Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter was full of praise for the club’s 21-year-old captain Dafydd Jenkins, saying ‘he gets pretty much everything right.’

Dafydd Jenkins has taken the captaincy armband on a more permanent basis this season following the departure of Chiefs on-pitch captains Joe Simmonds and Luke Cowan-Dickie, and speaking to the media ahead of his side’s Champions Cup match against Glasgow Warriors, Baxter was quick to point out the young forward’s maturity in the role.

“I probably can’t say enough good things about Daf,”. said Baxter.

“He gets pretty much everything right. Attitude-wise he’s good, he wants to improve individually, he wants to be part of a collective improvement. He wants to be individually successful and that makes him want to be collectively successful.”

Jenkins already has a wealth of Premiership and International experience under his belt, and at only 21 he will only continue to improve.

The Bridgend-born, 6’7 lock was a part of Wales World Cup squad last Autumn, and has already amassed 12 caps for his country.

His time away with Wales meant he missed the opening part of the season with the Chiefs, but Baxter was aware his virtues as a player still made him the right man for the captaincy this year despite his early absence.

“He’s a good club man, squad man, teammate. There’s a lot of really good qualities to that and I suppose our job is to try and not put too much on his shoulders but at the same time he’s exactly the kind of guy you want as a captain of a team.”

“I thought a lot about this when asking him to be captain this year, especially knowing he was going to start the year being away in the World Cup and the pressures that may bring and all the kind of things that went with it.”

Baxter also detailed making Jenkins captain was similar to a ‘put your money where your mouth is’ moment, as it epitomises the trust he has put in his young squad.

“I certainly made the decision we were going to chuck the young lads in there, we were going to get on with it; and if you do that all over the pitch, you may as well be a captain as well, especially if you’ve got a guy who’s going to be doing it down the line.

“That was the decision we made and they’re going okay at the moment.”

Jenkins was again heavily involved last week in the Chiefs loss to Northampton Saints, however he did have to come off for an HIA and didn’t return to the field.

But in a piece of good news, Baxter confirmed his skipper is fit and ready for the visit of Glasgow Warriors this weekend.

“He’s coming through everything at this stage that he can come through. He passed the post-match stuff he had to pass. He’s got no crushing history so he’s looking good.”