Christ Tshiunza: Exeter's young Wales forward starting to show true form - Rob Baxter

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Christ TshiunzaImage source, Rex Features
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Christ Tshiunza's two tries against Harlequins were the first of his senior career

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter says Christ Tshiunza is starting to show the form they know the young Welsh forward is capable of.

The 20-year-old has started all three of Exeter's Premiership matches this season - his first starts in the league - and scored the late winner against Harlequins on Sunday.

Tshiunza played twice for Wales last autumn after featuring for the Chiefs.

"We've been very pleased with how he's gone," Baxter told BBC Sport.

Tshiunza moved to Exeter on a four-year academy deal in June 2019 having been on the books of Cardiff.

Despite having not started a league game he was called up by Wales for their autumn internationals and came on as a replacement against Fiji and Australia, but returned to the under 20's this summer having missed much of the second half of last season with a hamstring injury.

But he has impressed at the start of the current season, with Baxter saying there is more to come.

"Some of the scores we've seen in training and some of the things we've seen in training, it's like, 'Here we go, this is the real deal.' This is what we've seen, and he's still got a good degree of improvement to make," he told BBC Sport.

"Due to injuries and age he's not played much senior rugby and so what you're really seeing is the guy at the start of his career, not even part way through it.

"He's going to be an exciting prospect, he's going to be another interesting one to keep hold of with the salary cap so we'll have to wait and see."

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