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'Why I have been looking at the market': Baxter explains Sio deal

(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Exeter boss Rob Baxter has explained what convinced him to sign seasoned Wallabies front-rower Scott Sio. The expectation was that the 30-year-old loosehead would stay on at an Australian Super Rugby Pacific franchise in the run-up to the 2023 World Cup in France, but the Chiefs dispelled that notion by snapping up the forward on an unspecified length long-term deal.

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Sio, who turns 31 in October, packed down twice last month versus England and he was recalled on Thursday to the Wallabies squad to take on the Springboks later in August having missed the recent two-game trip to Argentina through injury.

Baxter had let it be known in recent weeks that Exeter were still in the market for a loosehead for the upcoming 2022/23 season, but speculation linking them to Sio was thin on the ground until the signing was confirmed on Wednesday.

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The long-serving director of rugby has since spoken about why he chased down Sio, explaining why he thinks the Brumbies prop – who has 71 Wallabies caps – will be perfect for Exeter when he arrives in October following the conclusion of the Rugby Championship.

“I’m really excited about Scott coming, especially as he is going to drop in straight from the Rugby Championship in October,” said Baxter on the Exeter website. “Personally, I think he is going to be one of those guys who is going to be an immediate hit in the Premiership and I’m quite excited about the pack of forwards we are growing here at the club.

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“The Brumbies, to be fair, are probably known as being a forward-orientated team in Super Rugby, which is very important for us. Scott has obviously been there quite some time, but he has also got great experience at Test level. He is also not that old, he has been given a clean bill of health from the medical people, so he is good to go which is fantastic.

“I don’t mind saying, right now I’m not sure if any of our young looseheads have really grabbed the position by the scruff of the neck yet, which is why I have been looking at the market. As far as I am concerned, we now have a good group of senior looseheads, so it is going to be a bit more of a battle for some of these younger lads to knock them off their perches, especially as they will need to work extremely hard to do that.”

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1 Comment
m
mark 1063 days ago

This is a great move by Exeter. He's a class player and his experience is what every team wants.

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sorrel 47 minutes ago
Jakkie Cilliers: 'Some ugly perceptions about women’s rugby still exist in South Africa'

The whole thing was absolutely delightful from a scrummaging perspective. Both teams were 100% certain they could just push the other team off the ball and both teams scrummed like it. I love the dark arts tactical battles, but there’s something really refreshing about a game where both the teams in the pushing contest just want to push. But, yeah, South Africa were the clear winners of that part of the game.


Scrums went as follows in the first game (I’m going from a handy dandy compilation video I made from screen recordings so I don’t have exact ref calls)

1. Canadian feed - Reset. On second feed, Canada gets the ball away, but South African scrum pushes into them

2. South African feed - South Africa gets the ball away clean

3. Canadian feed - Free kick to South Africa

4. South African feed - South Africa pulls the ball forward in the scrum a few meters, gets advantage, and gets the ball away clean

5. Canadian feed - Canada gets the ball away clean.

6. South African feed - South Africa push Canada backwards, but give away a penalty

7. South African feed - South Africa pulls the ball forward in the scrum maybe 10ish meters, gets advantage, and gets the ball away clean

8. South African feed - Free kick to Canada

9. South African feed - South Africa gets the ball away clean

10. South African feed - South Africa makes meters in the scrum and gets the ball away clean

11. South African feed - Reset. On second feed, South Africa makes meters in the scrum, gets advantage, and gets the ball away clean

12. Canadian feed - South Africa push them backwards, but give away a penalty

13. Canadian feed - 75 minutes into the game, Canada pulls the ball forward at the scrum and get advantage


I haven’t done such thorough analysis for the second test, but if you enjoy scrumming at all, you should really watch these games. They’re the sort of games where you look forwards to knock ons because the scrums are so good.

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