Dai-lemma is avoided as injuries leave boss few options
IRONICALLY, the scale of Wasps’ current injury list has this week at least partly spared rugby director Dai Young a difficult decision.
The black-and-golds’ boss would usually choose his matchday squad to face European champions Saracens on Sunday from between 30 and 35 fit players.
Were this the case, he would surely have found it extremely hard not to select his line-up with half-an-eye on Friday week, when Wasps open their European Cup campaign against Ulster in Belfast.
A five-day turnaround between matches of such significance is an extremely difficult proposition, especially given the physical demands of facing a Saracens pack littered with big-hitting internationals.
And since getting off to a winning start, in what looks a ferociously competitive European pool, is of great importance, sharing the next seven days’ workload around would have made plenty of sense.
That said, sending out anything less than your strongest available combination to face the best club side in Europe is not a decision to take lightly. However, given that Wasps finished their defeat by Bath with only 23 fully fit players, it will not have been a dilemma upon which Young has been required to dwell this week.
The good news – at least relatively speaking – for Wasps is that four players who missed last week’s match seem likely to be fit to face Saracens.
Props Matt Mullan and Marty Moore are both back in full training, while Young says scrum-half Dan Robson and full-back Willie le Roux should both return after a two game absence.
In addition, Wasps’ boss advises that he has not yet ruled out four other players, all of whom will certainly enter the equation for the Kingspan Stadium clash if they do not make the Allianz cut.
Lock James Gaskell, who is yet to feature this season, tops this list while Wasps’ boss says he is also “sweating on” Guy Thompson’s recovery from a leg injury.
In addition, he is hopeful that deadleg victims Brendan Macken and Nathan Hughes will have made full recoveries before the clash with the European champions. ““We missed Nathan’s ball-carrying as when he went off last week we lacked penetration,” Young said. “We tweaked our game so we had the forwards carrying more than we had previously done, but after that it was a bit slow getting the ball out the back, and Nathan is somebody who gives us that go-forward.” Wasps’ boss provided an update on prop Paul Doran-Jones, who after being stretchered off has had surgery on a knee cartilage which will keep him out for around six weeks. Rugby director Dai Young
He also advised that centres Kyle Eastmond and Gaby Lovobalavu should both see some action in the coming weeks.
The Fijian is set to return either against Harlequins in the second round of European action, or a week later in the Premiership at Northampton, while Eastmond’s long-awaited comeback from an Achilles tendon rupture is pencilled in for the AngloWelsh Cup block in November.
Prior to their return, and allowing for the likely absence of Danny Cipriani until the end of the year, Wasps’ boss said he sees Brendan Macken and Juan de Jongh wearing the No.12 shirt.
“Jimmy Gopperth is focusing on being our No.10 now because Danny is out, and the back up for him is Rob Miller,” Young said.
“Brendan and Juan can both play at inside centre, then Elliot Daly is our No.13.”
We missed Nathan’s ball-carrying as when he went off last week we lacked penetration. Nathan is somebody who gives us that go-forward.