Blackett to earn role at Scarlets

FORMER Wasps head coach Lee Blackett is set to take up a role at the Scarlets.

The 39-year-old was made redundant along with 166 other coaches, players and staff when Wasps entered into administration in October.

It is understood he will take up a backs coach role with the United Rugby Championship side until the end of the season, with a view to a longerterm deal.

But Blackett could make a return to Wasps ahead of the 2023/24 season if a takeover is successful and criteria are met for the Black and Golds to participate in the Championship.

He first joined Wasps as backs coach in 2015 after spending two seasons as the youngest head coach in English rugby’s top two divisions at Rotherham Titans.

In 2019, his position was tweaked to attack and backs coach before the biggest change arrived in February 2020 when Dai Young left his position as director of rugby after nearly nine years with the club.

Blackett was promoted to the position of interim head coach, guiding Wasps to a hat-trick of Premiership wins including a 60-10 win over Saracens. During the fivemonth break in the 2019/20 season due to the global pandemic, Wasps made the role permanent as the Coventry side stormed to an unlikely Premiership final where they were pipped by Exeter Chiefs.

There has been a gap in Dwayne Peel’s Scarlets coaching staff since Dai Flanagan’s summer departure and Blackett could take up the post as early as next week.

The Scarlets deal will likely lead to Blackett could scupper Blackett’s plans of coaching the Barbarians for a brief period this Autumn.

He becomes the latest Wasps coach or player to land a new club, with his former righthand man Matt Everard taking up a position at Leicester. 15 members of the senior playing squad have made deals, with the latest being Nizaam Carr returning to the Bulls, Matteo Minozzi heading to Benetton and Charlie Atkinson signing a deal at Leicester.