Tom Hardwick: Exeter Chiefs bring in former Leicester Tigers fly-half

Tom Hardwick made 32 senior appearances following his Leicester Tigers debut in 2017

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

The 23-year-old has been registered as a player by last season's beaten Premiership finalists 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 Under-20 player could replace Jack Walsh, who is to move to a Welsh side in the summer.

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

"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."

Hardwick departed Leicester abruptly in March 2021 having not featured after Steve Borthwick took over as director of rugby in 2020.

"I am not going to sit here and go I am not aware there were some issues as he left Leicester, I was no different to anyone seeing the headlines that everyone else would've seen," added Baxter.

"So we want to assess him and see how he goes. That's what it is, it's an opportunity for him.

"I've had a chat with Tom, I think he is settling in pretty well. Initially, we said shall we have a look at a couple of weeks to see how things go. I had a chat with him a couple of days ago.

"I said let's keep it open-ended, let's see how things go and we will take it day by day, week by week. He is very aware of that and he understands the scenario."