Statement: Immanuel Feyi-Waboso confirms club future

It’s been a whirlwind of a few weeks for Exeter youngster Immanuel Feyi-Waboso. A debut international try, a first England start and an important university medical exam all within the space of a month. It doesn’t get much more chaotic than that for a young sportsperson.

As one journalist said in the briefing room after the France vs England match: “I didn’t want to tell him it’s not always this good”. Well, maybe not, but nothing is changing for the young international player quite yet. The Exeter winger has confirmed he will be staying with the Devon-based side, as he put pen to paper in a new long-term deal.

Director of Rugby Rob Baxter has been extremely pleased to have secured the services of the talented wideman.

“We’re really pleased with Immanuel’s re-signing,” Baxter said. “People are probably aware we’ve been looking to bring in young players to reduce the age of our squad in more recent times.

“With what happened at Wasps, when we looked at their players the individuals we looked at mainly were those we saw as the talented players in their academy. We looked at a lot of their Premiership Cup games – saw Immanuel, Greg [Fisilau] and Alfie Bell standing out.

“Particularly with Immanuel, we knew he was interested in what our university route could provide. So, the planning stages of a route for him to come through worked really well for us. The University of Exeter have been fantastic in helping us align everything for Immanuel around his medical degree.

“Ultimately, we saw a player who had massive physical attributes and huge potential but hadn’t played a lot of rugby. We hoped that we could give him that game time and that opportunity, then hopefully he would come through and obviously things have happened very quickly for him – which I’m delighted with.

“It’s great to know that he’s going to be here long term and hopefully we can really help him with his rugby development so that he can go on to get many more England caps and see what else he can achieve down the line. So, it’s a very exciting signing for the club and bodes very well for the future.”