WASPS produced their best performance of the season by beating three-time European Champions Leinster on Sunday, but the club’s director of Rugby Dai Young is not getting carried away by the result.
A sensational Wasps got their Champions Cup campaign off to the perfect start thanks to a 33-6 victory at the Royal Dublin Society Stadium.
Three tries from Christian Wade, Joe Simpson and Charles Piutau put Wasps in control in Pool 5 but Young knows there is plenty of hard work ahead.
“I’m really pleased, but as I’ve said, there’s a long way to go,” said Young. “We’ve got to back it up and if anything’s going to sober you up, it’s facing Toulon next week.
“We know it’s a real tough group, we know we have to play outstandingly next week and every week really if we want to progress.
“We know we’re going to have to play like we did on Sunday, the test for us is to see if we can maintain that level of performance and can do it again next week.
“One good performance in this competition isn’t going to be enough in this group. Every game’s a Cup Final and next Sunday we’ve got another one at the Ricoh Arena with Toulon in town.”
Ruaridh Jackson and Ireland international Jonathan Sexton exchanged early penalties before Elliot Daly slotted one between the posts to hand Wasps a 9-6 lead.
And a simple Christian Wade try was superbly converted by Jackson to hand the visitors a ten-point lead at the break.
Shortly after the break Joe Simpson scored a with the best move of the match. Nathan Hughes moved the ball out right from the centre and Ben Jacobs fed Frank Halai who burst through before setting up Simpson who went over the line from 30 minutes. Jackson’s conversion moved Wasps 23-6.
Another penalty by Jackson eased Wasps 26 points clear and man-of-the-match Charles Piutau added the icing on the cake with a last-minute try and Alex Lozowski added a magnificent touchline conversion to make the final score 33-6.
“You couldn’t have asked any more of our players,” Young added. “The boys worked their socks off.
“We’ve come here and been on the wrong end of it a few times, but it was our day.
“It’s certainly going to be up there. We’ve had some good performances at home, but we’ve failed to get them on the road before and Leinster are a real quality team.”
