Why Wasps have created a transition coach position on Dai Young's staff

Wasps have announced that Matt Everard has been promoted to the senior coaching set-up and will become transition coach for the 2019/20 campaign. The former Wasps player retired from the game in 2017 to become an academy coach and has impressed in his first two seasons in professional coaching.

Everard led the Wasps A side in the 2018/19 Premiership Shield, where they finished the season with four consecutive bonus-point wins while also running in 48 tries in their 10 matches – including seven try-bonus points.  

The 28-year-old’s new role will now see him help the transition of academy players into the first-team set-up. Seven players have graduated this season under his coaching. Three of those seven players went on to play Premiership in 2018/19 and will receive opportunities to make the step in 2019/20.

During his playing days, Everard was part of the England under-20s side which made the 2011 Junior World Championship final alongside current Wasps Joe Launchbury and Dan Robson. He then enjoyed a four-year spell with Leicester Tigers and three seasons at Wasps. He later joined Nottingham where he led a young squad with the responsibility of restarting the club’s academy.

Wasps director of rugby Dai Young said: “Matt has been fantastic for our academy youngsters since coming on board and he has great respect from the players. Still a young coach, we feel that Matt’s ability and experience will be key in aiding the development of those seven youngsters as we look to mould them into Premiership players.

"We haven’t seen many academy players come through the system in recent years, so it’s fantastic that we’re beginning to see players come through and that’s thanks to the hard work of people like Matt and his colleagues in the academy.”

Everard added: “I’m really pleased with how my first couple of seasons in coaching have gone and I’m thrilled to be moving into the senior coaching set-up.

“I’m really looking forward to continuing the work with these young players in trying to help them realise their potential. They’ve been tremendous throughout 2018/19 and now it would be great for the club to be able to convert these players into top-level athletes and hopefully it’s the start of plenty more to come through the system.”

WATCH: Wasps under-18s in action in episode two of The Academy, the six-part RugbyPass documentary series on Leicester Tigers