Rob Baxter: Exeter boss ready for one last battle with Saracens’ Mark McCall

Exeter were seen as one of the biggest victims of the salary cap scandal.

An investigation found Saracens owner Nigel Wray had business relationships with some of their top stars, which were not declared and would have taken them over the then-£7m salary cap.

Their star-studded side were the dominant force in English rugby, with Exeter a close second, and many Chiefs fans wonder what might have been had Saracens not been able to afford so many top players.

While the game is a regular-season fixture, the fact that the winners will end up in the play-offs means it is effectively the first knockout game between the sides since the scandal six-and-a-half years ago.

So does Baxter think there will still be lingering resentment around the fixture?

“I think everyone would want me to say yes, but I just don’t think that’s the case now,” he says.

“I look at our team and we’ve got a couple of players involved, two or three, who were winning and losing finals around the time that the salary cap stuff was being investigated, but outside of that, that team’s not on the field.

“The team that’s on the field now is the team that’s got to build its own reputation, it’s got to build its own history, it’s got to have its own successes and failures.

“I think the successes and failures of this Exeter team going forward aren’t going to be based on Saracens’ salary cap, they’re going to be based on what we can do as a team.

“I think that’s the bigger driver for the players now, and I think that’s the way it should be

“Saracens’ driver going forward is going to be winning things with a changed team that wasn’t involved in that situation, so I think we’re both very similar on that now.”