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Tony Rowe: 'Black Knight Rugby are committed totally to supporting women's rugby'

EXETER, ENGLAND - JUNE 07: Exeter Chiefs Chief Executive Tony Rowe and Exeter Chiefs' Head Coach Steve Salvin during the Premiership Women's Rugby match between Exeter Chiefs Women and Sale Sharks Women at Sandy Park on June 07, 2026 in Exeter, England. (Photo by Bob Bradford - CameraSport via Getty Images)
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Exeter Chiefs exec Tony Rowe has stated that the team’s new owners are ‘committed totally’ to supporting the club’s Premiership Women’s Rugby side.

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This week Cannae Holdings’ Black Knight Rugby completed a £45m takeover of the Devon club.

R0we – who funded the club’s rise to top tier men’s rugby, two English league titles and a European crown – will continue in his role as CEO for the next two years.

Cannae Holdings also operate Premier League side AFC Bournemouth, the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, French club FC Lorient and New Zealand’s Auckland FC.

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In 2023 the Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup. Last season AFC Bournemouth qualified for European football for the first time in their 127 year history.

In a press conference shortly after the takeover, Rowe discussed how the arrival of new investors could see the Gallagher Prem runners-up “spend up to the salary cap”. The businessman also confirmed that the club’s PWR team will see a boost.

Semi-finalists this season in PWR, Chiefs are yet to win the English top flight since their introduction to the competition in 2020, although they were runners-up in 2022 and 2023.

“The women’s Premiership is still quite young in English rugby,” said Rowe. “We’re still trying to build a bigger supporter base, so we’re funding a loss.

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“But Cannae and Black Knight Rugby are committed totally to supporting women’s rugby, which I think is great.

“There’s some things happening in the background at the moment that will become apparent in the next few days, but we’re really excited.

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“This will actually probably enable us to put a bit more money into the ladies’ side, because the reality is when the cake is only so big to cut up, it’s been a challenge.”

Already some of those “things happening in the background” have become a little clearer. The team’s head coach, Steve Salvin, has left Devon to take on a full-time role with Sean Lynn’s Wales as forwards coach.

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Salvin was an assistant under Susie Appleby for four years before he took on the top job.

In his sole season at the helm, the former Rotherham Titans, Yorkshire Carnegie and Worcester Warriors coach took the side back to knockout rugby after a season’s absence.

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Phantom 2 hours ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Fact: the gap between the North and the South has narrowed considerably - that I get. However, determining that only selecting only Home grown players or playing in the home country is is the optimal strategy is a bit of a toss up and highly reliant on the economies of the home union. I do understand that England and to a lesser degree Ireland selects home based only. The top 14 is a massive threat to their domestic product. France would probably not be affected (the money is at home). Fiji, Argentina, Samoa, Italy and you could even argue Scotland have only benefitted from this. Their players either go overseas to learn at higher levels (Fiji, Samoa, Argentina) or players coming into their leagues to strengthen the home product and their National teams (Scotland, Italy, Japan).

South Africa used to limit its selection to the home based players, but the reality of a weak currency vs what players could earn oversees meant that you lost access to your best players at some stage of their careers, with very few exceptions. Kolbe left SA as he was considered too small for International Rugby (yes coaches/selectors view), but ironically in France he forced selectors to notice his endeavors and select him. He is only reaching 50 caps now despite being north of 30 - granted rotation and the odd injury also played a role, but for the most part it is having debuted or becoming a regular so late.



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