Exeter president Tony Rowe suspended the coaches Rob Hunter and Ali Hephere after the record defeat of the Chiefs Gallagher against Gloucester.
Hunter succeeded Hepher as head coach in March, Hepher was awarded a supervising role of Exeter’s back and the attack strategy until the end of this season.
Exeter won only three first games this quarter, and they dramatically untied in Kingsholm, losing 79-17 and conceding 13 trials.
TV images have shown an animated Rowe speaking his mind as he addressed players and coaches in the locker room after the match.
Exeter said Rowe had made the decision “pending a full examination of the match and the 2024/25 season to date”.
Rowe said: “No final decision concerning the club’s coaching structure in the future has been made, and it would be inappropriate to make other comments until all internal procedures are finished.”
The club added that the longtime rugby director, Rob Baxter, will start “a role of leading coach” to supervise the rest of this quarter.
The chiefs have three games of a miserable campaign, welcoming Northampton on May 11, visiting the Harlequins seven days later, then entertaining the sale on May 31.
They are currently ninth in first, with only Newcastle below them, and 17 points drifting the eighth.
Speaking after Gloucester’s defeat, Hunter told journalists that it was his “worse day as a coach”.
Hunter said: “In addition to what we feel individually, the first thing to recognize is that it was not acceptable to us to play like that.
“There is no hiding place, and we have not tried to hide from that in the locker room.
“Clearly, we have passed under an avalanche of Gloucester pressure and intensity and withered below. This is not a case of returning to the drawing board, it is more a case of lessons that you feel that you learn, you do not learn.
“We are not going to run away, we are going to sit on it all week and we are going to simmer until we play our next game. No one is looking for an arm around them.”
The replacement whore Jack Singleton scored three tries in 10 minutes of second half while Gloucester attacked the victory and remained on the CAP for a possible barrage square.
