The pinball wizard who can fire Exeter

The pinball wizard who can fire Exeter

- JEREMY GUSCOTT

IMMANUEL Feyi-Waboso was a pretty unknown factor before the Six Nations, but the 21-year-old winger’s rise from Cardiff Academy, Exeter University, Taunton Titans, to Exeter Chiefs, and then to represent England, all of it in just 18 months, is phenomenal.

Feyi-Waboso has probably had only 25 first-class games, including three Test appearances, but he’s quick and so incredibly explosive that he is creating headaches against even the best international defences. He’s like a coiled spring, and it makes him incredibly difficult to contain.

You can see that defenders very often think they’ve got him, but his dynamism and low centre of gravity means that he stays on his feet – or bounces back up instantly – to put an even bigger dent in the gain-line by making another 10 metres.

Feyi-Waboso is 5ft 11ins and 14st 11lbs (94kg), and so powerful at close quarters that he breaks the grip of tacklers – and his ability to change direction at speed, and do it so abruptly, adds up to a combination of factors which make him very difficult to pin down. It is why he either creates tries, or scores them, and has been inspirational for Exeter this season.

In Exeter’s European Cup round of 16 win over Bath at Sandy Park last weekend, Feyi-Waboso was more creator than finisher, opening the door for the second-half tries by Greg Fisilau and Ethan Roots that saw the Chiefs go through to face Toulouse in an away quarter-final in south-west France today.

He pinballed his way through the Bath defence for a 90 metre carrying total, breaking the line almost every time he got the ball in a man-of-the match performance.