Scottish international Jonny Gray has been at Sandy Park since 2020
Exeter Chiefs face competition to keep hold of Scotland international lock Jonny Gray from Top 14 side Bordeaux Begles according to the latest reports.
Gray is still just 29 years old despite having seemingly been around for an age having been made captain of his former club Glasgow Warriors at just 21. Gray arrived at Sandy Park midway through the Coronavirus pandemic-interrupted 2019/20 season, and the towering 6ft 7in nearly 20 stone lock ended up playing a key role in helping the Chiefs lift both the Gallagher Premiership and Heineken Champions Cup titles that season.
This week, leading French publication Midi Olympique report that Bordeaux have Gray in their sights as a potential replacement for Jandré Marais and Kane Douglas who are both out of contract at the end of the season. Richie’s older brother Richie spent seven seasons playing for Castres and Toulouse between 2013 and 2020.
In a growing Premiership-wide trend, last season Exeter saw a flood of stars leave Sandy Park for the Top 14 with Jack Nowell joining La Rochelle, Joe Simmonds moving to Pau, while Sam Simmonds and Harry Williams signed for Montpellier.
77-cap international Gray is currently sidelined with a dislocated kneecap injury he suffered during Exeter ’s Champions Cup semi-final defeat to La Rochelle in Bordeaux back in May, but is on the verge of making his playing return for the Devon side.
In Gray’s absence, Rusi Tuima and Lewis Pearson have excelled with an extended run at lock to provide some depth in the second row alongside captain Dafydd Jenkins, Jack Dunne and the towering Alfie Bell who was picked up from Wasps last season but so far has had his Chiefs career disrupted by injury.
Tuima is emerging as one of the season’s big success stories at Exeter having been switched from number eight into the engine room. Discussing the form of the 20 stone, 23-year-old, Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter said: “It has been a good move for Rusi. The big thing it does it allows his strengths to look like real strengths. It allows his ball carrying and his physicality in defence, and the quality of his handling – they look like highlights for a second row whereas maybe when he players in the backrow there aren’t enough of them to look like highlights because people expect other things to happen – big breaks or big turnovers. But when he plays a lock, our setpiece is going well and his ariel skills are improving all the time, you then see this big guy coming up with these carries and moments and it starts to look like a good package as a lock.”
