Rob Baxter admits he is disappointed and surprised England head coach Eddie Jones did not select Exeter Chiefs' standout performer Sam Simmonds for the Six Nations.
Simmonds, 26, has seven caps for England, all of which were earned under Jones between 2017 and 2018 but the explosive number eight has not played for his country since.
During that time Exeter and Simmonds have found an additional gear, with the club completing the Gallagher Premiership and Heineken Champions Cup double in 20119/20 with European Player of the Year Simmonds at the heart of both campaigns.
In 2020/21, if anything, Simmonds has got better and more dominant with 14 tries so far this season in 14 games in the Gallagher Premiership.
Meanwhile a stale England stuttered to a fifth place finish in the 2021 Guinness Six Nations.
Baxter, who has been linked with the England job and is widely expected to be the next man in line, said Jones' unwillingness to pick his form players and stick with the likes of Billy Vunipola did leave him disappointed.
He said: "Initially [I understood it] because for obvious reasons the England team had enjoyed some success and so there is no real argument at that stage for breaking the team up. That is the truth of professional sport.
"But once it became obvious there were some guys who were just lacking form through a lack of game time or whatever it was, I was a little surprised there weren’t some changes made.
"Then again we have all got to sit back and look at the bigger picture, there were some pretty difficult decisions made about that 28-man squad going into a Covid secure bubble which was agreed before the tournament started. It was a very difficult scenario."
The RFU and Premiership Rugby came to an agreement pre-Six Nations that Jones would be able to select 28 players for the entirety of the tournament without releasing them back to their clubs to create the tightest Covid secure bubble.
While that idea made sense in practice there were plenty of comings and goings with the likes of Kyle Sinckler added back in at the expense of Harry Williams following the conclusion of a suspension and numerous injury call-ups including Harlequins' Joe Marchant just last weekend for injury Henry Slade.
Baxter said he understands Jones' initial loyalty to the players which got him to the World Cup final in 2019, but with a core of Saracens players, including captain Owen Farrell, lock Maro Itoje, hooker Jamie George and full back Elliot Daly having not played a competitive game of rugby since October due to their club's relegation to the Championship for breaching the Premiership's salary cap rules, and then the postponement of the second tier competition due to the Covid pandemic, the Australian was too slow to react to the situation as it unfolded.
England lost their opening game of the tournament to Scotland, losing the Calcutta Cup at Twickenham for the first time in in 38 years, before stuttering to a win over Italy and then losing to Wales.
A flash of high quality was seen in victory over France before they capitulated against Ireland in Dublin to finish with just two wins in the tournament having gone in as defending champions.
Baxter said: "When you break it down you had a group of players who have been very successful together, and they have been successful. Whatever anyone thinks of the quality of rugby they have been winning games.
"It is difficult to chop and change and you have a scenario where some of the key players in that squad have not played any rugby for months.
"Probably the error, if there was one, was not making an early realisation that some of the guys would be just off form for a lack of rugby, but everyone can make those decisions in hindsight."
"I think for Sam he is doing exactly what he needs to do. He is playing very well every week, he is scoring tries and he is doing what he is good at; and fair play to him he is doing it in front of the people who really matter.
"Up at Bath he had a very good game and who was in the grandstand, Warren Gatland [British and Irish Lions head coach].
"Warren Gatland is the man who can pick Sam next in an international scenario, that is his next opportunity now.
"His next England opportunity will be a little bit behind that so he is doing the right thing, playing well for us in front of the right people."
