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'It's been a shame it hasn't been an amazing time for him': Exeter's bittersweet Cuthbert exit

(Photo by Ashley Western/PA Images via Getty Images)

Rob Baxter has reflected on the bittersweet truncated career that winger Alex Cuthbert has had at title-chasing Exeter these past three seasons. The 31-year-old 2013 Lions pick won the last of his 47 Wales caps in 2017 and his switch the following year to the Chiefs hasn’t been without its frustrations as he spent more time out injured than on the pitch. Cuthbert will now move to Ospreys at the end of the season after being one of the eight leavers confirmed by Exeter, the other seven being Joe Snow, Barry Karea, Elvis Taione, Tomas Francis, Tom Price, James Short and Charlie Wright.

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While Cuthbert is primed to say farewell on the back of a big-game appearance as he is set to feature on the wing in next Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership final versus Harlequins, his impressive late-season re-emergence in the team is a sharp reminder of what could have been at Exeter had he been fit on a more frequent basis.

Of the 71 Premiership matches Exeter have played during Cuthbert’s three years at the club, he has only played in 26 – a 36 per cent availability due to regular soft tissue injuries such as hamstrings and the like. That is a frustrating lack of bang for their overall buck because when Cuthbert does manage to play his has an uncanny knack of delivering.

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      Take his seven appearances in this season’s 23-game Premiership campaign, including last Saturday’s impressive show in the semi-final win over Sale. He has made 406 metres off 48 carries, made 28 tackles, beaten 22 defenders, made 13 clean breaks, given five offloads and scored four tries. Imagine then what those numbers would be like if he was available for selection for more than a third of the games.

      “That is it wrapped in a nutshell,” said Baxter, reflecting on Cuthbert’s three years at the club which will come to an end after next weekend. “You look on his career here, which has been a good career, and he is a guy who could have had an amazing career here, had amazing things to look back on (instead of) amazing games he hasn’t been able to be involved in through injury, long periods of rehab rather than having long periods of games. That’s exactly how his time will be here.

      “I have certainly not had any regrets in bringing him here because of the player he has been and the energy he has been around the place and the friendships he has created and also the actual big games he has been involved in for us. I still believe it has been a win-win scenario for both ourselves and for Alex. It’s been a shame it has not been an amazing time for him just based on those injury issues.”

      So highly thought of is Cuthbert when he is available that Baxter started him last weekend on the wing in a back three where Jack Nowell was accommodated at full-back with Scotland skipper Stuart Hogg demoted to the bench. It’s that calibre of backup that will ensure Exeter aren’t rushing into the market to find a replacement for Cuthbert.

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      “Not necessarily like for like,” said Baxter when asked about bringing in someone else. “If you actually look at the make-up of where we are in our squad, when you look at the back three, if you took Alex out of that back three now you could move Jack Nowell over to wing and put Stuart on at full-back. If you look at our next guys in behind, you have got Olly Woodburn who has played a lot of very good rugby for us.

      “Facundo Cordero has really started to make his mark in the Premiership this year. Josh Hodge looks like a player who has got an amazing future for me as a back three and we have got some very good young talent underneath there as well. Don’t forget we have always got the old warhorse Ian Whitten who can step in and do a job on the wing. Sean O’Brien, one of the (new) centres, is training really well, looks like he could easily feature there if needed.

      “And then we have got some young guys in the academy. I mean, Arthur Relton had a good game for England U20s just this week and he is a young winger here on our books and we have got a couple of other good academy players. We have got some good guys and we are well stocked in the back three. I can see a bright future for a number of the guys there who potentially an older player moving on can create an opportunity for.”

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      sorrel 47 minutes ago
      Jakkie Cilliers: 'Some ugly perceptions about women’s rugby still exist in South Africa'

      The whole thing was absolutely delightful from a scrummaging perspective. Both teams were 100% certain they could just push the other team off the ball and both teams scrummed like it. I love the dark arts tactical battles, but there’s something really refreshing about a game where both the teams in the pushing contest just want to push. But, yeah, South Africa were the clear winners of that part of the game.


      Scrums went as follows in the first game (I’m going from a handy dandy compilation video I made from screen recordings so I don’t have exact ref calls)

      1. Canadian feed - Reset. On second feed, Canada gets the ball away, but South African scrum pushes into them

      2. South African feed - South Africa gets the ball away clean

      3. Canadian feed - Free kick to South Africa

      4. South African feed - South Africa pulls the ball forward in the scrum a few meters, gets advantage, and gets the ball away clean

      5. Canadian feed - Canada gets the ball away clean.

      6. South African feed - South Africa push Canada backwards, but give away a penalty

      7. South African feed - South Africa pulls the ball forward in the scrum maybe 10ish meters, gets advantage, and gets the ball away clean

      8. South African feed - Free kick to Canada

      9. South African feed - South Africa gets the ball away clean

      10. South African feed - South Africa makes meters in the scrum and gets the ball away clean

      11. South African feed - Reset. On second feed, South Africa makes meters in the scrum, gets advantage, and gets the ball away clean

      12. Canadian feed - South Africa push them backwards, but give away a penalty

      13. Canadian feed - 75 minutes into the game, Canada pulls the ball forward at the scrum and get advantage


      I haven’t done such thorough analysis for the second test, but if you enjoy scrumming at all, you should really watch these games. They’re the sort of games where you look forwards to knock ons because the scrums are so good.

      8 Go to comments
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