Ignacio Mieres clears for Stade Francais while Bath's Matt Banahan piles on the pressure during a Heineken Cup match in January © Getty Images

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Exeter Chiefs have confirmed the signing of Argentine international fly-half Ignacio Mieres.

The 23-year-old, who has previously played in France for both Perpignan and Stade Francais, will add to Exeter's backline options and provide additional cover at No.10 following his move from Argentine club side Deportiva Francesa.

Mieres was at Sandy Park on Saturday to see his new club lose narrowly to London Irish. Exeter's leading point-scorer fly-half Gareth Steenson hobbled off during the 12-9 defeat raising the prospect of a quick call to action for Mieres. Steenson is due to be scanned shortly to determine the severity of his injury.

Mieres will get an immediate run out in Monday night's A League fixture away to London Irish. And head coach Rob Baxter is delighted to have the fly-half, who has played four times for Argentina, competing with Steenson and Ryan Davis for the No.10 jersey.

He said: "In the games we watched him playing for Stade he's a very good tactical kicker and can kick a long way but also he likes to play a bit of rugby, he's a fairly big guy for a 10 so he will carry.

"His all-round game is pretty good. I think he played about 10 games last season for Stade Francais so he's got a bit of pedigree and he's a capped Argentinean international as well. He brings a bit of experience in a position where we felt about two months ago we were a bit thin. As it happens, with Steeno taking a knock on Saturday, his timing's pretty good.

"He'll be at training on Monday and we'll start to work with him from there. He may well feature on Monday night for half a game and then we'll see how things go. If Steeno's knock is bad enough to keep him out he may well feature some time next weekend."

With options at fly-half limited for Baxter, he admits the need for cover has been something he has been looking for over a period of weeks. He said: "It got to the stage a couple of weeks before the season started when Ryan was carrying a knock and wasn't available for the pre-season games that we had a chat and felt very light without a third specialist fly-half.

"That's why we decided to move and we didn't want to just go out and scramble for anybody who was available around the country, we wanted to bring someone in who we thought would add something to the squad and add a bit of pedigree. We had a good look around, found this guy and we've been working to get him over from Argentina for the last six or eight weeks."