Capstick scoops RPA monthly award

By Mark Stevens
10/10/22

Exeter Chiefs forward Richard Capstick has spoken of his delight after being named the RPA’s Under-23 MVP Player of the Month for September.

The 22-year-old forward has enjoyed a stellar start to the new season, helping the Chiefs to record victories over Leicester Tigers, Worcester Warriors, Harlequins and Bristol Bears.

Last Friday night, he capped his 50th Premiership appearance by scoring the final try in Exeter’s 50-14 victory over the Bears at Ashton Gate.

Capstick saw off the challenge of London Irish’s Harry Arundell, Ollie Lawrence (Worcester Warriors), George Martin (Leicester Tigers), Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks) and Tom Willis (Wasps).

“I’m obviously very happy with winning the award and it’s always nice to be recognised and get these achievements. We’ve got a lot of great young lads here at the club, any of whom could have been up for the award.

“It’s been a really good start to the season. We had a tough pre-season, the first in a long time where we’ve had a a chance to improve our bodies physically and grow together as a team. We’ve tweaked a few things, but for a lot of the young lads, we’ve had a chance to develop ourselves.”

Capstick has been one of the stand-out figures in the early season form of the Chiefs and he says the battle for a role within the much-talked about Exeter back-row is helping to drive not only his own standards, but also those around him.

“It’s a great place to be a young back-rower, the competition is unbelievable,” he added. “If you look at the individual games of others within the squad, you try to take bits from all of them. Someone like Sam Simmonds is so explosive and dynamic; Dave Ewers is all about physicality and then you have the edge of Jacques Vermeulen. If I can add elements of all of them, as well as my own little bit, you’ll create a hell of a player!”

The gifted young forward is one of a number of homegrown stars currently gracing the Chiefs first-team ranks and he insists he is looking to flying the flag along with others over the course of the season and beyond.

“It’s a good place to be and a good sign for the future of the club,” he said. “We’ve had that golden generation of players like Jack Nowell, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Henry Slade, Dave Ewers and Sam Hill come through. Then you had the next group, the likes of the Simmonds brothers, Tom Hendrickson and Jack Innard, and now it’s nice to see that we could be that next group who comes through to push the club on

“As I said, there is good competition within the club. We’ve got an incredible group of young players like myself, Dafydd Jenkins, Christ Tshiunza, Lewis Pearson and Cory Teague just in the back five. Then you’ve also got the likes of James Kenny, Patrick Schickerling, Marcus Street as well, the club has so much depth and youngsters coming through, it’s a good place to be.”