Latest news with #TonyRowe
BBC News
20-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Maunder to join Coventry at end of season
Exeter Chiefs scrum-half Sam Maunder will be released by the club following the conclusion of the 2024-25 Premiership seasonThe 25-year-old has spent the majority of the current campaign on loan with Championship side Coventry and will now join the club on a permanent played 62 matches for Exeter, starting in 34 of them and scoring two Premiership tries during that time. The Chiefs academy graduate moves to Butts Park Arena where he has played 12 games this season. "I would like to thank Tony Rowe [CEO and chairman] and Rob Baxter [director of rugby] for giving me the opportunity to play for my boyhood club," Maunder said. "It has meant the world to me."It's a special group of players and staff at Chiefs and I have made lifelong friends. I'm going to miss being part of that dressing room."I wish everyone the very best and I'm going to be cheering them on from the Midlands. Thank you for making this place feel like home for six years."
BBC News
16-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Hepher leaves Exeter by mutual consent after 16 years
Long-serving Exeter Chiefs coach Ali Hepher has left the Premiership club by mutual 50-year-old had been suspended from his role as backs and attack coach last month in the wake of Exeter's club-record 79-17 loss at former Northampton fly-half had been part of Exeter's coaching set-up since 2009 when he joined then newly-appointed boss Rob was promoted to head coach in 2017, but was demoted earlier this year as Chiefs suffered their worst season since promotion to the Premiership in are ninth in England's top flight having lost 12 of their 16 had been due to take on a role transitioning players between the academy and first team this of rugby Baxter has refused to comment on whether former Newcastle boss Dave Walder will take over Hepher's role - despite being pictured in a club photograph during a training session last week. Under Hepher's time at the club Exeter won two Premiership titles and the 2020 European Champions exit comes soon after Rob Hunter - who succeeded him as head coach - also left."Ali has contributed immensely to Exeter Rugby Club over a long period of sustained success," chairman Tony Rowe said in a statement."His influence on our coaching environment and playing culture has been considerable and I would like to wish him all the best for the future."Baxter added: "Working alongside Ali for so many seasons has been a genuine privilege."His insight, energy, and passion for the game have helped drive this club forward in countless ways and I know everyone here will join me in thanking him for all he's done."
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Gloucester dismantle Exeter in record-breaking West Country derby victory
Premiership beatings do not come much heavier than this record-breaking West Country derby annihilation. There was nowhere for Exeter to hide on this bright but brutal Sunday in Gloucestershire as a rampant home side rattled up 13 tries to revitalise their ambitions of making the playoffs and inflict the heaviest defeat in the visitors' top-division history. It would have been a proper cricket score had Gloucester not missed half a dozen conversions and it was all but inevitable from an early stage that Exeter's previous widest losing margin of 43 points would be blown away. Being booed by the Shed is one thing, hearing laughter ring around the ground is another level of embarrassment. The club's chairman, Tony Rowe, could be seen laying down the law in the away dressing room after the game, clearly stung by this non-performance from a team theoretically building for next season. 'That was my worst day as a coach,' said the head coach, Rob Hunter, part of the backroom staff who helped Exeter win the European and domestic double just five years ago. 'It's in no way acceptable for us to perform like that and we haven't tried to hide away from that in the changing room. 'Tony's entirely entitled to come in and fire in to everybody. He's put a lot of time and effort into the club and everyone's expectations should be way, way higher than that. Fair play to Gloucester but we gifted them momentum at almost every opportunity.' While defeat at Saracens last weekend put a dent in Gloucester's top-four aspirations, no one will be in a rush to face George Skivington's side on this kind of form. With three games still to play – away at Harlequins and Newcastle, and at home against Northampton – they sit one point behind fourth-placed Bristol and two points ahead of sixth-placed Saracens. In addition to the outstanding Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams and the deadly duo of Jack Singleton and Seb Atkinson, who contributed five tries between them, the watching England head coach, Steve Borthwick, will also have taken note of several hardworking England-qualified forwards who must be pushing hard for loftier recognition. The hooker Seb Blake has been a handful all season while the back-rowers Jack Clement and Lewis Ludlow and the prop Afolabi Fasogbon also caught the eye in a vibrant team performance. To say nothing went right for Exeter would be to put it politely. They had apparently enjoyed an upbeat training week but any semblance of confidence was eviscerated by six Gloucester tries inside the first half‑hour. Two powerful driven mauls brought scores for Clement and Seb Blake before the floodgates truly opened and some extravagant offloading delivered a smashing try for a delighted Ludlow. Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'. If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you're on the most recent version. In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications. Turn on sport notifications. The Shed was soon purring again in the sunshine as Chris Harris, Seb Atkinson and Gareth Anscombe added further tries to extend the margin to 36-0. Exeter did belatedly string together a few attacking phases in the opposing 22, which allowed Josh Hodge to put his side on the board, but the slickness of Gloucester's handling, the inability of Exeter to slow down the ball and some ineffectual tackling all combined to ensure a lopsided contest. Perhaps the most outrageous assist of the lot was a 30-yard pass over the top from Williams to his left wing, Jake Morris, which sailed over the heads of multiple opponents and ended with Santiago Carreras sending Williams over. Gloucester are not perfect but their attack coach, James Lightfoot-Brown, has clearly been doing some excellent work. It was much the same story after the interval as Jamal Ford‑Robinson and Christian Wade, via an unselfish assist from Carreras, brought up Gloucester's half-century inside 50 minutes. Wade is off to play rugby league in Wigan where he will find life a whole lot tougher. Even the cavalry off the bench made little difference for the visitors, the defence melting away faster than leftover Easter eggs in the sun to permit a second try for Seb Atkinson and more easy pickings for Singleton, who collected a hat-trick of tries inside 12 minutes. Even the most exhausted London Marathon runners will feel less shattered than the Chiefs when they limp back to work this week. 'The reality is that good vibes are not enough,' Hunter said. 'We definitely went a little bit missing. Not having a game next week is probably a good thing for us. We're not going to brush past this.'
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Inside the Exeter meltdown: Rowe's revival plan not for the faint-hearted
H ow swiftly the sporting wheel can turn. Less than five years ago Exeter were the Double-winning darlings of English club rugby, their fairytale rise ranking alongside Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest, Sir Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen and Wimbledon's Crazy Gang as the most romantic success stories in British team sport. And now? Second bottom of the Premiership table, 79 points conceded at Gloucester last time out, coaches being summarily jettisoned, the chairman storming into the dressing room. The one thing everyone in Devon can agree on is that the season's end cannot come quickly enough. In common with every English club, times have also been tough off the field. Exeter's conference and banqueting operation was seriously affected when Covid struck. The new hotel at Sandy Park, originally meant to supply the rugby club with another profitable income stream, is now predominantly owned by Tony Rowe, the chair and chief executive. There has been increasing local disquiet about everything from results to ticket prices and the club's future. It all adds extra resonance to this Sunday's penultimate home league fixture against this year's Champions Cup finalists, Northampton. Any repeat of the Kingsholm calamity will invite further scrutiny given Chiefs have now officially had three different head coaches – Ali Hepher, Rob Hunter and now the returning Rob Baxter – in as many months. The blueprint for next season is for the former England fly-half Dave Walder to work with Baxter, supported by current assistant coaches Haydn Thomas, Ross McMillan and Ricky Pellow. The Kingsholm scoreboard records the shocking depths of Exeter's decline since their Double-winning 2020 apogee. Photograph: Simon King/ProSports/Shutterstock Rowe's view is that a revival will duly follow. 'There's no doubt that Rob is a very good coach. When he brought the lads up from the Championship they'd have walked on broken glass for him.' He has specifically told Baxter to concentrate on the team, rather than the wider remit the pair had previously agreed. 'I need to take some of the responsibility. After we won the Double, I said I'd like him to step back a little bit and oversee everything. The problem is it hasn't really worked. I've said to Rob: 'You've got to go back to the coalface, mate.' I don't think Rob has been close enough to the lads.' Ali Hepher is one of two Exeter coaches who have been stood down by Tony Rowe. Photograph: Bob Bradford/CameraSport/Getty Images The club is certainly desperate to leave behind the Gloucester debacle, though Rowe is keen to clarify that his finger-wagging post-match address to the players, captured on live television, was not quite the furious rant it seemed. 'I just said to them: 'I am absolutely embarrassed, guys. And I hope you all are when you pick up your wages next week. A lot of people have bust their arse over the last four years to keep this club alive so be embarrassed.' And then I walked out.' I didn't give them a bollocking.' The repercussions, though, were brutal. The next day the experienced Hunter and Hepher were suspended, with Hunter's permanent departure confirmed last Friday. Insiders described the way the cull was handled as 'eye-opening' and at least one of the pair is understood to have 'very strong feelings' about what took place. The Guardian also understands that the players were enjoying the training ground vibe during Hunter's brief spell as nominal head coach. This summer, though, will not be for the faint-hearted. 'Rob and I have chatted and I don't think the guys are being challenged as they could be,' says Rowe. 'Rob will change that. I know the way Rob coaches. He will set them very high standards I don't think they've been set. He's quite a taskmaster.' Maybe so but the wider reality is that Exeter, as with so many clubs, have encountered a perfect storm. The financial implications of Covid forced them to release almost all their Double-winning players, leaving behind a collection of promising but callow youngsters in key positions. Others have more cash and stronger squads. Rowe also now concedes Baxter will have to rectify one or two strategic errors. 'He wants to get the club back up where it should be and not make the same mistakes we've made before. We didn't quite have a succession plan, did we? Once we had a clearout and we looked in the cupboard, it was bare.' In their heyday the Chiefs were fitter and better drilled than most teams and their powerful driving maul was unstoppable from close range. That has all changed courtesy of a 2021 law tweak around pre-latching and the introduction of goalline drop-outs, which allow hard-pressed defending teams more respite. But as a revitalised Gloucester have shown this season, it is possible to bounce back rapidly with a smart tactical rethink and some fresh coaching input. Rowe, now 76, is not about to walk away – 'I'm nowhere near that' – though he will miss this weekend's match because he is flying to China to compete in a 15,000km endurance car rally from Beijing to Paris. He is hopeful the club will break even next season. Exeter's director of rugby Rob Baxter will return to frontline coaching duties in the wake of the cull at Sandy Park. Photograph: Bob Bradford/CameraSport/Getty Images 'Commercially, which is my part of the ship, I was a bit concerned. But we'll finish this season having had more people through the gates than we've had in the last five years. We're still not back in profit but that's because of outside factors we're still grappling with. 'I've not got donor fatigue. Some supporters are fickle but we've got some great signings and good experience coming in. I think we've got a more talented bunch of lads now than we had back in 2014-15 when we were building the last team. We just need to get the right coaching skills around them and move forward.'
Telegraph
01-05-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Tony Rowe interview: Exeter's dire season shows why relegation must go
In almost 30 years at the helm, Tony Rowe has had better weeks with Exeter. Rowe oversaw the Chiefs' promotion from the Championship, their first Premiership title, and their league and European double, but, last Sunday, the chairman and chief executive gave his playing squad and coaches both barrels after a record Premiership loss, to Gloucester at Kingsholm. Days later, both Rob Hunter, the head coach of just over a month, and Ali Hepher, an assistant, were suspended pending a review into both the heavy defeat and the season as a whole. Rob Baxter will return to a front-line coaching role for the remainder of the season. Rowe is a pragmatic sort; for him, it is a case of onwards and upwards. What's done is done; action has been taken. He believes that Baxter is one of Europe's best coaches so the director of rugby will return to what he does best. The rest was not easy but it is time to be positive, he says, backing what he believes to be as good a crop of young players as Exeter have ever seen. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the Exeter dressing room. Club Director Tony Rowe gives his thoughts to the squad after a record defeat. #GallagherPrem — TNT Sports (@tntsports) April 27, 2025 Count the offloads 🤩 It's a scintillating bonus-point try for @gloucesterrugby as Chris Harris applies the finish. Team rugby at it's finest 👏 #GallagherPrem | #GLOvEXE — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) April 27, 2025 But, in almost 30 years at the helm, Rowe has never known a financial landscape like the one in which English rugby currently finds itself. Last week, Telegraph Sport exclusively revealed the Premiership's franchise plan, which seeks to abolish relegation and retain promotion – a strategy which has already gathered steam. The primary reason for the revamp was that finding investment with relegation hanging over teams had started to prove impossible. And if the plight of Wasps, Worcester and London Irish has taught us anything, it is that the Premiership needs cash. Along with Baxter, Rowe is the architect of one of English rugby's great success stories. But with the Chiefs languishing in ninth place in the table, he is now experiencing how tough it is to attract investment when the threat of relegation exists. 'Franchising is the way forward for English rugby,' Rowe tells Telegraph Sport. 'We need it. English rugby is on its knees. Anyone who says it isn't, is telling a lie. The RFU has to wake up and smell the coffee. It earns the majority of its funds from our assets – and we are losing money. They need to let us go to franchise and not interfere and then they'll always have our assets to earn money from. If they don't, I don't know what the consequences will be, but they won't be good. 'Relegation does not really help anyone. Before the franchise talk began, I believed in promotion and relegation. That's where [Exeter] came from. You have to have an opportunity for someone to come up. I'm in favour of promotion without relegation; allowing clubs to invest and work hard to get themselves up into the top league. 'We want to get the league back up to 12, 14 and then when you're at 16 you'll have two conferences of eight – with play-offs top and bottom. We have all agreed that there would be no limit on the number of clubs. You have the 10 clubs now, but we want Wasps, Worcester and London Irish back. We want to see the likes of Ealing, Coventry up there... and Yorkshire, wow. One of the biggest rugby counties in the country without a team in the top division. It's barren. 'Exeter are the lowest in the Premiership we've ever been. Ever. Including the first year we were in it. And, for the first time ever, I've experienced the problems of the threat of relegation hanging over you, which other clubs have reported before. I've had sponsors say to my salespeople, who have come back to me and said: 'So-and-so is quite happy to do his sponsorship for next year but if we get relegated he wants to renegotiate.' I can't run a business like that. There's an opportunity here with franchising for people to invest their money and for it to be secure. 'To do away with relegation has to be a positive for English rugby. If people making the decisions at Twickenham cannot see that the old-fashioned way is not the way to encourage investment... nobody is going to invest large sums of money into a Championship club with the risk of them being relegated back into that league after a year. It is not going to happen.' Exeter, arguably, are the club who have benefited most from the English league pyramid system. Rowe, in a sense, would be more than willing to bite the hand that fed him, because he believes there is no other option. Since Covid, the Chiefs, profitable in 2019-20, have lost £20 million in revenue. 'Covid knocked the stuffing out of us,' he says. 'We need to get ourselves back on track financially and, when you look at world sport, franchising is the way it's going.' Rowe's position is unique as he is one of the only Premiership club owners to have experience of English rugby's second tier. Exeter's chairman believes this move will be 'a fantastic opportunity for Championship clubs' who themselves might find it easier to attract vital investment to the league. Telegraph Sport understands that the Tier 2 board are in favour of expansion of professional rugby but there must be sporting as well as financial considerations. Rowe believes, however, that a promoted Championship club would require around £25 million to compete in the Premiership. 'I've been in business for 53 years: would I look at spending £25 million on the basis that in a year's time I could get demoted? No, no, no,' Rowe says. 'In 2009-10, the playing budget of Exeter was about £2 million, in our last season in the Championship. We had already invested in Sandy Park and we had to increase the capacity from 7,500-8,000 to 10,000 to gain entry into the Premiership, but we were entering the league very much like the clubs at the moment. The entry criteria currently is that the Championship clubs can come in with a 5,000-seater stadium and they have three years to build it up to 10,000. 'If those rules stay the same, then we in 2009 were pretty much the same as Championship clubs now. Now here is the big 'but'. Back in our first year in the Premiership, the salary cap was only £4 million. The level of rugby in the Championship today is far inferior to the Premiership. The standard in the Premiership is fantastic. We were able to make the step from Championship to the Premiership because we were able to quickly increase our ground capacity, the jump from £2 million to £4 million in salary cap was manageable – we only had a £3 million budget for two seasons and Rob [Baxter] managed the money wisely before we could buy a P [Perpetual] share to give us the funding – and the playing chasm between the two leagues was not what it is now. 'Most Championship clubs today are probably spending £2 million on players at most. The Premiership salary cap is £6.4 million, but it's plus, plus, plus [dispensations for academy players]. And, if they're going to go into the Premiership, they'll have to spend a few million on increasing the capacity of their stadium. 'The P share when we bought it was worth only £5 million because it was only a third of the income. Today it is 50 per cent and that share is valued at £14 million, £15 million. So, an investor looking to put into a club, to get into the Premiership and a franchise, they're looking at spending around £25 million. The big investors are not going to invest money in a club that could be in the Championship. They want to be in the Premiership with the TV coverage and the media coverage. 'If investors want to take a gamble, they'd go to the bookies and put their money on a horse, wouldn't they?' If the Premiership clubs have their way, to further Rowe's analogy, the league hopes to know the winner before the race is run.
