O’Flaherty eager to right the wrongs of painful last season
TOM O’Flaherty is putting the rest of the Premiership on notice that Exeter Chiefs are determined to rediscover their ruthless streak next season.
Chiefs will use their shock final defeat to Harlequins as a driver for the new season with winger O’Flaherty still hurting from how Exeter underachieved in defence of their crowns.
Two weeks into preseason training at Sandy Park, O’Flaherty told TRP: “There is definitely more of a steeliness about us and we just want to get on with the task at hand.
“We just need to get the job done and be more ruthless. That’s what we want to do, so we need to put that into action.
“Everyone wants to win all the competitions that they are in, and we felt like we just let things slip at the end of last season.
“We don’t want to be making the same mistake again. Towards the end of last season, we did get some good results but ultimately, we took our eye off the ball a bit, and you can’t afford to do that especially at that stage of the season.
“We are doing everything we can do to right those wrongs. That starts now in pre-season and carries on into the first round of the Premiership.”
The Chiefs have watched their horror show at Twickenham when they were beaten by Quins 40-38 in a thriller, and it doesn’t make for better viewing for them the more they watch it.
O’Flaherty said: “The final still hurts a lot. We don’t want to let that happen again. We have looked back through our individual clips, and it doesn’t make much better watching the second time.
“You have to watch it, but you also have to confront what you did wrong and what we did wrong as a team. If you want to improve, you cannot just sweep it under the carpet.
“We let Quins have too many chances and didn’t take our chances. Anyone can watch the game to see what we did wrong. There are things everywhere.”
O’Flaherty, who has scored 27 tries in 70 appearances for Exeter since joining them in 2017 after completing a degree in French, appeared on Eddie Jones’ radar last season. And despite his name, the Herne Hill-born flyer only qualifies for England and has no Irish ancestry that he knows about.
“The name comes from my dad’s side of the family, and they are all from the Caribbean, so I think the name goes way back,” O’Flaherty says. “So I only qualify for England.
“Personally, I had a good season last season, and you hope that if you perform, you will be in the international coach’s eye. It’s good to be in his thoughts – everybody is trying to take the next step, and for me, that is international rugby. It would be huge but to be considered, you have to be playing well for your club.”