Exeter exodus reaches SEVEN with another fan favourite set to depart

Director fo Rugby Rob Baxter had to let the likes of Jonny Hill, Sam Skinner and Tom O’Flaherty leave the club this summer after being unable to match their wage offers elsewhere due to the reduced £5m salary cap all Premiership clubs are operating under this season.

The latest name linked with a potential exit from Sandy Park is fan favourite Dave Ewers.

According to The Rugby Paper, he will join the exodus from Exeter Chiefs at the end of the season after sealing a move to join Ulster in the United Rugby Championship when his contract ends.

The 32-year-old back rower, below, who joined the Chiefs in 2010 and had a spell on loan at Cornish Pirates at the start of his career, had been expected to move to France this summer but Ulster have won the race to sign him up.

Baxter is reportedly targeting England number 8 Callum Chick from Newcastle Falcons.

The number 8 has already confirmed this will be his final season with the Chiefs as a move to Top 14 heavyweights Montpellier has already been agreed.

“I knew that that decision of playing abroad, you wouldn’t be able to be selected for England, but for me I felt like I’m focused on the here and now,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. 

“I feel like I can still have such an effect in an England shirt, such an effect in an Exeter Chiefs shirt for the next 12 months now, and I think I’m at peace with that decision.

“There’s plenty of players that are going to be coming up behind me and I felt that it was the right time to make a decision for after the World Cup to pursue a new life in France, and for my family and for me to experience that because I have loved my time at Exeter, but I haven’t experienced anything outside of Devon,” he added.

“I feel it was the right decision at the right time and we’ll see how it goes.

“We’ve seen what’s happened recently with clubs unfortunately in England, so it’s a decision I’ve thought about a lot, but ultimately felt like I needed to make that decision.”

 According to the Mail Online, he’s signed a massive contract post 2023 Rugby World Cup, where he will earn more than £300k *post tax* per year with Montpellier.

"Playing for England is the pinnacle of your career, so it's tough to leave that behind," Cowan-Dickie told the Chiefs website.

"We've got the Six Nations coming up, then the World Cup, and I want to be involved in both."

Cowan-Dickie has spent more than a decade at Sandy Park making 163 appearances, scoring 36 tries and winning the European Champions Cup in 2020 and two English Premiership titles.

"It's gutting to be leaving," he said.

"I've been at the Chiefs for 12 years and it's all I've known. That said, this opportunity came up and it was one that I had to think long and hard about."

The Rugby Paper report the star winger’s CV is currently doing the rounds in the French Top 14 with the 29-year-old out of contract at Sandy Park at the end of the season.

Responding to the speculation, Nowell has revealed he’d love to stay at Sandy Park, but added he must always put his ‘family first’.

Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, he said: “I won’t go to another Premiership side,”

“I want to stay at Exeter, but I’m out of contract, there’s stuff going on with the salary cap and I’ve got a growing family. And I’ll be 30 after the World Cup. I’m in talks with the club at the moment; ideally I’d stay but I’m not too sure what’s going on. The first thing for me is my family.

“My only option if I’m in England is to stay. France, Japan… I went out to Japan for the World Cup – it was an amazing country. I’d like to give Japan a go over France but, obviously, anything could happen.

“There will potentially be a time when I go somewhere else but my roots are here and I’d always end up back here. At the same time, I am quite ‘out there’ as a person and I like my family to be like that so, if I’m given the chance to experience something else with them, then I have to take it. 

“The flipside is, if I can get stuff sorted here and I’m still in a position where I can look after the family. I love the club dearly and my main option would be to stay, if I can get something sorted.”

llowing media reports in 2021 that the Scotland and British & Irish Lions back was looking at moving away from Sandy Park at the end of the current campaign, the 29-year-old responded to these claims with a short and concise statement.

He wrote: “Further to recent speculation about my future, I’m happy to say that I will be honouring my contract at Exeter Chiefs and I am massively excited about the future. My family and I are very settled and I’m keen to win more titles here.”

However, with the salary cap decreased and Hogg our of contract in 2023, the fullback would have to take a payout to stay at Sandy Park.

Having failed to break into the England set-up, brother of Sam, Joe could be tempted by an overseas move if the right sort of offer lands on his lap.

Such was his growing influence within the side that in January 2020, Director of Rugby Rob Baxter made Simmonds captain for the Champions Cup trip to Glasgow Warriors. 

By the end of the disrupted season, he would not only lead the Chiefs into two major finals against Racing 92 and Wasps, but he would lift both cups alongside club captain Jack Yeandle.

That double triumph was rewarded on an even higher scale when he was given an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.

The29-year-old versatile forward is set to return to Pretoria where he started his career in 2013 with a return to his former club, the Blue Bulls.

Back-rower Kirsten, who also plays at lock, left the Bulls to spend a season in Japan at Toyota Verblitz before arriving in Devon three years ago.

He has since established himself as a fan favourite at Sandy Park.