RUGBY UNION
BOSS Dai Young watched his son Thomas score a hat-trick as Wasps finished top of the table – but reckons he is not a chip off the old block.
Flanker Young struck three times to set up a play-off semi-final against Leicester in a fortnight as Wasps ran riot against a second-string Sarries.
Young Senior was an old school prop back in the day – he played for Wales and went on three Lions tours – and he insists his youngster deserves a crack at Test level.
Young Junior scored two in the first half and rounded off his hattrick in the last minute and could get an international call this week.
Young Sr said: “He’s not a bad player. I think his mother would be pretty pleased!
“I hope he gets his opportunity and I thought he played really well in attack and defence.
“I don’t know where he got his pace from, the milkman stopped delivering years ago!”
But Young warned his side they are not the finished article despite topping the league in the regular season.
He added: “I’m sure Leicester will want to upset the party, but we are looking forward to another massive occasion.
“We left a few points out there to be honest.
“We were a bit edgy again and you could see we’re not quite used to the big occasions.
“But the more you play them the more comfortable you get.”
Young Jr even reckons he might have put a smile on his old man’s face with his hat-trick.
He said: “Hopefully he will smile tonight. Three tries for me, I’ll take that, I’m happy with it and we have that home semi-final.
“There’s a rivalry with Leicester and it is hard to put into words how I’m feeling.”
The defeat means Saracens have to go to Exeter in two weeks but they won’t worry too much about that.
Here they rested the Vunipola brothers, Maro Itjoe, Chris Ashton and Owen Farrell ahead of next week’s Champions Cup final against Clermont.
They have bigger fish to fry than to be too worried about finishing second or third or going on the road.
Sarries director of rugby Mark McCall said: “There were players who needed a rest and some players carrying injuries and if this had been a semi-final with nothing next week they would have played.”
Wasps bounced back from last week’s stuffing by Harlequins with Willie le Roux, Elliot Daly and Danny Cipriani back on song.
Record
Young Jr put in a massive shift – apart from his three tries – and Christian Wade equalled Dominic Chapman’s 20-year-old record of 17 tries in a Premiership season.
Wasps were 16-10 up at the break and knew a bonus point win would getg them the top spot.
But it took 71 minutes to rackr up their fourth score whichw came when Daly outstrippeds the Saracens defence.d
Sarries refused to chuck th the towel in, scrum-half Ben S Spencer scored twice – but th they were short of firepower. T They will have all their big gu guns back next week.