Walker left ‘embarrassed’ by try-scoring exploits

PROLIFIC Chris Walker says he is “embarrassed” by his hat-trick heroics for Yorkshire Carnegie.
Chris WalkerChris Walker
Chris Walker

The openside scored a treble in Sunday’s 56-7 British & Irish Cup win over London Scottish as the club crucially picked up their first win in four games.

All three came from driving mauls and Walker – who has now amassed six tries in just seven games this term – admitted: “I do feel a little embarrassed to be fair as all we do is hang on the back while all the big lads do the hard work.

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“We get the attention and the rewards yet do no work whatsoever!”

Back-rows are suddenly, and bizarrely, becoming the most prolific try-scorers in rugby union.

Remarkably, the top five try-scorers in the Championship are all part of the back-row fraternity. There is not a winger in sight.

The majority of these scores have come from the line-out and Carnegie’s Walker admitted: “Once the driving maul is set and moving it’s almost impossible to stop now.

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“The game is constantly evolving and the line-out is one of those areas. I don’t think rule changes have made it any easier as such but teams are getting better at it with different rule interpretations.

“For example, last year refs were looking a lot at people being offside in front of the ball when you started the driving maul but now rather there is a lot more emphasis on supporting when it comes to lifting the jumper.

“If you can get that foundation right, it sets you a greater foundation to push forward through that apex.

“For us at Carnegie, so many back-rows are scoring down to the quality of our driving maul; a lot of times our kickers put us in decent position and we just execute according to the plan.”

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Walker, 23, added: “I also think some additions to our pack at Yorkshire this season have really helped us a lot.

“We’ve signed some big names and they have been very influential even if they have not been on the pitch every week.

“Rob O’Donnell and Dean Schofield have really added experience helping Chris Jones who is already a great line-out leader.

“I think Brush (coach Bryan Redpath) recognised at the start of the season that we needed our set-piece to function and he got the men in to do that.”

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