Champions Cup-winning duo will depart at end of season
Exeter Chiefs suffer a double blow as international stars Sam Skinner and Jonny Hill both announce that they'll leave the club at the end of the season.
Skinner, who made his Exeter debut in 2014, has signed for Edinburgh whilst Hill, who has featured more than 100 times for the Chiefs, joins Premiership rivals Sale Sharks.
Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter is facing a battle to bring Exeter’s collective salary under the new £5million cap. He said: "Going down to a £5million cap is a big change. That realignment of salary expectations will be challenging. The ability to recruit players from outside the Premiership also becomes harder."
The reduced cap was agreed upon by the 13 Premiership Rugby clubs in response to professional rugby taking a huge financial hit during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"𝙒𝙖𝙞𝙩 𝙅𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙮, 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙖𝙞𝙙!?"#SharkTime | #WelcomeJonny pic.twitter.com/FWMEqxPOpD
— Sale Sharks 🦈 (@SaleSharksRugby) December 20, 2021