O'Flaherty eager to right the wrongs

By Mark Stevens
18/8/21

Tom O’Flaherty has warned the rest of the Gallagher Premiership that Exeter Chiefs are determined to make up for their Twickenham torment.

Rob Baxter’s side gave up their grip on the English title when they were beaten 40-38 by Harlequins in the end of season showpiece back in June.

The winger, though, says he and his team-mates have reported back for pre-season determined to put things right – and are targeting a fast start to the 2021/22 campaign when they travel to Leicester Tigers on September 18.

Speaking in the Rugby Paper, the 27-year-old said: “There is definitely more of a steeliness about us and we just want to get on with the task in hand.

“We just need to get the job done and be more ruthless. That’s what we want to do, so we need to put that into action. Everyone wants to win all the competitions that they are in, but we just felt we let things slip at the end of last season.

“We don’t want to be making the same mistake again. Towards the end of last season, we got some good results but, ultimately, we took our eye off the ball a bit – and you can’t afford to do that, especially at that stage of the season.

“We are doing everything we can do to right those wrongs. That starts now in pre-season and carries onto the first round of the Premiership.”

Since reporting back from their summer break, Baxter and his coaches have spoken in depth with their squad about last season, addressing both the positives and negatives of the season.

“The final still hurts a lot,” added O’Flaherty. “As I said, we don’t want to let that happen again. We have all looked back through our individual clips and it doesn’t make much better watching the second time.

“You have to watch it, but you also have to confront what you did wrong and what we did wrong as a team. If you want to improve, you can’t just sweep it under the carpet. We let Quins have too many chances and didn’t take our own chances. Anyone can watch the game to see what we did wrong, just because there are things everywhere.”

Before tackling the Tigers in their seasonal opener, the Chiefs will warm up for the new season with a pre-season friendly against Munster at Sandy Park on September 11 (3pm).