{"id":368445,"date":"2025-12-24T08:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T08:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/368445\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T08:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T08:05:09","slug":"olly-woodburn-exeter-backs-versatility-impressing-boss-rob-baxter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/368445\/","title":{"rendered":"Olly Woodburn: Exeter back’s versatility impressing boss Rob Baxter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exeter boss Rob Baxter says Olly Woodburn’s recent performances could justify a new deal for the veteran back.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old impressed in a first start at full-back in the dramatic win at Saracens<\/a> on Saturday and he has also covered at centre in recent seasons. <\/p>\n

Woodburn has scored 60 tries in 185 games for the Chiefs since joining in 2015, but is out of contract at the end of this season. <\/p>\n

“Right here and now it’s going to be hard not to be talking about offering Olly a contract extension because [he is] one of our form players,” Baxter told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

The Exeter boss has been impressed with Woodburn’s versatility as he competes with youngsters Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Paul Brown-Bampoe and Campbell Ridl out wide. <\/p>\n

“I actually mentioned it to him two or three weeks ago if he would be okay playing full-back if we decided to select that way,” explained Baxter.<\/p>\n

“He said ‘fine, not a problem at all’, so that process started a little while ago, and then I was delighted how he played.<\/p>\n

“We thought it would be a good selection for Saracens in particular, but I think the way he played is opening up the opportunity for him to play more games at full-back, particularly with Campbell coming through and going well, Paul pretty much back from injury now and obviously Manny playing very well.<\/p>\n

“So it definitely gives us some options around the back three particularly while Josh Hodge is carrying a bit of a knock at the minute.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exeter boss Rob Baxter says Olly Woodburn’s recent performances could justify a new deal for the veteran back.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-368445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}