Exeter Chiefs reveal 30 new contracts as Wales star effectively ends Test career
Wales star Tomas Francis appears to have ended his international career by signing a new contract at Gallagher Premiership side Exeter Chiefs. Francis is one of 30 players that the club have confirmed have signed new terms with the Devon based side.
Francis, who is stuck on 47 caps for Wales, falls below the threshold for Wales' Senior Player Selection Policy (SPSP), which demands that players have at least 60 caps if they wish to play outside of Wales and for Wales internationally. Francis Test career appears now to be over.
Exeter have secured the signing of their central stars, including Stuart Hogg, Jack Nowell, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Henry Slade and Joe and Sam Simmonds.
Rob Baxter also revealed that the Exeter Chiefs players who didn't sign contracts with the club won't necessarily be leaving.
Baxter told the club website: "Not every player has got an extension, but those who haven’t received an extension, it’s kind of irrelevant because they are players who may well be thinking ‘let’s see how the next year goes and where I stand’.
“With those guys it doesn’t mean they will be leaving, but because we have ourselves in a salary cap position where we are pretty well settled for a few years, we also have that little bit of room that if a player does decide to move on, we can replace them."
“I’m delighted with what has happened. It seems strange really, because there has been an awful lot of news coming out from other clubs in regards what is happening around pay cuts, players leaving, players staying, yet we have got on with our business pretty quickly.
NEW CONTRACTS
Don Armand
Corey Baldwin
Luke Cowan-Dickie
Alex Cuthbert
Dave Dennis
Ollie Devoto
Dave Ewers
Tomas Francis
Tom Hendrickson
Alec Hepburn
Jonny Hill
Stuart Hogg
Billy Keast
Jannes Kirsten
Sean Lonsdale
Jack Nowell
Tom Price
Joe Simmonds
Sam Simmonds
Harvey Skinner
Sam Skinner
Henry Slade
Marcus Street
Stuart Townsend
Jacques Vermeulen
Ian Whitten
Harry Williams
Will Witty
Olly Woodburn
Jack Yeandle
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Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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