The news that Wasps will join Coventry and Coventry University in using Broadstreet’s Ivor Preece ground as a training base from June has received a stamp of approval from the club’s director of rugby Dai Young.

The Aviva Premiership club’s relocation to Binley Woods is the penultimate stage in their full integration into the city. The final step will follow once they acquire the land on which their permanent training base will stand.

Wasps’ current facility in Acton, housed in a ground formerly used by QPR, is shared between their professional and amateur clubs. It has clearly grown piecemeal, and comprises a mish-mash of temporary buildings around the original clubhouse and pitches.

It barely stands comparison with the facilities found at most good-standard Warwickshire junior clubs, so a move is long overdue. The excellent facilities at Broadstreet, which are to be supplemented by some temporary structures, therefore comprise a big forward step.

Young also believes moving the club’s entire operation to Coventry will help their on-field performance.

Wasps players pictured signing autographs after a training session held at Broadstreet last summer. 

Having ticked the pre-season box which targeted improved away form, his team have been less secure at the Ricoh this season. Having previously lost to Exeter, Saracens and in the European Cup to Bath, they recently struggled past basement-boys Worcester and Newcastle, and the former Wales prop believes the logistics involved in training 100 miles away from the Ricoh plays a part in this.

“Our away form has improved significantly this year,” he says, “but the flip-side is that we haven’t been quite as dominant at home.

“I would never use this as an excuse, but travelling two-and-a-half hours to a home game isn’t ideal, and next season there is no doubt it will be more comfortable being in Coventry full-time.

“At the moment we travel north the day before a match or on the day, neither of which are ideal, and the novelty has worn off to be honest.

“When we play at 2pm on a Sunday, we have the team run in London at 9.30am the day before, and by the time we’ve finished and had some food we’re on the bus around 1.30pm and in Coventry for 4pm. We’re not home until perhaps 8pm on Sunday, so our home game takes 36 hours.”

Wasps training session. Broadstreet RFC, Coventry. Ashley Johnson 

Wasps’ boss also said how welcome the club and its players - a number of whom have already relocated to Coventry and Warwickshire - have been made to feel in the area, and how well-supported they have been at the Ricoh.

“Once you run out on the Ricoh all the travel issues disappear,” he says, “because it’s a fantastic place to play, and we love being there.

“On the non-matchdays when we have been in Coventry, the boys have been really shocked by how aware everyone is of us and how welcome we are made - just going to the gym or for a coffee everyone seems to know them and are generally very welcoming.

“They seem to be happy to have a Premiership team to support, and from what we hear there’s a lot of sports fans who have come along to the Ricoh have a look at rugby for the first time and enjoyed it.”