Exeter Chiefs confirm eight departures due to reduced salary cap

The wage cap was cut by £1.4m, to £5m ahead of the 2022/23 season.

"The majority of them still coming in are still salaries that you would expect to be paying if it was a £6.4m market," Baxter said.

"There doesn't really seem to be, at this stage, that kind of realisation that it's a big drop-off."

Under the rules clubs have a cap of £5m, plus £600,000-worth of academy credits, and two players whose salaries sit outside the cap.

From next season clubs will only be able to have one player whose wages do not count towards the cap, meaning extra costs they will have to account for.

"It's probably a bit more than a 25% drop off when you start talking about second marquee players disappearing next season if they're not under contract, it's markedly down more than a 25% reduction in the salary cap.

"At the moment that does make the Premiership way less competitive when it comes to southern hemisphere signings, as an example.

"Some of the base salary levels in New Zealand and Australia now are actually comparable to what we could probably offer, whereas before in the £6.4m cap you could be very competitive on base level contracts."

The tighthead prop will leave Exeter Chiefs after just a single season for a move to French Pro D2 side Grenoble, both clubs have confirmed. The 25-year-old joined the Chiefs ahead of the 2021/22 season from Bayonne where he played 24 games in the French Top 14.

Scotland international Skinner – who will join the Scottish capital club next season – has started nine of his 15 Tests to date since he burst onto the scene with a player of the match winning international debut against Fiji at Murrayfield in 2018.

 Sale Sharks have announced that British and Irish Lions and England lock has signed a long-term contract to join the club ahead of the 2022/23 Premiership season. The 27-year-old, who stands at 6ft7ins, has established himself as one of the most dynamic second-rows in the league having made over a century of appearances for Exeter Chiefs.

O’Flaherty will join Alex Sanderson’s squad at the end of the season. The prolific 27-year-old has put pen to paper on a three-year deal.

The 28-year-old moved to Sandy Park in the summer of 2020 from Lyon and helped the Chiefs win the Premiership and Champions Cup that year. But he has fallen down the pecking order at the club and will now head to Italy.

After 193 appearances and 37 tries, Armand is now calling time on his nine-year stint at Sandy Park and will focus his attentions on family life and business matters away from the club.

Walsh, 22, represented Australia at Under 18s and is a multi-skilled threequarter and can play fly-half and full-back. American-born and a graduate of the New South Wales Waratahs Academy, Walsh played for club side Manly Marlins in Sydney before heading to the UK in 2020.

Welsh-qualified Lonsdale – who can also operate in the back row – will move to Rodney Parade for the start of the 2022/23 season after a six-year spell with English giants Exeter Chiefs.