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Sam Simmonds to join Montpellier

(Photo by Bob Bradford/CameraSport via Getty Images)

Multiple sources in France and England report that Exeter Chiefs No.8 Sam Simmonds will join Montpellier ahead of the 2023/24 season.

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Simmonds is set to replace fellow Englishman Zach Mercer, who has agreed to join Gloucester ahead of the 2023/24 season. Mercer has been a star for the French side, helping lead the team to their first ever Bouclier de Brennus last term.

The Telegraph, The Times and Neil Fissler in The Rugby Paper are reporting that his move is now a done deal. It’s a move that will reverberate across a competition whose teams are facing into a salary cap squeeze designed to protect the sustainability of the league – one in which both Wasps and Worcester find themselves facing administration.

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Inevitably more players will follow suit, not least ones who find themselves on the margins of international selection.

Although a British & Irish Lions in 2021, Simmonds failed to find regular favour with Eddie Jones and has only featured for England a handful of times under the Australian. Simmonds didn’t feature in the Australian tour this July, undergoing surgery on a hip injury.

It’s a major blow for Exeter of course, Simmonds having come through the academy at the club, one in which he spent the entirety of his professional career to date playing for – notwithstanding loan spells with Plymouth Albion and Cornish Pirates.

Although small for a No.8 (6′, 108kg), the 27-year-old has been a try-scoring phenomenon for the Chiefs, bagging over 80 tries since 2012.

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In 2020 Simmonds was named European Player of the Year after he finished as the competition’s top try-scorer, bagging eight touchdowns. He was the fourth English player in five years to receive the Anthony Foley Memorial Trophy after Saracens trio Maro Itoje, Owen Farrell and Alex Goode.

He broke the Gallagher Premiership single-season try-scoring record too, scoring 21 tries in 23 games in the 2020/21 campaign.

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JW 3 hours ago
Why NZR's Ineos settlement may be the most important victory they'll enjoy this year

I wouldn’t think the risk is cash flow, as they have large cash reserves they said all through covid.


I suspect the author has it completely wrong as it pertains to the pool as well, because I can’t see the contracts of players changing year to year like revenue does.


I’d imagine there is an agreed principle to a ‘forecast’ figure of revenue for a cyclical period, and this is what 37% or whatever of is used for player salaries. So it would not change whatever that figure is until the next cycle. Cash flow, as you said, would be the main factor, but as they aren’t paid all it once, they’d not be hindered in this manor I don’t believe. Of all the references I’ve seen of a the player pool agreement, not once have I seen any detail on how the amount is determined.


But yes, that would be a very reasoned look at the consequences, especially compared those I’ve seen in articles on this site. Even with turnonver north of $350 million a year, 20 is still a sizeable chunk. Like this RA’s broadcast deal, they might have smaller sponsorship for a short period to align with everything else, then look to develop the deal further heading into the Lions tour cycle? Perhaps trying to take a deal from low to high like that is unlikely to a long term investor, and NZR want to get a good shortterm deal now so they can capitalize on growth for the Lions (i’m assuming that series has consequences on more than just broadcast deals right).

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Janie Eish 4 hours ago
Maro Itoje hits back at England critics over repeated claim

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