Cup shows strength in depth next challenge for Wasps
THE fact that only 6,834 had enough interest to attend this weekend’s Anglo-Welsh Cup final at Harlequins’ Stoop home speaks volumes about the competition’s lack of profile.
This gets worse when you consider that Leicester, who routinely draw over 20,000 to their home games, lifted their first trophy since 2012 with a 16-12 win over Exeter.
Given that the competition largely features second-string players, takes place during the two international windows and has been unable to replace LV as its title sponsor, this far from being the most startling revelation of an action-packed rugby weekend.
Since by common consent top-end players need to play fewer rather than more games, should this unloved competition therefore simply disappear?
Probably not – the Anglo-Welsh Cup may be a second-tier event, but it affords development opportunities to youngsters, while also giving game time to fringe players as top-flight regulars enjoy much-needed downtime.
It is interesting to note that the four semi-finalists included three of Wasps’ likely Premiership play-off rivals.
Saracens and Harlequins joined Exeter and Leicester in a last four characterised by huge playing strength and longestablished, highly productive academy structures.
By contrast, Wasps currently operate with a relatively small 40-strong senior squad, preferring to focus their use of the salary cap on quality rather than quantity.
Since success in the Anglo-Welsh Cup and A League are just about the furthest thing from anyone’s mind, on one level this makes perfect sense. However, when injury and international calls strike, second, third and even fourth-choice players can very quickly be catapulted into Premiership action, at which point squad depth becomes a more pressing matter. For instance, when Dai Young’s team last faced this Sunday’s opponents Worcester, fullback Rob Miller morphed into a goal-kicking flyhalf, academy prospect Piers O’Connor wore the No.15 shirt and Newcastle prop Ben Harris warmed the bench. We now know that Frank Halai and Kurtley Beale will be the fifth and sixth members of the current squad to depart at the end of the current campaign, in addition to which Sailosi Tagicakibau, James Cannon and Tom Woolstencroft have already sought pastures new. This will be bal- anced by four new arrivals, but despite Young’s oft-stated desire to reduce squad turnover levels, the arrival of a few more new faces is surely inevitable. The second aspect of this is a longer-term project, since Wasps’ boss freely acknowledges that his club needs to develop new academy roots in the light of its recent relocation to Coventry.
The news that Matt Davies will be replaced at the academy helm after a four-year term is doubtless a part of this new beginning, as is the launch of an educational programme aimed at rugby playing 16-to-18 year-olds with Henley College Coventry.
Wasps have produced some talented players in the last couple of years, a number of whom have made an impact at Coventry, Hinckley and Moseley on a dual-registration basis.
Worcester-bound winger Tom Howe and flanker Jack Willis underlined this by respectively finishing top and third in the Anglo-Welsh Cup’s breakthrough player award and the club’s next challenge is to create a new Coventry and Warwickshirebased production line of future stars.
The club’s next challenge is to create a new Coventry and Warwickshire-based production line of future stars.