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Dai Young linked to shock Ospreys switch
By Ian Cameron
After being dramatically relieved of first-team duties earlier in the week, Wasps DoR Dai Young could be in line for a shock return to Wales with a potential switch to the Ospreys.
Young was dramatically relieved of his duties ahead of the club’s weekend Gallagher Premiership derby with midlands rivals Leicester – but hasn’t officially left the club.
The 51-year-old ex-Wales prop was due to take a media conference on Monday, but defence coach Ian Costello took the meeting in his place. Young was apparently in a meeting with chief executive Stephen Vaughan, the ex-Gloucester CEO who took up the reins in Coventry last August.
Nothing major was read into Young’s absence at the time but it has since emerged that his position is now under threat after Wasps issued a statement on Tuesday morning.
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It read: “Director of rugby Dai Young will be stepping back from first-team duties for an interim period. Lee Blackett will step up to interim head coach. Further announcements will be made in due course.”
It is understood that a senior management meeting was called at the Ricoh Arena on Tuesday morning and that the playing squad was issued with an update at the club’s Broadstreet RFC training ground facility shortly thereafter.
RugbyPass now understands that Young could be a real possibility to take over at struggling PRO14 side Ospreys.
The Ospreys parted company with Allen Clarke at the end of last year after which former Wales Grand Slam-winning coach Mike Ruddock took over on an interim basis.
Young is no stranger to the region, having made 42 appearances for Swansea from 1985 to 1988.
He is not the only coach being linked to the job however. According to Wales Online, the region are also being linked with former South Africa attack coach Swys de Bruin.
While Wasps are having a difficult season, Young has overseen significant development and improvement at the club since taking over. Under the Welshman the Coventry based side moved away from the base of the Premiership, went on to make their first Premiership final in 9 years and competed in three straight Premiership playoffs.
The ability to pick up a club up off the deck - where the Ospreys currently are - suggests the former prop could be an excellent fit.
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Latest Comments
In another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
Go to commentsBens got a crush on KLA. So cute.
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