Baxter targeting Prem title win with Exeter
· Yahoo Sports
Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter says his side has to target winning the Prem title this season.
The Chiefs surprised many by making last season's Prem final, having finished second-from-bottom in the 2024-25 campaign.
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Baxter's side finished third last season and won a dramatic semi-final at Bath before being beaten in the final at Twickenham by Northampton.
"I genuinely think that you've got a target winning the Premiership if you've lost the final, I just think you have to," Baxter said.
"If you lose a final I think you've just got a target winning one and if you come up short you come up short and then you can decide whether you've had a good season or not.
"But I just don't see the point with a group of players that hasn't changed that much, if I was one of the players I would feel a little disappointed if their head coach is not saying 'come on lads, we're going out to win this'."
Baxter's side begin their season at home to Gloucester on Saturday (15:05 BST) - the start of a five-game block of league matches and one European Champions Cup game before the Autumn internationals.
Baxter said it was crucial for any team with title ambitions to get off to a good start with such a large part of the season being played before the end of next month.
"Over a quarter of the Premiership season is going to be gone," Baxter added.
"There's only 18 games, once that five games has gone if you're not established in the top half of the Premiership it's going to be tough to chase it back down again, you're going to have to put quite a lot of back-to-back wins together.
"So starting well across this first block of three games before Europe is going to be a massive part of building a successful season.
"There's no point running away from it, you've got to hit the ground running and that's what all the teams have been planning on doing, nobody more so than Gloucester, so we've got to make sure we get ourselves ready."