Luke Cowan-Dickie joins Exeter exodus with move to Montpellier

Luke Cowan-Dickie, the England hooker, has joined a growing exodus of Exeter stars as the Chiefs announced that the 29-year-old will join Montpellier at the end of the season.

Cowan-Dickie, whose departure will bring the curtain down on a 12-year association with Exeter, will join up with team-mate Sam Simmonds in Occitanie next season, concluding their international careers at the 2023 World Cup.

Alongside Cowan-Dickie and Simmonds, Jack Nowell is also assessing his options with his contract expiring at the end of the season, although the England wing told Telegraph Sport earlier in the season that he "would not go to another Premiership side". Back-rower Dave Ewers is also the subject of interest from Top 14 clubs.

"It's gutting to be leaving," said Cowan-Dickie, who has 38 caps for England and three for the British and Irish Lions.

"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. I spoke a lot with my family about it and it wasn't an easy decision to make in the end."

Asked last week whether he had concerns about Exeter's identity being lost, with a core group from the Chiefs' title-winning sides potentially departing, director of rugby Rob Baxter said: “I don’t fear. At the end of the day people think our identity is about that core group but it wasn’t about that core group being from Devon and Cornwall, it was about that core group being good players, who worked very hard and were very ambitious, fought hard for each other and the team around them.

"What we have got to do is find those kinds of players. It was great they were from our academy and great they were local but it was the people that they were that made it work and that is what we have to do if we are to become those type of people with that type of squad. I am not really concerned, that is more about what we are and our DNA rather than the fact we are locals. I am not concerned about players leaving.

"The reality is that good teams are cyclical. Can you expect, especially with a reduction of the salary cap, guys to start out as young players, some from our academy, and quite a few from the Championship, to stay together?

"We’ve always been around a bit of a progressive group, but that group that grew over 10 years achieved an awful lot. They have won trophies, gained international caps, and then what you look for changes. That is life. We’ve got to accept that’s life."

Meanwhile, as reported by Telegraph Sport in November, Harlequins and England centre Joe Marchant will join Stade Français at the end of the season on a contract of undisclosed length.