“Our focus now is to ensure we have a plan in place to take the club forward,” Wasps chief executive Stephen Vaughan said in the wake of Dai Young’s departure back in February. Wasps were in a rut when Young left, no question, but the prospect of a future without him felt so alien.
Young had been in charge for an entire decade and seen the club through the most difficult period of their history when they faced financial oblivion, before their rebirth in Coventry. A change was obviously necessary, but that did not mean the transition would be easy.
What Wasps have done, therefore, is pretty extraordinary. It’s Wasps who have finished the season in second place - not Bristol with their heavy investment, or rejuvenated Bath, or Sale after purchasing every available Springbok international.
The team in second place is the same team who at the start of December had lost four of their opening five matches. Their record after that? Thirteen wins, four defeats. Wasps were also the only side to defeat a similarly firing Bath outfit since the restart with their impressive win at The Rec, despite losing both of their hookers that day.
Perhaps their rise from the ashes comes as even more of a surprise because the change at the top came from within, with Lee Blackett taking over with spectacular effect during his interim period before lockdown and then, quite rightly, being appointed on a permanent basis.
The numbers contrasting the two periods under Young and then under Blackett are fascinating. Wasps are scoring a ton more points and conceding far less, and the numbers behind that point to a side who since Young departed have opted to play with less possession, and have thrived off turnovers, led by their supreme jacklar Jack Willis.
Wasps under Blackett are scoring 14 points more per game and conceding almost 10 points less, which is a remarkable transition, crossing for almost two more tries per game on average.
Carries are notably down - as, curiously, are defenders beaten - but everything else attack wise has increased; metres, clean breaks, offloads, suggesting Wasps are doing a lot more with less ball. Young’s Wasps passed and kicked more on average per game and their possession per game under Blackett has dropped from 17:46 to 16:56.
Young’s Wasps also made more tackles on average, about 17 more in fact, yet under Blackett, Wasps miss about six fewer tackles per game, lifting their tackle success rate to 88 per cent.
But the key metric is turnovers. Wasps might be more penalised as a result of their adventurousness at the breakdown, up by almost two per game, but their number of turnovers conceded has dropped, and their turnovers won are up to 7.7 from 5.8.
That change of philosophy to wait for their opponents to open themselves up at the ruck and the pounce, before letting a backline marshalled by Dan Robson and Jacob Umaga thrive behind a mobile pack, has served Wasps well in recent months, and given them a shot at winning a first Gallagher Premiership title since 2008.
Always a Wasp
Topic: New Article-How Wasps transformed from strugglers to title contenders(Telegraph) (Read 2593 times)