Dai

Wasps boss Dai Young may have been a prop in his playing days, but he wants his team to get the ball wide and attack whenever possible.

As many seasoned lovers of British sport will testify, it is hard not to suspect that the weather gods and their sporting counterparts share both an office and a warped sense of humour.

Royal Ascot and football’s Charity Shield always bring sunshine, while rain is guaranteed for the first day of the cricket season, unless you are watching Derbyshire at Buxton, when it is more likely to snow.

And since Wasps’ home has been at the Ricoh Arena, a new entry has been made in the sporting meteorological notebook, as every home game seems to bring rain, wind or both.

Wasps skipper James Haskell has gone on record commenting how improved English top-flight rugby would be as a summer sport. Given that only Worcester and Toulon of their nine home games so far this season have been played in good conditions, and last weekend’s Newcastle match took place in the eye of Storm Imogen, even to a cricket lover, his point is evident.

There can be no doubt that bad weather favours teams with a less ambitious game-plan - if you like to stick it up your jumper and favour forward grunt and the boot, rain, wind and mud are a blessing, Variations in style and tactics are of course one of the beauties of our sport, and to rugby aficionados strong scrummaging, a well-organised driving maul and a pair of smart tactical kickers at half back can be a joy to behold.

Newcastle nearly beat Wasps in this way last Saturday, while Saracens did so with some ease in December. England spent the best part of a decade dominating the Six Nations and reaching a World Cup final with this approach, and while it is unlikely to draw occasional fans to the sport, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with it.

Despite being an ex-prop who still enjoys putting his boots on to join scrummaging practice, Wasps boss Dai Young’s rugby philospohy is rooted in the flowing, attacking rugby played by Wales in the 1970’s. His attacking mindset may well get his front row union card revoked, so there can be little doubt that this season’s Ricoh Arena microclimate has not been to his liking.

Wasps’ landmark win at Franklin’s Gardens two weeks ago showcased Young’s philosophy perfectly. A band of heavy rain swept across the ground from around 30 minutes before kick off, and Wasps were missing a cohort of attacking talent, including Christian Wade, Elliot Daly, Joe Simpson and Charles Piutau, but their boss still insisted they attacked with pace and width.

“Going into the Northampton game, I said to the players we still had to play,” Young said. “If it had been a slow arm-wrestle we could have had problems, as that would have been up their street.

“We obviously needed not to commit suicide, and do stupid things in stupid areas, but if it was on to play I wanted us to play.

“I wanted us to try and increase the tempo in the game, and to run them about a bit and take the game to them rather than sit back and see what they’d got.”

Wasps’ director of rugby said his players are always encouraged to be positive, providing their approach is not overly gung ho.

“We always try and play,” he said. “If you look at some of the games that we’ve lost, when you analyse what the other team has done, it’s been very little.

“It’s quite a simple terminology really, if you don’t do anything, you don’t make any mistakes. So quite a few teams have played against us and attempted nothing at all other than kick the ball to us.

“We lack a bit of patience and composure at times, and get rushed into over-playing because we are so eager to have a go, then our accuracy lets us down and we make too many mistakes.

“It’s about making the right decision first and foremost - is it right to play in the situation or not - then it’s down to execution.

“The players know I will always back them to play, but I want them to do the sensible thing. 50/50’s are not too bad, 70/30’s against are a little bit doubtful really.”

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/rugby/weather-gods-frown-wasps-challenge-10865015 …