Exeter Chiefs sign Matt Kvesic from Gloucester on three-year deal
Thursday 12 January 2017 10:44, UK
Exeter have signed Matt Kvesic from Aviva Premiership rivals Gloucester on a three-year deal.
The 24-year-old flanker will move to Sandy Park at the end of the season after four years at Kingsholm during which he won three England caps - the most recent coming against Wales at Twickenham last May.
Former Worcester player Kvesic has found opportunities limited at Gloucester this season, starting just four Premiership games.
Exeter head coach Rob Baxter told the club's website: "He has got a lot of the qualities we like. He is very hard-working, has a very high work rate on the field and off the field.
"He is a good guy, and we feel he has also got a good deal of development in him.
"We were probably a little disappointed not to sign him when he moved from Worcester initially. We've been following Matt for quite a while and I've liked a lot of the qualities I've seen of him.
"I think at Gloucester he's become very defensively organised and defensively-biased and we'd like to see him become a bit more of an attacking player and an attacking option with us, and add a bit more balance to his game."
Baxter worked with Kvesic in 2013 when he was part of England's touring squad to Argentina.
He added: "On the tour to Argentina, he was outstanding in the way he prepared himself, the way he carried himself, and the way he played.
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"He's the right age and he has the right qualities we want to bring to the club, plus we want him to be part of our drive to become one of the best teams in the country.
"Young English talent doesn't come on the market all that often, so when it does become available we're very determined to collect some of that here."
Regarding his plans for next season, Baxter admitted: "We're at a stage where we've not got masses of recruitment to do.
"We've got one or two guys in the pipeline that will come over the next two or three weeks as we finalise things.
"We're still working a little bit on retaining some of our own players and making some final decisions on the make-up of the squad.
"This is the first piece of the jigsaw. I don't think we'll be making any huge announcements in the next week or two, but you'll slowly start to see the squad gather over the next month."
