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Fin Baxter - Jeff Gilbert for the Telegraph
When profiling a player, you will ask a coach or family member at what point they realised the player was special and you are typically told a story about a length-of-the-field try or a match-saving tackle in the 80th minute of their school’s cup final. At Harlequins, they tell a slightly different tale about prop Fin Baxter and a PowerPoint presentation.
Before joining Harlequins as their head of performance support and player well-being, Andy Sanger served for 30 years in the British Army as a bomb-disposal expert, undertaking tours in Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland. When he arrived at the club, he soon realised there was a natural crossover between his two passions.
And so Sanger proposed that in the week of Remembrance Day, an academy player would deliver a presentation on a former Harlequins war hero in front of the entire squad. “I am the custodian of the culture within the club and part of that is how we develop our players and get them to understand the huge legacy that came before us and the heroic deeds of many former Harlequins players,” Sanger said. “I am trying to get them to understand that the spotlight is on us at the moment but the sun will move on to a new crop eventually.”
Then aged 20, Baxter gave his presentation on William Wavell Wakefield, who served as a pilot in both World Warsand was one of the first men to land a biplane on an aircraft carrier. He also captained England to three Grand Slams in the 1920s and is widely credited for reinventing the role of the back-row forward.
Adam Jones, the scrum coach, was standing at the back of the room with Danny Wilson, then a consultant and now head coach, as Baxter started presenting. “Danny was flabbergasted at how well this kid spoke so elegantly,” Jones said.
Sanger added: “To stand up at that young an age in front of your peers is intimidating, but Fin was so diligent in his research and was extremely articulate. I think that triggered in him the magnitude of the club and the people who have come before him. His diligence, his professionalism and how invested he was in it; that has translated directly into how he is conducting himself as a professional. He is a special player who will go on to do better things.”
Jones already had his eyes on Baxter, now 23, for his physical attributes of “having no neck and massive shoulders”, but for a while he remained Harlequins’ best-kept secret.
Then came last season’s Champions Cup quarter-final against Bordeaux. While Harlequins won a thrilling 83-point shoot-out, the victory lay squarely on the broad shoulders of Baxter and tighthead Will Collier. The image of the baby-faced Baxter chewing up the gargantuan Ben Tameifuna, who at various points has been listed as the heaviest player in the world, at the scrum was particularly striking.
Suddenly the cat was out of the bag and Baxter ended up playing more than an hour in both of England’s two Tests in New Zealand that summer. “Everything seemed to happen really quickly,” Baxter said. “At the start of the year, I was looking to have more starts than I did the previous season [for Harlequins], and getting more time out there, more exposure. Coming to the end of the season, it wasn’t obvious the decisions around England selection were going to be made. I made a conscious effort and it has been very fast, but you need to learn as much as possible, learn as quickly as possible at every step.
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Baxter alerted the wider rugby world to his immense potential with his performance in Harlequins’ Champions Cup quarter-final win over Bordeaux last year - Getty Images/David Rogers
“I am so lucky that I have Adam Jones who is a 99-cap international, multiple Lions tours, one of the best tightheads ever. Joe Marler again is a 90-cap individual, done Lions tours. To have had those two in the building and not ask them every question you’ve got it would be criminal. So having those two has been amazing.”
It has not all been smooth sailing. Baxter’s first five appearances with England finished in defeats while Harlequins’ scrum creaked in the first half of the season – although, as Jones points out, in the last two seasons the likes of Collier, Wilco Louw and Marler, following his retirement, have left the building.
Again Jones raves not about Baxter’s scrummaging technique or his physical attributes but his personality, pointing out how in England’s Six Nations victory against France, Baxter conceded a penalty after coming on as a replacement only to immediately win one back at the very next scrum. “His biggest trait is that he is very level-headed, nothing really flusters him,” Jones said. “When I look back to myself at his age, it is like chalk and cheese.”
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Baxter is emerging as a natural successor to the retired Joe Marler, for Harlequins and England - PA Wire/Andrew Matthews
He is increasingly taking ownership of leading the scrum and having acted as an understudy to both Marler at club level and Ellis Genge with England, is finding his own voice. “That’s what’s been interesting to see,” Baxter said. “Obviously, they are two brilliant looseheads and two brilliant people. To see how they go about being themselves and playing their best rugby, what it has really showed me that I don’t need to be like Joe, I don’t need to be like Ellis, but if I do what they’re doing by being myself then I am going to play better.
“Joe’s left a hole here for sure. He’s a great character and a great man. I have felt more responsibility around the scrum in general. It’s something that I’m very happy to take up and give my opinion more and stand up a bit more. I feel being a young player and an international player is a weird mix but I just don’t think holding back on something is going to help the team.”
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Baxter’s cherubic appearance belies a fierce competitive streak - Getty Images/Patrick Khachfe
Anyone who underestimates Baxter because of his cherubic features quickly learns the hard way that appearances can be deceptive. On Saturday, Baxter faces arguably the hardest assignment for any European loosehead prop against a likely combination of Tadhg Furlong and Rabah Slimani in Harlequins’ foreboding Champions Cup last-16 trip to Croke Park to face Leinster. He shows no trepidation of the assignment.
“It is going to be so cool,” Baxter said. “We got a bit of a history lesson from Gerard Mullen (Harlequins’ skills coach) and I think we are only the third English team to play there so it is going to be a massive occasion, and then playing Furlong who’s been at the top for so long now. It’s going to be really cool.”
Baxter is far more than just a scrummager. At Harlequins this season, he leads all players for total involvements which includes tackles, carries and rucks hit. Yet scrummaging is what he loves, as much for the psychological as the physical test.
“It’s a horrible thing to do,” Baxter said. “It’s a just an absolute mess of pressure and force and to agree that we’re staying in this together because we want to win this area of the game is really important. Once you’ve kind of got that advantage, like we did in Bordeaux, it is so powerful. Our set-piece really kept us in that game but days like that, it is very rare to have that kind of ascendancy. That’s what you are always chasing.”
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