RUGBY UNION: DAI Young has spoken of his pride after watching his Wasps side leave it late in the day to overcome European giants Toulouse 17-14 and move closer to securing their spot in the quarter-final of the European Champions Cup.
In the final minute of the match Wasps trailed Toulouse 14-10 at the Ricoh Arena and their hopes of making the final eight stage of the competition looked in jeopardy.
But man-of-the-match Dan Robson stunned the French side on Saturday by darting over the line late on to earn Wasps a third win in Europe which moved them one point behind Pool Two leaders Connacht.
“I’m really pleased we won and I’m very proud of the players,” said Young. “That game looked lost with a couple of minutes to go, but we found a way to win.
“We showed a lot of team spirit and scored points when we had a player in the sin-bin.
“As I said to the boys, if we really want to progress in these types of competitions, we shouldn’t have to be chasing the game with two minutes to go.
“We have to be honest with ourselves in that if we produce as many clear line breaks as we did, you have got to nail them. You can’t not finish those line breaks in the big games and expect to win.”
It took until the 29th minute for Wasps to get the first points on the board as Jimmy Gopperth landed a successful penalty and that is how is stayed at half-time following an even opening period where both teams had chances to score.
It was Toulouse who scored the first try of the match 11 minutes after the restart when Yoann Huget went over near the posts following a series of powerful drives and Doussain converted for a 3-7 lead.
Wasps were dealt another blow as Christian Wade was yellow carded for a tackle on Francois Cros before Gopperth and Gael Fickou both missed penalty attempts.
Shortly after the hour mark the hosts got their noses in front again when Elliot Daly skipped around Thierry Dusautoir and ran through the defence to touch down between the posts. Gopperth landed the conversion to put Wasps three points in front with 17 minutes remaining.
A debatable penalty try which was converted by Doussain put the visitors in charge with eight minutes remaining but there was to be one final twist.
With time ticking away Wasps threw the proverbial kitchen sink at their opponents and their efforts were rewarded when Robson caught the Toulouse defence napping and dived over for the winning try. Gopperth’s conversion was the last action of the match as Wasps recorded a famous 17-14 win.
Young added: “We showed a lot of guts and determination to get that win in the end, when all looked lost, and I’m pleased with the character of the squad to find a way to win, but the truth is we shouldn’t have put ourselves in that position.”
“We gave them far too many penalties, far too much ball and when you are up against a big, powerful team like Toulouse, that will always cause you problems.”
