Henry Slade's leadership key to Exeter's Prem final run, says Rob Baxter

Exeter boss Rob Baxter says Henry Slade's leadership has been key to his side reaching the Prem final.

The 33-year-old England centre has been impressive in recent weeks - leading Baxter to describe him as in "world class form".

Slade was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on in the first half of their semi-final at Bath on Saturday.

But he returned to help orchestrate a historic fightback as the Chiefs overturned a 26-10 deficit to win 27-26 and become the first third-placed side to make a Prem final.

"Our most experienced player did the stupidest thing on the field on the day, really," Baxter told BBC Sport.

"Because even he knew as soon as he did it - you can see him almost go 'oh how have I done that, what have I done' when he snapped the ball out of his hands.

"But he's been great and he talks really well.

"When you've been there, you understand you can do things, when you've come from behind before you understand you can do things, when you've won Premiership finals you understand you can do it, you don't limit yourself from what you can achieve.

"I think he's just helping the lads believe that as well."

Slade, who has won 74 England caps and played in the 2019 World Cup final, is one of a handful of Exeter players left who have experienced the club's former glories.

The Sandy Park academy graduate helped Exeter reach six successive Premiership finals from 2016 to 2021 - lifting the trophy in 2017 and 2020 - as well as a European Champions Cup triumph in 2020.

But of that Exeter side, stars like Jack Nowell, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Sam Simmonds and Stuart Hogg left the club as Covid-19's financial realities bit.

It led to a host of new faces coming in, but success eluded them.

Consecutive seventh-placed finishes were followed up by ninth last term as Exeter suffered their heaviest-ever loss and finished with just four wins all season - their worst-ever top-flight campaign.

Baxter now hopes some of their soon-to-be-departing players - like former Australia prop Scott Sio - have the chance to end their Exeter careers on a high as they head to Twickenham next Saturday to face regular-season table-toppers Northampton Saints.

"I've said to a few of them, the thing I'm most proud of or most pleased of is that they've got to experience what I'd call a decent Exeter Chiefs season," Baxter said.

"We had quite a few of those lads who've never been the people experiencing it and I was starting to hate it a little bit.

"A guy like Scott Sio, I bring him over, ask him to be part of something, tell him I think we can build something special - and he has four years, and one of the years is the worst year the club have.

"You're kind of thinking 'this is just not how I wanted it to be for these guys' because he's committed so fully to everything.

"For him to go on the back of playing in the winning semi-final, now playing in the Premiership final, the same with Christ Tshiunza, the same with Rusi (Tuima), these guys haven't experienced what a great Premiership season feels like and they're feeling it now and I just hope we can finish it off for those guys."