The Sandy Park Academy graduate helped Exeter reach six consecutive Premiership finals from 2016 to 2021 – lifting the trophy in 2017 and 2020 – as well as winning the European Champions Cup in 2020.

But in that Exeter side, stars such as Jack Noel, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Sam Simmonds and Stuart Hogg left the club as the financial reality of Covid-19 hit.

It brings many new faces, but success eludes them.

Consecutive seventh-place finishes were followed by a ninth-last term as Exeter suffered their heaviest ever defeat and finished with just four wins all season – their worst top-flight campaign.

Baxter will now hope some of their soon-to-be-departed players – such as former Australia prop Scott Seau – get the chance to end their Exeter careers on a high as they face regular-season table-toppers Northampton Saints at Twickenham next Saturday.

“I’ve said to a few of them, the thing I’m most proud of or most happy about is that they’ve had what I would call a decent Exeter Chiefs season,” Baxter said.

“There were guys among us who had never been the people to experience it, and I started to hate it a little bit.

“A guy like Scott Seau, I bring him in, ask him to be part of something, tell him I think we can create something special – and he’s had four years, and one of the club’s worst years.

“You’re kind of thinking ‘I didn’t want to be like this for these guys’ because he’s fully committed to everything.

For him to come off the back of winning a semi-final, now playing in a premiership final, the same with Christ Sheunga, the same with Rousey (Tuima), these guys haven’t experienced what a great premiership season feels like and they’re experiencing it now and I hope we can finish it for those guys.”