Rob Baxter thinks Exeter Chiefs' group of coaches are getting better all the time as they learn from new experiences.
The head coach this week signed a new three-year deal to keep him at the club until 2018.
And he has been joined by assistant head coach Ali Hepher, forwards coach Rob Hunter, skills coach Ricky Pellow and Mark Twiggs, the club's head of strength and conditioning.
Although 41-year-old Hunter only joined last year, the other four have been working closely together since 2009, when Baxter was promoted and Hepher, 40, brought in to look after the backs.
Since then the club have been on the rise, with promotion to the Aviva Premiership, making their first forays into the top-tier European competition and winning the LV= Cup last season.
They have continued that momentum this term, with the Chiefs currently second in the league and top of their European and Anglo-Welsh cup pools.
That has been rewarded with the new contracts, and Baxter is pleased the quintet are staying together as he thinks they can develop further to help the club improve on the pitch.
"We talk a lot when we talk about recruiting players and retaining players that we don't like a big turnover of players and we like to give a group time to mature together and develop together and in a lot of ways it's very similar with coaches," said Baxter, 43, who's main coaching duty is now defence.
"We'd all like to think we're better coaches this year than last year and we were better last year than the year before.
"We're a relatively young coaching group, we're not guys close to retirement by any means, and we're happy to keep learning and keep developing. That works well for us as a club.
"From my perspective, I'm delighted to be signing a new deal but I'm even happier it's the same group of coaches who are signing to stay here because ultimately they're the guys who probably don't get as much credit as they deserve for the success the team has because I'm the guy in the spotlight. They all work incredibly hard.
"It doesn't take a genius to see how well our forwards are performing this season and were improving last season and that's down to a lot of the work Rob does.
"I think our attack has developed right from the start when Ali joined us in the Championship and has developed every year since. We haven't looked like a team that wasn't prepared to attack or afraid to lose games and that's probably the single most important factor in our success in the Premiership – we've never been afraid to go out and try to win the game, and that's great for the players and given us the opportunity to win important games at our start in the Premiership. I can't speak highly enough of the work those guys do.
"Ricky and Twiggsy are probably the unsung heroes in it all. They do a lot of the back room stuff. Ricky does skill development with pretty much every player at the club. He also does a lot of work with our academy but not just our senior academy here but right through to 12, 13, 14-year-olds across Devon and Cornwall – he's here, there and everywhere, the distance he covers is incredible, as is the amount of time he spends coaching.
"For a long time now we've backed Twiggsy and he spends a lot of time with the players because we want them to be big and fit and strong because it's very important to us. If you look at the way we play, the metres the boys get through and our ball-in-play time in the Premiership, which is well above any other team, you can see we're a well-conditioned outfit. He brings the best out of a lot of players.
"It's a group that has got a nice balance and a group that I enjoy working with. I think we get on well. We have our odd bicker – Rob Hunter doesn't like to sit between Ali and I on a matchday because he doesn't like to interrupt the bickering that goes on between us – but I think that's a good thing.
"Everyone's prepared to speak their minds and everyone gets a say in what we do and hopefully everybody feels they're an important part of the success of the rugby club.
"We've got a nice division of skills and time which keeps us all nice and busy but at the same time doesn't stretch anyone too thinly."
Chief executive Tony Rowe said the three-year deals shows how well thought of the coaching team are.
Rowe said: "I am absolutely delighted that Rob and all his coaches have agreed new contracts with the club. Together they have overseen what has been the most successful period in the club's long and distinguished history.
"Not only have they brought the team out of the Championship, but in our subsequent years in the Premiership they have made us become not only a significant force within the English game, but further afield in Europe as well.
"To say they have done an immense job is probably a bit of an understatement, but together Rob and his team have helped to move Exeter Rugby Club onto another level."
Rowe added: "The fact that we will have them in place for the next three years at least shows how much we value their commitment to the cause. The strides we have made as a club in the last few years cannot be underestimated and much of that is down to the coaching team we have in place.
"Not only have we started to win major trophies with our success in the LV= Cup last season, but we have featured in Europe's top competitions; we've blooded youngsters from our own academy set-up into the England international set-up and we've more then held our own in the Premiership
"As I've said before, these are very exciting times for everyone associated with Exeter Rugby Club and I'm thrilled that we will have all of these coaches on board as we look to progress even further."
