1
'Beyond amazing' - Rob Baxter's verdict on Olly Woodburn
By Jon Newcombe
Being able to play in a variety of positions has always been a valuable commodity for a player to have but even more so now that Premiership squads have been streamlined to the max.
ADVERTISEMENT
Somewhat unexpectedly, Olly Woodburn has become a wing who can play centre, and do it so well that Exeter DoR Rob Baxter is now considering making the switch of positions permanent.
The 32-year-old wing had shown what he could do as a makeshift solution at outside centre in the opening game loss to Leicester, when filling in for Ben Hammersley, who left the field injured after just five minutes.
And then he was handed his first-ever career start at centre in last week’s defeat by champions Northampton. He starts at 13 again, in Sunday’s clash at Saracens.
“All I can say is fantastic,” was Baxter’s response when asked about Woodman’s contribution.
“Sometimes, you look at the guys and you say, ‘fair play, you have done an amazing job for us there, and he’s done beyond that. He hasn’t just filled in, he has actually been one of our better players over the two performances.
“If anything, now, we’re kind of sitting here and thinking, ‘have we found his best position’? He is looking strong defensively, he made probably one minor misread last week, and that was it.
“He looks strong in the carry, he got himself involved, and to me, it looks like he is really, really enjoying it. He is probably having that bit more involvement than he gets on the wing.
ADVERTISEMENT
“He is probably getting less long runs and high speed stuff and not having to cover quite so much distance. But I am not being funny, I think he has done exceptionally well.
“He has certainly put himself in contention to play there regularly. I can’t see any reason why we would say we can’t put Olly Woodburn in midfield, because he is there and he is doing it. I think that is the biggest endorsement I can give him.”
The now departed Ian Whitten was comfortable in dovetailing between wing and centre, and Baxter admits it is a real bonus to discover Woodburn can do the same.
“It allows us to work around it. You think about the valuable game time that it’s allowed someone like Paul Brown-Bampoe to have, and it now means that with Ben Hammersley coming back fit, do we look at Ben in the midfield or do we look at him as a wing?
ADVERTISEMENT
“We know we can cover two slots with one player. This is the kind of thing you need to have throughout your team. I couldn’t give Olly more credit than I have given him these last couple of weeks
“The only way you can see this going really is an improvement with the more time he has in the midfield, which he is likely to have at the moment.
“If there is a push forward and still an improvement on how he is playing now, that could be incredible for us.”
