Tom Hayes is one of two more players to have committed their future to Exeter Chiefs © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Simon Alcott | Tom Hayes

Tournaments/Tours: Aviva Premiership

Teams: England | Exeter Chiefs

Aviva Premiership play-off challengers Exeter have announced new two-year contracts for their captain Tom Hayes and hooker Simon Alcott.

They both joined the Chiefs in 2008, and head coach Rob Baxter has welcomed two more players pledging their futures to Sandy Park following the new deals for Kiwi duo Jason Shoemark and Hoani Tui announced last week.

"I keep saying retention is far more important than recruitment in a lot of ways," explained Baxter. "We have managed to retain our best players for a number of years now. They have shown the desire to stay here and stay part of the club, whilst we have shown the desire to keep them here and form a stable foundation to the club.

"I think if you look at these signings, it shows that is very much the process we are going to go with. Building squads is always an on-going process, but it takes time and I much more comfortable growing and working with players that are in this environment already, rather than I am in bringing in a lot of new players.

"There will not be mass changes come the end of the season because I tend to think we are still improving. You only need a big turnover of players if the players you already have are not good enough. Personally, I'm very comfortable with the group of players we have got here because a) they are very good players and b) they are very good characters.

"I believe that character and the way they have bought into everything we have tried to do for a number of seasons now make us a really strong group. For me that is very important in terms of how we move forward and like I said, I am comfortable that we are still a side who are improving all the time."