Exeter's Woodburn relishing chance to play centre

Olly Woodburn played as a centre as a teenager, but became a winger after turning professional

Exeter's Olly Woodburn says he would be happy to continue playing at centre for the Premiership side.

The 32-year-old winger played almost the entire 17-14 loss to Leicester last week at 13 after Ben Hammersley suffered a head injury and Woodburn moved inside to cover.

Exeter are short in midfield with England's Henry Slade and new signing Tamati Tua out injured, while Hammersley is unlikely to feature at Northampton in Saturday's Premiership match after failing his head injury assessment.

It means Woodburn - who is one of Exeter's most experienced players - could feature at centre again.

"I've been given confidence to go out and show that I've got more strings to my bow, and I think it's nice that the boys and the coaches have that confidence in me," he told BBC Sport.

"I was told in the week that if there was an injury I'd be covering 13, so I had to keep an eye on that position, but I was training on the wing mostly, so It was a bit of a shock playing 75 minutes there.

"Back in the day about 14 or 15 years ago, I signed my first contract at Bath as an outside centre, I played there throughout my childhood.

"So it's kind of like a return to my roots and I was really excited. I've actually mentioned to the coaches that I can play there and if needs be I can cover that position.

"It's always a position that's lent itself to a lot of my strengths. I was excited to play there, but at this level it is quite a huge adjustment going from wing to outside centre in the middle of the game."

Olly Woodburn is one of Exeter's longest-serving players

Woodburn joined Exeter from Bath in January 2015 and has helped the Chiefs win two Premiership titles and the 2022 European Champions Cup.

He says the chance to play in a new position has given him a renewed focus after 176 appearances for the club.

"I've realised this week that I've become quite comfortable playing on the wing, it's kind of become second nature at this level," he said.

"So learning the intricacies of playing in a different position, although it's just one in, there are quite a few differences.

"You're more connected to the forwards, you have to defend front door and hard lines a bit more.

"Also every set-piece you're involved. I guess on the wing you play open and one time you're in behind the lineout or the scrum, so you can kind of switch off a bit.

"But playing 13 you are always in the action, you're tackling guys and as a winger you can be a bit more transient, you can into the pendulum, go to the backfield, come up to the line.

"It is a bit of an adjustment being on your toes throughout the whole game."