Within English club rugby there is increasingly little patience for the theory that the world’s most successful coaches all hail from the southern hemisphere. Saturday’s Premiership semi-finals reinforce the argument: all four of this season’s top the teams are overseen by British or Irish‑reared coaches who have dominated the domestic honours list for more than a decade.
Exeter are one example, with Rob Baxter, Ali Hepher, Rob Hunter and Ricky Pellow seeking to guide the Chiefs to back-to-back titles. “History shows that English or home-based coaches have really dominated in the Premiership,” Hepher said. “There’s no question we produce absolute quality coaches. Our nous for the game shouldn’t be underestimated. People don’t always appreciate the quality coaching going on in the Premiership. There are plenty of coaches who have come in from outside but we’re still winning the league.”
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Eddie Jones appears to still require some convincing, having just recruited another Australian, Scott Wisemantel, to work as an attack coach on the tour to South Africa next month. Hepher, though, believes Premiership coaches would thrive if they worked in Super Rugby. “The style of rugby that our sides are playing would be competitive against any club side in the world. How far would we go? It would be very interesting if a group of English coaches went to the southern hemisphere.I’d back ourselves to win competitions and I’m sure Mark McCall, Dai Young and Dean Richards would be the same.”
For now, though, Hepher and the Chiefs are fully focused on beating a potentially dangerous Newcastle side containing the powerful Vereniki Goneva and Sinoti Sinoti on the wings and Toby Flood at fly-half. Exeter lost against the Falcons at Kingston Park in January but, aside from the England prop Harry Williams and Dave Dennis, have virtually a full-strength squad available as they seek to reach a third consecutive Twickenham final.
With Joe Simmonds again starting at fly-half ahead of Gareth Steenson and Thomas Waldrom making his farewell appearance in Devon off the bench, Exeter’s coaches have tweaked their players’ workload to ensure they are at their sharpest. “Mentally we’ve been trying to keep the guys right on it rather than just drifting into the game,” Hepher said. “They’re a good side and if we’re not in the right frame of mind we can be beaten by any side here. We’ve been putting in extra little blasts, almost like mini pre-seasons, to top up fitness levels. We’ve done the grunt and that’s allowed us to be short, sharp and intense this week, making sure the guys are in the right mental state for when the pressure comes on. Last year when we won it we were a young side and there is years more potential in this group. They work incredibly hard day in, day out.”