Baxter urges Exeter's Pearson to keep on improving
· Yahoo Sports
Rob Baxter believes Exeter lock Lewis Pearson has the potential to become one of the Chiefs' frontline players.
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The 26-year-old academy graduate signed a new contract last month to extend his stay at Sandy Park.
Pearson has captained Exeter in the European Challenge Cup and Prem Rugby Cup this season, as well as making five Prem appearances.
"He's a glue player, he allows other players to play, but I still think he's got it in him to move beyond that a little bit and actually create a bit more for himself," director of rugby Baxter told BBC Sport.
"In his breakthrough season two years ago we saw a couple of real charging runs and a couple of real big carries and we probably haven't seen that in his game this season so much.
"But then other areas of his game are really improving all the time - his running of a lineout, what we do around set piece, his defensive work.
"So there's improvement happening all the time it's just our job to keep that improving going on as much as we can.
"I'd like to see him become one of those players you can just drop into any frontline game and you know he's going to go well, and that's what we want to try and develop all our players to be."
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Pearson, who has also had a number of spells dual-registered with Champ side Cornish Pirates, made his Exeter debut in the autumn of 2019 and has gone on to play 64 times for the club.
Baxter says Pearson's experience over the last six-and-a-half years is key as he looks to rebuild a side that had been perennial title challengers.
"Lewis is a home grown player, came through our academy, knows what we're about, has experienced some highs but importantly has probably experienced some lows as well, and they often define you on how you want to be as a player and a person and how hard you commit to things," he added.
"I think Lewis has experienced the best and the worst of those kind of things, and coming through those things well.
"What he allows you to do is he allows us to be able to deal with situations when guys like Zambo [Andrea Zambonin] and Daf [Dafydd Jenkins] are away on international duty.
"He comes into the frontline group anyway when we need him to and he's a player I still would like to keep thinking we can keep improving, and with a little bit of hard work in a few areas can keep improving himself.
"It's not like he's just there 'break glass in case of emergency', we want him to be far more than that."