From terrace fan to Exeter No9: The inspiring Will Becconsall story

It’s been quite the crazy leap for rookie Exeter Chiefs scrum-half Will Becconsall in recent weeks. There was the 20-year-old on March 25, helping Exeter University squeeze out a National League Two West draw at Old Redcliffians. He trooped home from Scotland Lane that Saturday evening thinking nothing else but how the remainder of his season would likely be spent fighting it out for the mid-table college side. Except it dramatically wasn’t.

Chiefs’ implosion on the road the following day at Bath infuriated Rob Baxter. The long-serving director of rugby seethed at his post-game media briefing, claiming there would be immediate changes to eradicate the stodginess that had left them feeble and inconsistent on the road in the Gallagher Premiership. He was true to his word.

By the following Tuesday evening, young guns such as Becconsall had been told they would be starting the Heineken Champions Cup round-of-16 game versus Montpellier and the rest is potential history in the making. The French champions were eclipsed on the more-tries-scored rule after extra time. Then six days later, URC champions Stormers were swatted aside at Sandy Park, qualifying Exeter for this Sunday’s dandy semi-final trip to France.

Becconsall has played across the Channel just once before, a cameo off the bench in an away pool match at Castres in December. But the challenge of trying to dethrone title holders La Rochelle in Bordeaux is another thing entirely for the academy-contracted apprentice with just 10 first-team appearances to his name, three in the second-string Premiership Rugby Cup where he was a mid-March trophy winner.

It’s a rags-to-riches acceleration and Becconsall, beaming to RugbyPass over Zoom while sitting in the Sandy Park main stand after erecting a teepee tent for a club function, giddily began his story with that fateful weekend five weeks ago when Baxter lost his temper with his first-team regulars.

“I wasn’t involved in that Bath game, I was playing a Nat 2 game with Exeter Uni, but when I heard it [what Baxter said], I was thinking, ‘This is quite a big week just to try and really prove myself, try and get my name in the mix, that sort of thing’. The team went out Tuesday night and when I saw it, straightaway I called my old man and told him all about it. Pretty over the moon to be fair.”

And why wouldn’t he, given his maiden European start then went so very well? The denouement of that Montpellier fixture remains his favourite moment so far since getting handed the No9 Exeter jersey. “I’m really enjoying it, just trying to take it all in, to be honest. I would say definitely that Montpellier win when it went to extra time and it was a draw-win, that was the best.

“I was off the pitch by the 100th minute. We were on the bench as he [Jack Yeandle] scored and after the [Joe Simmonds] kick had gone over, we were still all quiet until the coaches came down and said, ‘That’s it, that’s the game. We have won, we have scored more tries’. Then the celebration started.

“You get the whole crowd singing Sweet Caroline and it’s pretty electric when you are out there. Then straight back into the changing rooms, everyone is buzzing and singing the Chiefs song and you go back out and get to see all your family and the fans want to see you as well. It’s pretty surreal to be fair.”

It was 14 years ago when Becconsall took his first steps in the game, his father taking him along to minis at Falmouth. “Dad was the coach back then and was probably my coach until I was 17. He is still someone who now you can just call and tell him all about my day of rugby or whatever.”

Truro School and Exeter Uni were other staging posts along the path to the pro ranks, but Becconsall hasn’t forgotten his first adult-level match – getting called off the Falmouth bench and pretty quickly getting a snarky telling-off.

“I remember I came on and the first lineout I stood in the wrong position to try and catch the ball or something and got a little telling off from one of the second rows. But after that, it was like, ‘Right, head down, you have got to make up for that and just keep going’. It was good fun.

“Definitely, the home games were fun. You would get quite a lot of fans coming to watch at Falmouth and they just celebrate after, stay on, celebrate at the bar, there would be some live singing on and there would be a good atmosphere.”

It was around the same time the seed was sown to become a pro. “I have always kind of wanted to be a professional rugby player since day dot really but it’s probably around 16, 17 when I was, ‘Right, I can actually go for it now. I started putting my eggs in that basket and I really went for it'.”

He is not the first rugby pro in the Becconsall family. That accolade when to his uncle Garry, a fellow scrum-half whose clubs number Leicester Tigers in the late 1990s. “The main driver was probably my dad still, not too much my uncle. It was my dad. Rugby was something I loved as well, and it has been that way ever since.”

All the while, he is keeping his studies ticking along. “Sports science. I'm in my second year, so I have got one more year to go.” What specialist line would he go into if he wasn’t a rugby pro? “Maybe, physio. It’s really just to stay with the sport.”

Cornwall, where he hails from, is quite the rugby hotbed. Becconsall knows all about the Twickenham finals the county contests at senior and U20s, but it was Chiefs – across the border in Devon – who captured his heart early doors. “Me and my dad had season tickets from the age of nine, maybe 10. We had that for a couple of years and then my dad actually became the fifth official for Exeter, so we did that for about three years as well.

“He would get four tickets a game, so I’d be able to take my mates up with me to watch. I was always down the south stand standing on the seats, it was good. I’d definitely get a pack of sweets, that is for sure.” His best fan moment? “I remember watching the 2017 semi-final against Saracens when Henry (Slade) puts it about five metres out from 60-odd out and then (the pack) going over to win, that was definitely one of the best moments.”

From boy to young man, from terrace fan to on-pitch rookie. Having watched at home in Cornwall with his parents and sister when Exeter conquered Europe in the behind-closed-doors 2020 finale, Becconsall understands how important the fans are and Sunday's chance to succeed in front of a partisan French house is firing them up.

“The atmosphere is cooking. Everyone is looking forward to Europe, a little away day in France – you can’t go wrong there,” he enthused going on to describe the dynamic currently in the team and how his own try celebrations are proving infectious (he is usually the first man on the scene with the congratulations).

“As a nine you are the first person to the breakdown normally so if someone does get tackled you have got to be there to pass it away – and it’s just like it worked out that if someone makes a linebreak then you are normally the first one there when they score the try. I have got to say celebrating some tries, especially when you have boys tackled to the ground and it is just a massive pile on or whatever it is, God, I love a try."

More please, then. “It’s coming to the end of the season, so everyone wants to perform and we are still performing for each other, we are still trying to perform for the badge, and everyone is willing to help each other out and get the best out everyone. If you have a bit of criticism from someone you still take it in. I’m happy to be told, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have done that there’. It’s good.

“Tempo and hopefully a bit of control,” he continued, describing his style of scrum-half play, adding he has no issues about shouting to make himself heard.

“I would say when it is bossing my own teammates, yeah (I would shout). When it’s the 10 is not there then I will do it, but Joe is quite good with also helping it out because he has played a lot of games and knows when it is right to kick or when it is right to go and when he wants the ball, I have just got to give it to him.”

Becconsall isn’t daunted by the imposing Baxter either. “Rob is quite easy to talk to at the minute. When I started, I was. 'That’s the boss, it’s a bit scary and what have you'. But over the last six months, I am quite comfortable talking to Rob around the club, and on game days he just gives you that bit of extra motivation to help you out where he can.”

As for his 84kg weight, “I’d say I have definitely put that on over the last year or two. As a kid, I was definitely very skinny and very light. I have definitely put some weight on now which is good. Eat a lot more and run a lot less.”

Golf is his go-to away from rugby, except his handicap has suffered this year. “I had that shoulder injury and was out for 12 weeks, so the handicap has definitely got a bit higher. Hopefully, I will get it down a bit in the summer when I play against my dad a bit more. I got it down to about 11. Now I am about 16. I play next door, we have got the Exeter Country Club that we can use, and then in Falmouth, there is the golf course there.”

Long-term Becconsall has grand hopes and dreams for a lengthy playing career, an imagination added to by his recent Welford Road encounter. “It was pretty awesome seeing Ben Youngs the other week (at Leicester versus Exeter). I have watched him for quite a while on the TV... I’d love to put the England shirt on, that's for sure, but at the minute it is definitely step by step, plan each day and keep hoping for the best.”