O'Flaherty named Premiership Player of the Month for November
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Exeter Chiefs wing Tom O’Flaherty was today named Premiership Rugby Player of the Month for November 2019.
Your #GallagherPrem player of November 👉 Tom O'Flaherty 🌟
Beating out some quality opposition💨 is @ExeterChiefs' scintillating flyer who's made a habit of sparking something from nothing 🔥
With an incredible solo effort to boot 💫 pic.twitter.com/h1oWhzau4R— Premiership Rugby (@premrugby) December 11, 2019
The flying wing has beaten more defenders this season (30) than any other player in the Premiership, gaining 363 metres for his club and making an impressive nine clean breaks.
O’Flaherty’s performances in November were acclaimed by Ugo Monye, the former England and Lions wing who is now a BT Sport pundit, covering Premiership Rugby, and Gallagher brand ambassador.
Monye said: "I think Tom’s been outstanding, absolutely class – in November there was a huge amount of competition with so many players performing so well at the top of the table. Tom’s been synonymous with Exeter’s consistent performances – his contributions in terms of his try-scoring, assisting as well as defensively have been outstanding."
Monye added: "Every top-class winger needs searing pace and he’s got that in abundance – it feels like whenever he’s broken the line he brings that real sense of excitement both on the pitch and in the stands. His work-rate off the ball has also been important, and that’s no surprise at all as that’s obviously one of Exeter’s fundamentals and pillars of how they play.
"The way he works off his wing and creates opportunities is brilliant, and we saw a really fine example of that at the weekend with his try against Wasps, coming off the wing and through the middle – he was almost untouchable. Tom scored some magnificent tries at the end of last season, particularly at Sandy Park, so he’s really just carried on from where he left off."
O’Flaherty was involved in a three-way battle to win the award eventually beating Northampton Saints centre Rory Hutchinson and Gloucester Rugby scrum-half Joe Simpson.