Exeter chair Tony Rowe has suspended coaches Rob Hunter and Ali Hepher following the Chiefs’ record Gallagher Premiership defeat against Gloucester.
Hunter took over from Hepher as head coach in March, with Hepher being handed a role overseeing Exeter’s backs and attacking strategy until the end of this season.
Exeter have won just three Premiership games this term, and they unravelled spectacularly at Kingsholm, losing 79-17 and conceding 13 tries.
Television footage showed an animated Rowe speaking his mind as he addressed players and coaches in the dressing room post-match.
Exeter said that Rowe had made the decision “pending a full review of the match and the 2024/25 season to date”.
Rowe said: “No final decision regarding the club’s coaching structure going forward has been made, and it would be improper to make any further comment until all internal procedures have been completed.”
The club added that long-serving rugby director Rob Baxter will step into “a front-line coaching role” to oversee the remainder of this term.
The Chiefs have three matches of a miserable campaign left, hosting Northampton on May 11, visiting Harlequins seven days later and then entertaining Sale on May 31.
They are currently ninth in the Premiership, with only Newcastle below them, and 17 points adrift of eighth-placed Quins.
Speaking after the Gloucester defeat, Hunter told reporters that it had been his “worst day as a coach”.
Exeter Chiefs’ Paul Brown-Bampoe helps Henry Slade to his feet at the final whistle
Hunter said: “Aside from how we feel individually, the first thing to recognise is that it was no way acceptable for us to perform like that.
“There is no hiding away, and we haven’t tried to hide away from that in the changing room.
“Quite clearly, we have gone underneath an avalanche of pressure and intensity from Gloucester and wilted underneath it. It is not a case of back to the drawing board, it is more a case of lessons you feel you are learning, you are not learning.
“We are not going to run away from this, we are going to sit on it all week and we are going to simmer on it until we play our next game. Nobody is looking for an arm around them.”
Replacement hooker Jack Singleton scored three tries in 10 second-half minutes as Gloucester romped to victory and stayed on course for a possible play-off place.
