Fixture schedule is so unfair on Wasps
TUESDAY, August 22, 2017 was in many ways a day full of hope for Wasps.
Dai Young’s squad, featuring a handful of new signings, turned out at the Ricoh in their newly-revealed 150th anniversary kit for the first time.
In warm sunshine last season’s Premiership runners-up officially launched their new season with a distinctly upbeat vibe.
However, by mid-afternoon at least some of the smiles had been replaced by a puzzled expression, and even the odd furrowed brow.
Because that was the point at which EPCR, the governing body of European club rugby, confirmed its round one and two schedules for this year’s Champions Cup.
Kick-off times have been the bane of rugby watchers’ lives for many years now, ever since the involvement of Sky Sports in the early days of the Premiership and the Heineken Cup created a new agenda.
Of course, professional clubs love the big bucks generated by live TV coverage, many of which find their way into players’ pockets by way of rugby directors’ playing budgets.
And for armchair fans, there is nothing better than wall-to-wall coverage across the weekend of Europe’s best clubs going head-tohead in a spectacularly good competition. Indeed, many of us will already have stocked up for the coming weekend, when all ten Champions Cup ties are televised live by either BT Sport or Sky.
However, travelling to an away game taking place on Friday evening is far from straightforward, while getting back to work after a Sunday game in a far-flung European city is also problematic.
But while departing the traditional Saturday 3pm slot is something of a
Wasps fans at a packed Allianz Stadium or watching on TV were mostly fearing the worst ahead of Sunday’s match.
The black-and-golds’ injury crisis has been well documented, and in some cases Sarries had British Lions going head-to-head with fifth or sixth-choice Wasps.
Throw in the distraction of needing to select a side to play a crucial European tie on Friday, and Wasps were clearly ducking grenades at every turn.
But while fate was conspiring against them, the 15 players who started the match did little to help poisoned chalice for those off the field, it generally poses less of a problem for those on it.
Or at least that’s what we mostly thought until the afternoon of August 22 when we became aware that Wasps must face Saracens and Ulster with only five days and four hours between the two kick-off times.
EPCR have done their competition a huge disservice and they have also placed a huge hurdle between Dai Young’s team and a fourth successive qualification for the Champions Cup quarter-finals. Like Wasps, next Friday’s opponents Ulster had a tough match during last weekend. They hosted Irish rivals Connacht at the Kingspan Stadium, themselves in the opening 20 minutes. This added up to Saracens being 15-nil ahead having barely broken sweat, and in truth almost over the hoizon.
Wasps were finally jolted into life by a couple of brilliant pieces of last-ditch defence, then Josh Bassett’s excellent break which created their opening try, after which they competed reasonably well.
And ironically, stimulated by the arrival of Dan Robson, they later finished the match playing with plenty of tempo and claimed two late tries. Just how they would have wanted to start... Letting Alex Lozowski tap a quick 22 drop-out and run 60 and claimed a battling 16-8 win – but it happened on Friday evening. By contrast, Dai Young’s team faced European champions Saracens 48 hours later.
There are two aspects to this – both of equal importance.
Firstly, Ulster and Wasps do not now start Friday’s match on a level playing field. Given the likelihood that pool one will end up being decided by the odd bonus point here and there, after a series of Herculean scraps between four evenlymatched sides, this is patently unfair.
One club will be better rested, and have 48 hours additional preparation time. Inevitably, Sod’s Law dictates this is the one not currently suffering crises of injury, form and metres to set up the field position from which the first Sarries try eventually resulted was sloppy by Wasps. However, this paled into insignificance compared with the second home score, which resulted directly from the kind of basic error rarely seen at any level of the sport.
When Sarries were awarded a penalty 15 metres from the visitors’ line, a kick at goal seemed likely to follow.
However, in turning their backs on play, and not playing to the referee’s whistle - or more accurately signal - the black-and-golds committed a confidence. And on a related, but currently extremely topical theme, has even the most cursory of lip service been paid to how this scheduling impacts on player welfare?
One senior Wasp recently privately acknowledged he is only absent of all soreness by the Thursday following a Sunday match, which this week leaves no unfettered training time.
When player burn-out, high injury levels and longer-term concerns about how the current generation of muscle-bound warriors will fare in later life are concerns of such immediacy, this decision borders on the scandalous.
While Wasps will be affected by it this week, it would be wrong to suggest cardinal sin, which cost them a converted try not to mention some red faces. The appearance of brothers Jack and Tom Willis aged 20 and 18 respectively - in Wasps’ back row was one for the notebook, and far from the only occurrence of note. Prop Marty Moore and Willis senior both logged their first Premiership tries in black-and-gold, which alongside Josh Bassett’s late score, made Wasps the first team to cross the home line three times at the Allianz since... Wasps in February they are alone on a burning bridge.
Both London Irish and Worcester have already been required to operate on five-day turnarounds in the Premiership this season, which given the absence of left-hand, righthand co-ordination issues represents an even bigger crime.
The clubs’ reaction – at least publicly – is to shrug their shoulders and get on with it. As Dai joked through gritted teeth at Allianz Park on Sunday: “if the game was any sooner we’d be going direct from here.”
But should his team fail to earn a lucrative quarter-final because of a narrow defeat in Ulster, questions at the highest level surely will finally be provoked. 2016. This was also Wasps’ first losing Premiership fourtimer in 43 months.
A hackneyed phrase, but even on a difficult day when his team took 20 minutes to start performing, Dai Young can take a number of positives.
Behind the scrum, Josh Bassett (inset left) looks in great form on Wasps’ wing, while the late arrival of Robson brought some welcome snap to proceedings. Marty Moore had his best game for some time while Thomas Young was excellent in the unaccustomed No.8 role, and the Willis brothers looked far from overawed despite being in such exalted company. The scrum and lineout both largely went well, while based on the last-ditch defence that prevented the first 20 minutes becoming a rout, the spirit clearly remains strong.
This may sound like the latest fad diet, but actually it’s what faces Wasps this week ahead of their European Cup opener against Ulster.
Dai Young will hope to boost his squad with some big-name returnees, including skipper Joe Launchbury, his England team-mate Nathan Hughes and fly-half Jimmy Gopperth, but if ever there was a time to circle the wagons and focus on finding a big performance, this is it.