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Dai Young laments Wasps' collapse in front of 24,000 at the Ricoh
By Online Editors
Wasps director of rugby Dai Young was bitterly disappointed to lose 28-22 to Harlequins after seeing his side throw away a 17-point lead.
In front of a crowd of over 24,000 at the Ricoh Arena, Wasps looked in total control when they built up a 17-0 advantage in the first quarter but then conceded 28 unanswered points to gift their opponents victory.
Wasps’ tries came from Jack Willis, Zach Kibirige and Thomas Young with Jacob Umaga kicking two conversions and a penalty.
Quins responded with tries from James Chisholm, Kyle Sinckler, Elia Elia and Marcus Smith, who converted all four for a tally of 13 points.
Young said: “For the first period, I thought we were excellent as we were really dominant in all facets. We were very physical and won five turn-overs and when you go 17 points up, you think it’s probably job done.
“They then scored a soft try and the intensity went completely from our game. We struggled to get it back and it took us until 14 minutes from the end to spark it up again.
“It’s hugely disappointing as we lost all the collisions when Quins started to chase the game and the belief then started to drain from our players as their heads drop too easily when you should dust yourself down and come back strongly.
“It was a fantastic crowd and a fantastic occasion but the biggest emotion I have is letting the supporters down and we have to do better.”
It was a different story for Quins director of rugby Paul Gustard, who was elated to come away with a bonus-point victory.
He said: “It was a game of three-quarters for in the first quarter we were extremely poor as we regularly lost possession and dropped off tackles to concede 17 soft points.
“For the next 40 minutes, it was one-way traffic as our set-piece was on top throughout but then the final eight or nine minutes saw us nearly manage to grab defeat from the jaws of victory.
“We were under the cosh but fortunately Elia Elia managed to rip the ball from a maul at the end to save us.
“I thought our back row were excellent as last week at Ulster we were bullied and centre Paul Lasike also made a vital contribution as he gave us momentum.
“Marcus (Smith) kicked well to give us field position and to come away with a bonus-point win is a good leg up for the team.”
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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