"There's another game in three weeks' time," says Exeter boss Rob Baxter an hour after his side have made history by winning a domestic and European double for the first time.

But rather than be drawn on whether his side can be compared to the great Leicester and Wasps sides of the early part of this century or the Saracens team that dominated at home and abroad for a large chunk of the next decade, Baxter is focused on one thing - continuous improvement.

It took the club 139 years to finally reach the top flight, but just 10 more to win two domestic titles, a European crown and reach five consecutive Premiership finals.

"It's all about a steady progress," says Baxter in the afterglow of their tense rain-soaked victory at an empty Twickenham in the aftermath of a coronavirus-hit season.

"I got asked what timescale was put on to try and win a trophy when we won the Premiership - there was no timescale put on anything, never has been.

"The only thing we've ever tried to achieve is to be a little bit better, either month by month or six months by six months or year by year.

"That's all it is, and you don't always count improvement with trophies - you can't sometimes because those games are one-off games."

'I think they're probably fourth at the moment'

Exeter's 'whole' has always been greater than the sum of their parts - Leicester ended the season with the worst record of any club in the top flight but had six players in the England squad for last year's World Cup, whereas Exeter had just three.

When you think of the great Leicester side of 2000 to 2002 you think of the likes of Martin Johnson and Neil Back, the Wasps side of 2004 was led by Lawrence Dallaglio while Saracens' star-studded line-up included Owen Farrell, the Vunipola brothers and Maro Itoje.

So how does this Exeter team compare?

"I think they're probably fourth at the moment in terms of those teams that have done the double," says Matt Dawson, the former England scrum-half who helped Northampton win a European title and won a domestic title with Wasps.

"It is an incredible achievement, but those three teams had multiple victories in Europe and the Premiership over a five or six-year period.

"But if they can do that in the next couple of years, they deserve to be sat with Leicester, Wasps and Saracens," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

'Our story tells itself'

It is impossible to compare eras with any certainty, but few even within the Chiefs themselves would suggest their side has as many big names as those great Leicester, Wasps or Saracens sides - yet, anyway.

Homegrown internationals like Henry Slade, Jack Nowell, Sam Simmonds and Sam Skinner have been complemented by stars such as Jonny Gray and Stuart Hogg - but it is how Exeter turn players from nobodies into somebodies that impresses.

Tomas Francis and Harry Williams were playing in the Championship before moving to Sandy Park and are now playing for Wales and England respectively.

Jonny Hill went from struggling to get a game at Gloucester to being one of the best non-capped locks in England while Tom O'Flaherty was plucked from Bridgend and is now keeping former Wales and Lions winger Alex Cuthbert in the stands.

"Genuinely now not getting to finals and not winning things and not progressing will hurt us, and we've got to use that drive and that ambition," says Baxter.

"We've got to use this group of players because they're the right age group to drive us for four or five years.

"We've got to use their ambition, drive and desire to get back here again and experience these moments."

But winger Nowell - the first player to come up through Exeter's ranks and make a British and Irish Lions squad - feels the club have, in their own way, secured their legacy alongside those great sides.

"Our story tells itself," he says.

"Ten years go we came up to this competition and to have been in the final in the last five years in a row just shows the ambition not just from the players, but the coaches, Tony Rowe (Exeter's chairman) and the whole board as well.

"It comes down to the players, it's something that we've wanted. We've got a good group of boys that are hungry for wins and hungry for competitions like this, and picking up trophies like we've done.

"There's not many teams that have done it in this short amount of time."

And with the season just finished having been played out by next season's squads due to the coronavirus pandemic, you would be hard-pressed to bet against Exeter retaining their crowns, or at least being the team that stands in the way of anyone who succeeds them.