Walsh wants to make most of Cup chance

By Mark Stevens
17/11/21

Exeter Chiefs playmaker Jack Walsh insists ‘lessons will be learnt’ in the wake of his side’s narrow 33-27 loss to Bristol Bears in their opening Premiership Rugby Cup fixture of the season.

The young Aussie was in scintillating form for the Devonians, scoring two of Exeter’s three tries in a man-of-the-match display.

Sadly, his double, plus James Kenny’s score and 12 points from the boot of Josh Hodge, were not enough to thwart the Bears, who battled back twice in the contest to secure the bonus point win at Sandy Park.

“I guess it’s mixed feelings right now,” said the 21-year-old post-game. “We had a young side out today, a few boys making debut, but we did well. It was a tight game throughout - and that was reflected in the scoreline - but we’re a successful club who pride ourselves on taking the win and tonight we came up a little bit short.”

It was a dominant final quarter from the Bears that ultimately paid dividends, but until that point the Chiefs were more than a match for their nearest and dearest with Walsh and fellow half-back Sam Maunder constantly pulling the strings for the home side.

The two have spent a large part of this season working in tandem at National League One side Taunton and their on-field chemistry was clear to see as they helped to get the Chiefs regularly on the front foot.

“Me and Sam pretty much do everything together,” explained Walsh. “We’ve got those marker calls where we can kind of pre-empt what we want to do, but nothing builds a partnership better than spending time together. We do a lot together, on and off the field, and now we just want to build on that.”

The two are expected to once again line-up against Gloucester in Saturday’s latest Cup fixture at Kingsholm (1pm) and Walsh is confident a bit of fine tuning from the Chiefs can help them prosper on the road this weekend.

“I think we will all take learns from the Bristol game,” continued Walsh. “A lot of what we did was very good - and we were in control for long periods of that game. There are lessons we need to learn, but this game was definitely a stepping stone for a lot of us young boys and we want to build on that.

“The Chiefs have shown over the years that they are willing to give the young guys a crack at playing - and it definitely helps breed good players - so now we have to make the most of those opportunities.”