Dai Young relieved of first-team duties at Wasps

Wasps boss Dai Young has been 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 was instead thrust into the seat as the director of rugby 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.

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’s believed a senior management meeting was called at the Ricoh Arena for Tuesday morning. After that was completed, the playing squad was issued with an update at the club’s Broadstreet RFC training ground facility.

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Young has been the Premiership’s third longest-serving boss, only marginally behind the equally long-serving Rob Baxter at Exeter and Mark McCall at Saracens after joining the club in 2011.

He guided them through a terrible period where their future was threatened by a financial shortfall, but he was to the fore in embedding the ex-London club into the midlands following their move to Coventry in December 2014.

A Premiership final was reached in 2017, but things have on the slide since then. They finished last season in eighth following a star player exodus and are currently in ninth spot this term following just three wins in nine outings ahead of Saturday’s trip to Welford Road.

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