Promising youngsters sign senior academy deals for Chiefs

A 10-strong group of promising young players have signed senior academy deals with Exeter Chiefs as director of rugby Rob Baxter fosters talent for the future.

The entire group has previously represented Chiefs at age-grade level with Mawgan Talling being the current Chiefs U17s captain.

Alongside Talling are his academy teammates Charlie Bosanko, Josh Bratt, Troy Jackson, Alfie Johns, Will Lane, Oisin Smith and Harry Westlake. Additionally, Morgan Crew and Benjamin Smith join from [where].

The group is a forward dominant one, with only two backs selected for progression this year. Eight of the 10 players attend Exeter College.

Baxter said: “It’s great to have such a strong group of young lads who we think are showing the right qualities to earn senior contracts.

“A couple of them will be apprentices while others will be part-time student contracts in partnership with our base at the University of Exeter or at Exeter College, we’ve got a number of pathway directions they can utilise.

“They’ve all got a great opportunity to progress their game in the next couple of years as they start to enter the senior training environment. We’ll put in a lot of hard work with them but largely, how well they do and how far they go in the game will be down to them and the characteristics they show.

“I think Ali has done really well in preparing them for that scenario. Over the next couple of years, we’ll be expecting a lot from this group and hopefully, we’ll see them pulling on a senior shirt in the future.”

Chiefs Academy confirmation coach Ali Hepher said: “All of these boys are individual in their characters, which is what we want at the club, but equally as a group, they are very driven and motivated to improve as players.

“They’ve always worked hard together, had each other’s backs and got behind each other so that when they’re in difficult situations on a field, they’ve been able to work their way out of them.

“It’s an exciting group but it’s very much down to them now. It’s kind of the easy bit to get to this stage, so now the hard work starts. Hopefully they prepare really well over the off-season and come back into training ready to improve day-on-day because that’s going to be the secret to their success in the future.”

The group of players will take part in pre-season for the 2026/27 campaign with Chiefs, giving them their first exposure to the senior environment throughout the summer.

2026/27 Chiefs senior academy intake:

Charlie Bosanko - centre

Josh Bratt - tighthead prop

Morgan Crew - back-row

Troy Jackson - wing

Alfie Johns - back-row

Will Lane - fly-half

Oisin Smith - back-row

Benjamin Smith - tighthead prop

Mawgan Talling - loosehead prop

Harry Westlake - back-row