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'Everyone needs to be a little careful' - Double-winning Exeter's response to latest Esportif Premiership player salary report

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

The annual Esportif Intelligence report comparing the rugby player salaries by position across the three European leagues – the Gallagher Premiership, Top 14 and Guinness PRO14 – has in recent years become a major talking point when it is issued at this time every year, but double-winning Exeter boss Rob Baxter isn’t losing any sleep over its latest contents.   

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Esportif’s salary report for 2020/21 claims that No10 is the best-paid player by position in this season’s Premiership, openside the worst. In between, you have lock as second-best paid, outside centre as third best and next comes full-back and tighthead.

The list between sixth and twelfth is then respectively filled by No8, blindside, wing, loosehead, scrum-half, inside centre and hooker. Exeter boss Baxter, though, doesn’t see a crossover between this list of best and worst-paid positions and the way salaries are spread around his squad, a team who are reigning Premiership and European champions after wins in last October’s finals.  

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Ex-England hooker Brian Moore in conversation with Jim Hamilton

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Ex-England hooker Brian Moore in conversation with Jim Hamilton

Ahead of the Exeter trip on Saturday to Wasps, the opposition they defeated in the Premiership final at Twickenham ten weeks ago, Baxter said about the Esportif Intelligence salary report: “That report comes out every year and it’s driven by one management company and so everyone needs to be a little careful. 

“I’m not saying take it with a pinch of salt but that is how they report on their clients. That won’t necessarily be the same across every client at every other club, and also especially if you have had players at clubs for long periods because how their salaries grow over a period of time is different to where you are going out to target say a marquee player.

“If that management company have a particularly high percentage of marquee type players it’s going to be quite skewed compared to how another agent might have their client base based around the importance of players. It’s not going to come as any surprise to you.

“You want a big, tough pack of forwards who can scrummage and catch lineouts and you want a set of backs that can defence first and you can go from there. If you do that you can win a few games and you build on that and if you can build on that you can build some success. We keep our basic level of recruitment very simple and then we try and build on that. 

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“We don’t go out there looking for finished articles everywhere we can because it is impossible to do with the salary cap and it’s unrealistic. With a good squad and a good group of people, you can cover your odd weakness as long as that weakness is not a weakness in one of your fundamentals if you see what I mean. We’ll go for the fundamentals first and we’ll work from there. That always seems to have given us a very solid foundation.”  

Baxter added that his job at Exeter now feels different after becoming a double-winning coach less than three months ago. “It does feel different and I’m very happy to talk about this… It’s not like that it’s now, I don’t want to go back to work because it almost feels better to come into work now. 

“But it does feel different because you feel kind of justified you got the job in the first place because you actually have done the ultimate, you go ‘there is not much more I could have done. You gave the right guy the job and we got there’, so it does feel different.

“What I really feel is important now is I have got a focus on where the squad can go over the next few years because we have got some huge challenges that way. The salary cap changes after this season, down to £5million, and there are some challenges there for three years. 

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“That means there has to be a real focus on the quality of your academy, the quality of the recruit into your academy, how they are coached, how we create a pathway for those guys to come through, how you change the focus of your squad slightly if you have to, where you replace players, how you keep some depth around your international period – there are some real challenges there.

“They are things that have always hugely motivated me and been of huge interest to me and those things are now even more important than they have ever been. There is still a lot of exciting work to be done here definitely.”

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Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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