Exeter explain how Christ Tshiunza can 'accelerate' his career

Rob Baxter had dared Christ Tshiunza to shrug off his versatility and nail down a specific position in the Exeter pack this season. The forward has been branded a utility player given his ability to double up as a back row and at lock. An example of the swapping over came at the end of the 2023/24 season.

The Chiefs deployed him at blindside when finishing out their seventh-place Gallagher Premiership campaign. Warren Gatland, though, selected differently, naming Tshiunza at lock in both tour matches versus the Wallabies, reprising a role he last filled at Test level when Wales defeated Portugal at Rugby World Cup 2023 in Nice.

It was last month when Tshiunza forensically told RugbyPass about the differences between the positions, highlighting how much second row scrummaging takes out of the legs compared to packing down as a flanker. Now, ahead of Saturday’s new Premiership season opener with Exeter at home to Leicester, director of rugby Baxter has set the 22-year-old Tshiunza a challenge for the 2024/25 campaign.

“Every season is a big season for young players,” he began. “It was great to see him play so well for Wales in the second row, I was really impressed with his tour. I thought they were actually some of the best games he has played for Wales. He is one of those players who is still very much on the up and we will involve him probably across the back five, but certainly in the second row – it looks like a really good position for him.

“It’s a big season for him, an important season, but it is for a lot of our guys. They are gaining experience all the time and I’m not going to keep talking about it being a young team for too much longer.

“You are going to have to start talking about being a team that is going to go out there and keep improving and look to try and win things in the future, but we have got to make sure we keep taking those forward steps that will get us there eventually and he is going to be one of the very important players you need to do that as well.”

What about his positional versatility, is that a good or a bad thing in terms of his long-term development? “It helps when you look at the make-up of a team and how you use your bench and how you combine everybody, what you can cover. But there is a lot of modern-day second rows who can cover the back row now and there is quite a few modern-day back-rowers who can cover in the second row and it’s really for Christ now to grab a spot of his own and make one spot his own.

“That is always the challenge for every player in every team – you have got to find where you fit at the best and where you can command your spot and that is every player’s challenge in every team they go to. That’s where it is with Christ. It’s great to have that flexibility to be able to drop and move guys around, we saw it last week (versus Ulster) where we were able to drop Richard Capstick back into the back row from the second row.

“That enabled us to use our bench the way we wanted to use it which was fantastic and cover an additional injury which we weren’t expecting so those kind of things they really will help.

“But here and now, what Christ has to concentrate on is pinning down one spot and his definite role in the team as a ball winner, a physical guy in the clear out, a physical guy in defence, good line speed, good set-piece. He can really accelerate over the next 12 months.”