HEAT IS ON!
Cup win vital for Wasps boss
THE pressure is on for Wasps to get their first Challenge Cup pool win, according to Dai Young.
Despite impressing in their opening European fixture, Wasps failed to pick up any points and face another French side in Agen on Saturday.
With the Bordeaux return leg and two games against 2014 runners up Edinburgh still to come, the Wasps coach said it was critical they opened their account this weekend.
“We’re under pressure really now, it’s always difficult to get anything away from home but you’ve got to win your home games.
If we want to do well in this competition we’ve got to win this game, so we go in with a little bit of pressure”
Wasps stayed in the contest until late on against Bordeaux, but lost out on a bonus point after a late Romain
Buros try. Against the more experienced hosts, their squad featured five European debutants, and Young praised their handling of the occasion.
“It wasn’t a case of we couldn’t handle the pressure that was thrown at us, they were pretty much errors and second half really two defensive lapses give away two tries,” Young said.
“If we can take the mistakes and errors out of the game we’re going to take a lot of scoreboard pressure off ourselves.”
Wasps failed to win any of their Champions Cup matches last year, although previous to that had only lost one European game at the Ricoh, against Bath in 2014. Included in that run were last-minute wins against Exeter and Toulouse and dominant victories over Toulon and Leinster, and Young was keen to stress the importance of the home crowd. The Welshman said: “For us it’s a home game at the Ricoh so we always want to do well there, the support away was phenomenal and we always get great support at the Ricoh so they deserve a performance.” Saturday’s fixture will be Wasps’ first ever meeting with Agen, who sit 13th in the Top 14 and finished runners up in the Challenge Cup in 1998. On the French side, Young said: “They’re going to be a big physical team.
“You don’t quite know what team they’re going to pick.
“You’re looking at trends not individuals pretty much. You look at options they may bring into the game.
“You look at and analyse threats but ultimately it’s going to be what we bring.”
Agen played away at Bordeaux in the Top 14 before the European break, losing 23-0 and shipping 17 points in the second half.
Last season they finished fourth in their pool, winning two out of six games.
They were beaten 31-10 at home by Edinburgh in their first pool game this season with 10-cap Fiji international Benito Masilevu scoring their only try.
If we can take the mistakes and errors out of the game we’re going to take a lot of scoreboard pressure off ourselves. Dai Young