RUGBY UNION: WASPS director of rugby Dai Young is looking for an immediate response from his side when they return to action in the Aviva Premiership this weekend a week on from their European Champions Cup defeat in Dublin.
Young’s side lost 32-17 against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday in what was very much a game of two halves.
After Willie Le Roux had dropped the ball from what looked a certain try-scoring position, Wasps found themselves 22-3 down at half-time.
The visitors put in a much-improved performance after the break with two unconverted tries bringing them close to an unlikely win, but Leinster scored late on to book their place in the semi-final.
“It was really disappointing,” said Young. “We didn’t play like I was hoping we would play. They created a really good try early doors and that is the quality they have got in their team.
“Then we gifted them two tries. If Willie (Le Roux) had put that ball down on 26 minutes it would have been 8-7 but that was only one moment.
“We still had a good 55 minutes to win that game so we can’t blame one moment. We have to look at ourselves as a collective and we made far too many mistakes.
“Obviously we had a mountain to climb at half-time and I talked about us not needing to chase the game.
“We had enough confidence in ourselves, that if we could get into a one score game in the last 10 or 15 minutes then there was no reason why we couldn’t use that pressure, because the crowd would have got a little bit edgy then.
“We’ve got to make sure this doesn’t affect our league performance. Obviously we played against a good team, but people keep on saying you learn from losses and I hope that we do.
“The proof will be in the pudding moving forward, you are going to lose games of rugby that happens, but for us the massive disappointment was that we didn’t play like we can.”
Young paid tribute to the travelling Wasps fans who made the trip over to Dublin, adding: “We will all be disappointed I know and we appreciate the commitment our fans have made in coming out to support us.
“The welcome arriving at the stadium was tremendous yet again. I understand many fans had been waiting there in the rain for half an hour to make sure they weren’t late and it’s hard to put into words how much we value that level of support.
“It was the same at the Madejski stadium last year – we have some brilliant fans and we will be working hard to make sure they have plenty to cheer about when we dust ourselves off from this disappointment and turn our focus back to the Aviva Premiership.”
