Simmonds is a close acquaintance of Montpellier, who last season busted four tries in two games against them in last season’s Champions Cup, including a hat-trick in Exeter’s 37-22 defeat at Altrad Stadium.
In some ways, Exeter has fallen victim to their own success in retaining players. They lost Sam Skinner to Edinburgh last summer and saw both Jonny Hill and Tom O’Flaherty move from the Premiership to Sale Sharks.
They have a number of influential players, such as Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jack Nowell and Joe Simmonds, up for renewal. While Skinner and Hill’s losses would be a setback for any club, there are young back five forwards pushing through.
Christ Tshiunza, 20, and Richard Capstick, 22, stood out at the start of this season. Both have retained their starting roles for this weekend’s encounter against Harlequins at Sandy Park as Sam Simmonds is set for a return from the bench.
As much as it will hurt to lose Simmonds Snr, a star of Chiefs’ two-time winning year in 2020, figureheads at Exeter have been largely phlegmatic about their inability to keep their prize money below the Premiership salary cap.
“It’s no secret that we weren’t one of the supporters to lower the salary cap, but we succeeded and the reality is that we have been very successful for many years with a great year in 2020,” club president Tony Rowe told Telegraph Sport last month.
“We ended up, I think, with too many young current internationals whose value was greater than what we could afford. But we have to move on. If that’s all the money we have, we should let them go.”