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Dai Young relieved of first-team duties at Wasps

By Online Editors
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Wasps boss Dai Young has been relieved of his duties ahead of the club’s weekend Gallagher Premiership derby with midlands rivals Leicester – but hasn’t officially left the club.

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The 51-year-old ex-Wales prop was due to take a media conference on Monday, but defence coach Ian Costello was instead thrust into the seat as the director of rugby was apparently in a meeting with chief executive Stephen Vaughan, the ex-Gloucester CEO who took up the reins in Coventry last August.

Nothing major was read into Young’s absence at the time but it has since emerged that his position is now under threat after Wasps issued a statement on Tuesday morning.

It read: “Director of rugby Dai Young will be stepping back from first-team duties for an interim period. Lee Blackett will step up to interim head coach. Further announcements will be made in due course.”

It’s believed a senior management meeting was called at the Ricoh Arena for Tuesday morning. After that was completed, the playing squad was issued with an update at the club’s Broadstreet RFC training ground facility.

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Young has been the Premiership’s third longest-serving boss, only marginally behind the equally long-serving Rob Baxter at Exeter and Mark McCall at Saracens after joining the club in 2011.

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He guided them through a terrible period where their future was threatened by a financial shortfall, but he was to the fore in embedding the ex-London club into the midlands following their move to Coventry in December 2014.

A Premiership final was reached in 2017, but things have on the slide since then. They finished last season in eighth following a star player exodus and are currently in ninth spot this term following just three wins in nine outings ahead of Saturday’s trip to Welford Road.

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Bull Shark 34 minutes ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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