How brutal pre-season sent Exeter back to play-offs

"Everyone was in a dark place, we couldn't wait to draw a line under the end of the season," Exeter's attack coach Dave Walder recalls of the final game of the 2024-25 campaign.

The Chiefs' turnaround in 12 months has been pretty startling.

From a club-worst ninth-placed finish and just four leagues wins - two coming against sides shorn of international players - Exeter are back in the Prem play-offs for the first time in five years having finished third.

Rob Baxter's side will travel to Bath in Saturday's semi-final as they aim to roll back the clock to the glory days at Sandy Park.

"Rob made it pretty clear in the changing room after that game what pre-season would look like, how tough it was going to be and the boys not to underestimate it," Walder said of the pre-season that set the tone for an impressive campaign.

"I've never been involved in a pre-season like it - running and beach sessions.

"I'm sure everybody has the toughest pre-season every year, but I genuinely think we had tough pre-season."

Exeter's sessions on the beaches of Devon are not a new phenomenon, but having finished second-from-bottom, been embarrassed in European games and suffered a club-record 79-17 defeat at Gloucester, the sessions in the summer of 2025 took on a new significance.

"I was inspired," veteran winger Olly Woodburn said.

No stranger to the dunes and sea after more than a decade at Sandy Park, the 34-year-old was at the tail end of recovering from knee surgery when pre-season started.

"I couldn't believe the boys' work they were putting in and seeing them walk off the field and then getting better and better every week," Woodburn added.

"Towards the end of pre-season I slotted into a team and it was very hard to keep up with.

"I had to really push my fitness, really push my understanding of Dave's system and the systems we put in place in the pre-season.

"But it was such an inspiration to get back into that team because I could see how hard everyone worked and they set a bar for everyone, and that's been the story of our season."

And it was that pre-season that got their campaign off to what became a decent start - despite very early fears.

At half-time of their opening game of the season at Northampton, Exeter had conceded five tries and trailed 33-7 to the beaten play-off finalists. It looked as though another season of struggle could be on the cards.

But the Chiefs responded with four tries after the break, drawing the game 33-33 and setting a benchmark for the whole season.

"Coming back and drawing that game was crazy," scrum-half Stephen Varney, who was making his debut that day, said.

"You could just tell how fit the boys were, all their graft they've been doing, we felt so fit that second half.

"Throughout the season we've felt that second half we've done really well, where teams have probably dropped off, we've excelled.

"That's down to our fitness, so I think those sessions in pre-season have put us in good stead for the season and we're in a really good position now."

Exeter went on to win six of their next seven league games - form that kept them in and around the play-off picture all season.

Their visit to Bath is their first-ever away semi-final in the top flight, having made six consecutive finals between 2016 and 2021.

They won the title twice - in 2017 and 2020 - the latter coming as their dominant side were crowned European champions in the same season.

But as the financial cost of the Covid-19 pandemic bit and Exeter's all-conquering side broke up 'Exeter 2.0', as the new side was dubbed, struggled.

They had three consecutive seventh-placed finishes before last season's poor campaign.

And while they brought in a host of new players such as Len Ikitau, Varney, Tom Hooper and Andrea Zambonin, Baxter was aware that they alone were not going to be the answer.

"I knew we needed the pre-season, the things we could set up in pre-season," he said.

"I knew we had some good players coming in to join the side who would help us, and so I knew we'd be better.

"But obviously it's very pleasing to have got to the stage where we're in the top four."

And now, having arguably overachieved on expectations before a ball was kicked, Baxter knows his side have high hopes.

Having beaten rivals Saracens to clinch a top four place at the weekend, they hope to right the wrongs of an away defeat earlier in the season when they return to The Rec.

"It's like everything in sport, if we'd have lost last week to Saracens and dropped out of the top four, we'd have still had a much improved season and a decent season by most people's overall aim or thought process," Baxter added.

"But it would have been really, really disappointing to have got to that stage then lost a home game.

"Now we're in the top four, again people are going 'Exeter have had a good season', but now it's going to be really disappointing if we lose a semi.

"That's just sport, how it is. It'll almost feel like a disappointing end to the season and yet we've had a really good season."