Launchbury’s leadership the key, says Young
Dai Young has hailed the influence of Wasps captain Joe Launchbury in his side’s resurgence, which continued with Saturday’s impressive bonus-point victory.
The dark days of five successive defeats proved the testing ground of Launchbury’s captaincy, according to Young, and the England lock has been the rock on which their recent revival has been founded.
The Wasps’ back line might have caused most of the damage, with Christian Wade, Josh Bassett and Juan de Jongh scoring, along with a powerhouse finish by Ashley Johnson. But in the victories over Harlequins in the Champions Cup and against the Saints, the central theme was a greater energy and commitment of their defensive line and a more patient use of the ball.
To that end, Young says that Launchbury’s influence as leader was as important during their losing streak as it has been in his side’s upturn in fortunes.
“Joe Launchbury deserves a special mention,” said Young. “Not only the way he has played, but the way he has been as a captain right through the season. It is a wellknown cliche that when you need people, the strong get stronger, and he has certainly stood up when things haven’t been going well and led from the front in every game.”
Launchbury, who flew to Portugal yesterday with England for their training camp in the Algarve, said his squad had confronted the reality that they could no longer simply rely on the creative genius of their back line, as they had done last season. “Probably a bit of honesty,” said Launchbury, when asked what was key in the turnaround.
“Not so much the flash stuff we did at times last year [when] we scored lots of tries and that allowed us to be five or 10 per cent off in other areas.
“We have had to focus hard on our defence, and that has improved vastly over the last few weeks. We are a hard team to break down now. That, coupled with a few tweaks in the attack, has hopefully got us back to an area we are happy to be in.
“We have got a bit of a break now for the guys to keep working hard on the training pitch and keep improving. That month or so we had at the start of the season has got to stay at the front of our minds a bit, because it keeps the focus sharp.”
Wasps’ injury list has lengthened, with both Elliot Daly (knee) and Matt Mullan (elbow/bicep) forced to come off on Saturday.
Both withdrew from England’s trip to Portugal although another Saturday casualty, Northampton fly-half Piers Francis, will travel.
From an England perspective, the loss of Mullan is mitigated by Harlequins’ successful appeal over Joe Marler’s suspension. Marler’s ban for striking will now finish on Nov 12 rather than a week later meaning he will be only miss the opening Test against Argentina at Twickenham.
Young is hopeful that several of his squad will be fit to return to Premiership action during England’s autumn Test campaign.
For Northampton, the break for LV Cup action offers the chance to bind up their wounds after four successive defeats. A try by Ahsee Tuala gave them an early lead and the game could have taken a different shape if they had been able to finish a counter-attack by Tuala and Nafi Tuitavake, which instead ended in a breakaway try for Wade. Even then, with Francis kicking four penalties, they had got themselves back into the contest before defensive errors led to tries for Bassett and De Jongh.