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Rob Baxter weighs in on Henry Arundell debate

By PA
(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Henry Arundell may be unavailable for England until 2026 but Exeter boss Rob Baxter insists the restriction on selecting overseas-based players must remain in place.

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Arundell has signed a two-year contract extension with Racing 92 after turning down a move to Bath that would also have included one of the Rugby Football Union’s 25 ‘hybrid contracts’.

It means the English game’s most exciting talent, who plundered five tries in the World Cup match against Chile in September, is off-limits to Steve Borthwick for over two years.

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Arundell’s decision has renewed the spotlight on the RFU’s rule that only those players competing in the Gallagher Premiership can be considered, but Baxter insists it is necessary for a healthy league.

“How will we promote our competition as being at a very high level if you’re wide open to the best players playing outside the country?” the Chiefs director of rugby said.

“That will never help promote the Premiership and without promoting the Premiership I don’t think you’ll ever get a successful England side.

“The best way to keep young players in this country is by letting them know that staying in this country gives them the best opportunity to play international rugby.”

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Baxter is preparing Exeter for Sunday’s Investec Champions Cup clash with Munster at Sandy Park as the Devonians look to build on their impressive one-point victory at Toulon in round one.

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The triumph on the Cote d’Azur was among the highlights of a superb weekend for the Premiership, whose clubs recorded seven wins in eight games, including four against Top 14 sides.

The results come amid concerns over the league’s ability to compete on the European stage, not least because of a smaller salary cap, and at a time when a number of England players including Arundell and his England team-mates Jack Willis and Joe Marchant have headed across the Channel.

Baxter suspects the Premiership teams may have been underestimated in round one and will reserve judgement over what it means until deeper into the competition.

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“Because of the negativity surrounding the Premiership lately, it would be very easy to take the Premiership clubs lightly. Maybe that’s what happened,” he said.

“There’s not a first-team player in the Premiership who is not a good, determined professional rugby player and you’ve seen that in how competitive the games have been.

“We should be talking positively about the Premiership and the results at the weekend bear that out. There should be more positivity around the Premiership than there is, but also we need to back that up.

“English teams will be competitive, our challenge going forward is how we maintain that. We’ll know the answer a little bit down the line, it’s a little early to tell after one round.

“If we get to the latter stages and there are a few Premiership clubs involved, then we can start to look at the reasons why that’s happened.”

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Comments

10 Comments
D
Donald 325 days ago

Shouldn’t Baxter keep out of it?

Besides, isn’t he poacher turned gamekeeper? When Exeter cane up wasn’t the conservative Baxter all for stifling English rugby then too with ring fencing?

D
Diarmid 326 days ago

At the end of a day it’s a job and Arundell has made a decision about his career based on his own reasoning. We don’t berate bankers for moving to Singapore or a lawyer for deciding to move to New York, so I don’t get the polemic around a player who clearly doesn’t suit the playing style of the current England set up deciding to better himself in another environment, spend a few years living in Paris, learn a new language and play with some of the biggest names in world rugby in a competition that blows the premiership out of the water for intensity and atmosphere, under a head coach in Stuart Lancaster, a backs coach in Joe Rockococo and an attack coach in Fred Michalak… in exchange for about a million euros over the course of his contract. The sacrifice? Warming the bench on yet another 4th or 5th place Six Nations campaign with an England team who’s attack is governed by the Borthwick / Wigglesworth principle of booting the leather off the ball because the data says so.

Pour moi, c'est une évidence.

G
Grahame 326 days ago

Disagree, players should not be stopped by wanting progression and also its insane to think that paying for England is the be all and end all for a player. With the disastrous Jones gone the ripple effect of his management lives on, why should a fabulous player like Arundel not take a lucrative deal the French clubs offer when he is not guaranteed a place in a very Negative and Turgid England style? The premiership is a joke, and we still have one of the most competitive leagues in the world and time and time again shock and compete and beat teams with values dwarfing our funding. Its time for change, we need to look at franchising and flooding the game with intelligent money, then we will keep the odd great prospect, but let’s be honest, who in Europe is really a world beater that England have lost? Arundel yet to be tested properly but could be great, Itoje may go, but we have tons of awesome second rows coming through, and all the others really have not been mist that much. Im not sure we have much of a issue really. What the conversation should really be about is why do we keep funding, training and coaching Foreigners like the SA team… this needs to stop..

l
liamjharrison 326 days ago

The best way to keep young players in this country is by having a decent competition, one with real jeopardy that actually pays players well. These arbitrary rules just weaken the competition and clubs.

P
Potamus 326 days ago

I am surprised at Mr Baxter's hypocrisy. If the Premiereship, especially Exeter Chiefs, consisted of only English players I'd agree with him. The fact that every team has players from all over the world pretty much negates his argument. Sauce for the goose etc.

H
Huw 326 days ago

Baxter is wrong, plain wrong. England suffers for two reasons, 1) the restrictions keeping mediocre players confirmed to England's coaching standards without allowing them the potential to blossom in another culture's league and 2) by allowing so many foreigners from South Africa, Argentina, the Pacific Islands etc., and in key positions too thereby giving them the opportunity to improve their own country's quality. One Example? Faf de Klerk. Look at Baxter's own team. Plenty of NON-English last time I looked.

T
The Chassis Chisler 326 days ago

Absolutely FUMING with this comment from Baxter.

How is it any different to what he has done with Joe Hawkins stealing him from Wales.

He missed the World Cup because Baxter signed him.

C
Colin 327 days ago

Cannot blame Arundell or any other English players leaving England. Ignored by both Jones and Borthwick and frankly Borthwick choosing Farrell at 10 meants any creative winger would hardly see any ball. Add the “attack” coaches lack of any attacking background and it is no wonder the backs prefer to play in France.

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F
Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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