Exeter Chiefs part ways with defence coach Julian Salvi

Exeter have parted ways with defence coach Julian Salvi as the two-time Premiership champions set about arresting a slump in performance.

Exeter currently stand fifth in the Premiership table with two matches to play and are in danger of missing the end-of-season play-offs for the first time in seven years.

But Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter recently stated he was planning changes to regain momentum, and said after Sunday’s 38-22 loss at Saracens: “There has been a lot of clubs who have taken 10 years of bumbling along the bottom as a reset. We are going to fight very hard to avoid that.”

Salvi, 36, joined Exeter from Leicester as a flanker in 2015, having also played for Bath and the Brumbies in his native Australia, and he moved onto the Sandy Park coaching staff in 2018, making him the shortest-serving member of a long-established cohort under Baxter, a former captain of the club.