"Exciting talent" - Exeter Chiefs confirm four new signings

Toby Clinch, Louie Sinclair, Sol Moody and Junior Kpoku all enter the Chiefs ranks from Finborough School in Suffolk, having taken the school team to the National U18s Cup Semi-Finals last season.

With the Chiefs experiencing a changing of the guard, bidding farewell to some of the household names who have been mainstays of the club over the past decade, for Director of Rugby Rob Baxter, the focus is on producing the next generation of talent that will take the club back to the pinnacle of Domestic & European Rugby.

Baxter told us, “Personally, I am delighted that Toby, Sol, Louie and Junior have chosen to join our academy to further their professional rugby careers. All four are already showing the qualities of hard work, team buy in and pride in what they do that will hold them in really good stead going forward.

They have settled into the group quickly and have been taking a full part in pre-season training, they have arrived from Finborough School with some really good, solid rugby foundations and it is now our job to give them the opportunities to maximise their potential both in training and playing and I am really looking forward to watching them play some competitive games in the near future.

All four arrive at an exciting time for young players here at the Exeter Chiefs, we are invested in bringing through young players using our academy and University pathways and we are working extremally hard to make these pathways as successful and rewarding for the players and club as possible.”

Ben O'Keeffe is one of New Zealand's six full-time rugby referees. Alongside O'Keeffe's on-field role, which sees him take charge of Super Rugby's most exciting talents, the 34-year-old is also a fully-qualified ophthalmologist or eye doctor.

Dr Ben specialises in eye health and disease, and he is the Director and Founder of oDocs Eye Care. O'Keeffe established the organisation eight years ago, with the company striving to end preventable blindness through state of the art techniques.

The goal of oDocs is to make eye care more affordable across the globe, with the rugby referee at the heart of the ground-breaking progressions.

When he is not laying down the law on the rugby pitch, South African referee Jaco Peyper operates as an Attorney for his family business. Peyper Attorneys are legal representatives who work on court cases across South Africa.

Now at 43-years-old, Peyper is a veteran of the refereeing game and is regarded as one of the best match officials on the whistle today. Peyper has previously stated how he wanted to referee until the 2023 Rugby World Cup, so this may be the competition which sees the referee hang up the whistle.

Well known to fans of the Premiership and International test matches, Wayne Barnes is one of the most on-the-ball officials across rugby. Barnes has earnt the on-field respect from players and rugby fans alike, yet away from the pitch the 44-year-old is a barrister, and one of the founding members of Fulcrum Chambers.

Barnes is a Director of Fulcrum Group Services, with his areas of expertise lying in White Collar Crime, Corporate Governance and Compliance, Asset Forfeiture and Tracing and Confiscation. Barnes also heads up their Sports Law team and uses his experience of supporting corporate clients whilst still being heavily involved at the top end of professional sport.

Despite calling time on his on-field refereeing career, legendary Welsh referee Nigel Owens has previously appeared as a pundit for BBC Sport, lending his thoughts on high-profile refereeing decisions.

The stage is set for Owens to once again have his say on the competition's refereeing calls, but away from the sport Owens is a keen farmer in his homeland.

Owens lives off the land in the Gwendraeth Valley some 15 miles north-west of Swansea. Long before he was dishing out discipline in his trademark style, Owens started out working on a dairy farm near his childhood home in the village of Mynyddcerrig. He was a keen member of Llanarthne Young Farmers Club, too.

Age: 34

Nationality: Irish/Welsh

Occupation: Musician

He is a grade eight violinist. His violin teacher was the mother of TV presenter Gethin Jones.

Brace said: “ I think one of the toughest players I’ve refereed would b