Exeter coaches Ali Hepher and Rob Hunter suspended after 13-try rout
Tony Rowe's fury over Exeter Chiefs crashing to a record 79-17 defeat at Gloucester on Sunday was not confined to his angry address in the away changing room at Kingsholm. On Monday, the club's chairman and chief executive suspended the senior coaches Rob Hunter and Ali Hepher.
Rob Baxter, the director of rugby and an Exeter board member, will take hands-on charge of the team for the remaining three games of a miserable season in which the former European and English champions have lost 12 of their 15 games in the Gallagher Premiership.
Hepher, who has been Baxter's right-hand man for 16 years, started the campaign as Exeter's head coach, with Hunter in charge of the attack coaching, but they switched roles last month. Baxter said the change was made with next season in mind, with Hepher wanting to transition into a role working with academy players.
It felt at the time like he was shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic. Both Hepher and Hunter, who has been at Exeter since 2013, have now been placed on gardening leave, pending a review into the 13-try demolition by Gloucester and the Chiefs' season as a whole. A route back for them seems unlikely, although the club said no final decision had yet been taken.
Rowe has been the driving force behind Exeter's rise from the Championship to champions of Europe. After the club's darkest day, he entered the Exeter changing room at the Gloucester game and vented his displeasure.
'Quite right, too,' Hunter said. 'Tony is entirely entitled to come in there and fire into everybody. He puts a lot of time and effort into the club and his expectations and those of everyone else should be way, way higher than that.
'From my own point of view, it was probably one of my worst days as a coach. In fact, there's no probably about it, it was actually my worst day as a coach.
'Aside from how we feel individually, the first thing to recognise is that from a supporters' point of view, it is no way acceptable to perform like that.'
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