EXE FACTOR
EXETER’S RISE from England’s second tier to European champions in the space of a decade has been told in a brilliant new book by Rob Kitson, rugby correspondent for The Guardian. DoR Rob Baxter and forwards coach Rob Hunter form two-thirds of Chiefs’ lauded management hub and here we reproduce an extract from the book, Exe Men, that focuses on the third strand – head coach Ali Hepher.
Baxter recruited Hepher as backs coach from Northampton’s academy in 2009, when Chiefs were still in the RFU Championship. He quickly made a major impact, including introducing Baxter to the ‘champagne ruse’ – an idea he borrowed from John Steele at Saints – for the second leg of the 2010 play-off at Bristol. It entailed Baxter telling his players just before the game that he’d just seen boxes of champagne being delivered to Bristol’s changing room as they were so confident of winning!
Suitably fired up, Exeter went out and achieved an against-the-odds victory.
Former Exeter
