I t still seems odd when Exeter Chiefs take the field that the unmistakable figure of Don Armand — head-banded, splendidly hirsute and once the game has started, thunderously involved — is no longer out there.

Armand, 34, played nine years in the Gallagher Premiership, in the Exeter glory years, as a rock-hard, ball-carrying, hard-hitting hard nut who for me is the best Premiership player of his era. Bar no one.

What is next? And where does all that adrenalin go in his retirement, in the transition time which many players find so difficult? And will he ever come to terms with winning a mere two England caps, in my view about 28 fewer than he deserved, before he was dumped on that populous Eddie Jones-related

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