Exeter Chiefs: Rob Baxter says Haydn Thomas can make defensive difference

Speaking for the first time since Mouneimne’s departure, Baxter said the decision to part way was “amicable”.

The former Worcester Warriors and Bristol Bears coach has been at Sandy Park since the summer of 2022, joining a group of long-serving coaches that have been at the club for, in the case of Baxter, more than a decade-and-a-half.

“Omar’s got a system that he believes in, and can work very well and has got some real strength to it,” Baxter added.

“We at times have caused some teams a lot of problems, but we’ve had to do it very well to cause them a lot of problems.

“You can say, ‘that’s the whole point, you should do everything you can as well’, but the reality is to actually start the process, to get on the front foot, to get a team moving forward, you have to make sure that you can maximise everything you can do and you can start to slot guys into systems a little bit more efficiently than we have been able to this year.

“So when you collectively put it altogether I just felt it was the right time for us to move on.

“Omar’s aware of that. He’s very kind of driven on what he wants to see from a team defensively.

“So, really, between us we had a few conversations over a period of time and kind of came to the conclusion was it was the right time for us to part company.

“Sometimes you have these things and you know you have to make a change and you have to move in slightly in a different direction, and that’s what we’ve done.”