Baxter's delight at Low capture

Scottish international Moray Low is heading to the Aviva Premiership next season after he today finalised his much-anticipated move to Exeter Chiefs.

The 29-year-old tight-head, who has penned a two-year deal at Sandy Park, will help fill the void left at the Chiefs by the departures of Hoani Tui and Craig Mitchell at the end of the season.

Maori ace Tui is heading across the English Channel to sign for Lyon, whilst Welsh international Mitchell is heading home to the Principality to take up a new contract with the Cardiff Blues.

Baxter, however, believes he has found a real gem in Low, who joined the Warriors in 2006 and who to date made 144 appearances for the RaboDirect PRO12 side.

Capped 25 times by his country, the Torphins-born forward has proven himself not only in the RaboDirect League, but also in the Heineken Cup and on the international stage, where he made his debut against France in 2008.

Commenting on the deal, Baxter said:

"We are really pleased to have signed Moray. Everyone is aware we have lost a couple of good tight-heads so replacing them is important. Moray is one of those guys who has not played masses and masses of rugby, but he has already got some very good experience at Heineken Cup and international level."

"Scrums are a massively important thing, and Moray is one of those guys who will really develop within the Premiership."

"The Premiership is almost the best place in the world to develop as a prop because there is tough competition every week. You get to play against real quality players week in and week out, and normally as a tight-head, you don’t just get to play against one in a game – you probably come up against two."

"It will be great for him, I think he will fit in really well, he is more than just a set-piece player, he likes to defend aggressively and get the ball in his hands and make decisions, and everything we have done analysing him and meeting with him, has proved he could be a very good asset for us."

Baxter added:

"We want to make sure we get the balance of the squad right, we are an ambitious team and we want to be at the right end of the table, and part of that is how you retain your good, young players and the players who want to stay at the club, and it is also about how you recruit."

"We are trying to get the right balance, so over the next two to four years we keep moving forward."

Baxter said he was aiming to sign another tight-head prop before next season to add to his front-row options even further.

"Whether that will be a high end tight-head or a guy we have been looking at for a while and think we can really develop quickly, only time will tell," he said. "I look at Alex Brown and how much he has come on, and some of the other props at the club who have come on so quickly, and there are some other options to going out there and trying to trawl the market for sometimes props who aren’t probably as good as their price tag demands. We will take our time over recruiting another tight-head.’

With Baxter having also bolstered his squad for next season with the addition of England international Thomas Waldrom from Leicester Tigers, the Chiefs leader says it's a sign of the time that proven names within the game are happy to come to Devon.

"It is great that international players want to come to Exeter," added Baxter. "We want to be a very good Premiership club, so we have to recruit player that we feel fit in with what we want to do here but who will also add things. Some of our recruitment is based on guys with something to prove and some about those already at international level."

"We have to keep getting the balance right so we don't want to go too far down one strand. we have a strong Academy, which is producing some good players, and they have to be missing in with quality internationals."

Exeter's gain is sadly Glasgow's loss, but Warriors head coach Gregor Townsend was more than happy to wish Low all the best for the future.

“We’d like to thank Moray for everything he’s done for the club over the past eight seasons and we wish him well for his next challenge at Exeter," said Townsend, whose younger brother Craig was himself a former Chiefs player.

“He has always been committed to helping the team and is a popular figure within the squad. I know he will be determined to end the season and his time at the club on a high and we look forward to seeing him back in a Warriors jersey when he returns from international duty.”