Exeter bring in trialist Tom Hardwick

Exeter Chiefs have brought in former Leicester fly-half Tom Hardwick for a trial.

The 23-year-old is a registered Chiefs player so could feature in the league or in the club’s Champions Cup tie with Munster.

Hardwick left Leicester a year ago and is a free agent having come to the end of his deal with French club Alibi.

The former England U20 player is set to replace Jack Walsh, who is to move to a Welsh side this summer.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter said: “We’ve been looking at various options there and we’re still looking at a lot of options, we haven’t settled on Tom.

“Tom is just here on a trial basis, but obviously when we brought him here on a trial basis, registrations for the Premiership end pretty soon, so we got him registered with us, in case an opportunity came to play, so he could be registered for us.

“The European second registration deadline has just come up so we thought we may as well get him registered for Europe. So, he is here on trial.”

Written by Ben Jaycock