Dynamic, sparkling Wasps light up the Premiership
Unbeaten this season, Young’s men are the team to watch – and few can match their bold style
Wasps are undoubtedly the team to watch at the moment. With four victories from four matches, they are in absolutely sparkling form.
I said earlier in the season that I thought they were the second-best side behind Saracens, and that is probably still the case, even though Saracens slipped up last weekend against Harlequins. But it is also fair to say that the quality of Wasps’ rugby is such at the moment that it will be very difficult for anyone to match it.
It was a surprise when Quins won that match against Saracens last week, but it will be just as big a surprise should they win at the Ricoh Arena today. That is how good Wasps are at the moment.
I do think that the good weather and the quality of grounds is helping them and their style, but that should take nothing away from their dynamic style of play that is so lighting up the Aviva Premiership.
We saw it last season, but what we are seeing now is more than a hint that there could be more consistency to their play and that they might be able to go even further than being losing semi-finalists in both England and Europe last season.
Some players, such as back-rowers Guy Thompson and Sam Jones, have grown markedly in stature already this season, and are making real names for themselves. That is always a good sign, when you consider the quality of already proven players around them.
They have a remarkable line-up of players available to make their distinctive style of play work so smoothly and efficiently.
You look at scrum-half and they have Dan Robson and Joe Simpson, and indeed Craig Hampson, who was at Yorkshire Carnegie and Bristol previously, as third choice, who are all dynamic nines, players who like to tap and run and have a go. There is no way that Wasps could do what they do without that type of nine. They are so often the catalysts.
Then there is the 10/12 link between Danny Cipriani and Jimmy Gopperth, which I think is currently proving a real nugget in their play and decisionmaking. It provides such a natural link between half-back, midfield and the back row, with it all revolving around that axis. Some difficult decisions may loom over selection for director of rugby Dai Young in these positions, but Cipriani at 10 and Gopperth at 12 is a combination that is really working for him.
To play like Wasps do you need a lot of ball-carriers and a lot of pacy attackers and runners. And, boy, do they have a lot of both. Without even really thinking I got to over 20 names in total. You cannot always do that when looking at a squad, because you will invariably come across someone who you have to list as a grafter or whatever, but not here.
With apologies to anyone I might have missed out, just look at the genuine ball-carriers. They have Tommy Taylor, Nathan Hughes, Thompson, Thomas Young, Ashley Johnson, Jones, Joe Launchbury and James Gaskell. And that is without including the injured James Haskell.
And so to the attackers. Obviously Kurtley Beale has not played yet, but you have Christian Wade, Elliot Daly, Frank Halai, Rob Miller (a full-back whom I rate very highly), Kyle Eastmond, Nick De Luca, and then Willie le Roux to come into the mix.
It is quite incredible. You have got all those carriers to get over the gain line and then all those runners to attack the spaces. You need both types of player, and Wasps have them. They simply have threats everywhere.
You have to give Young huge credit for assembling such a squad and also to backs coach Lee Blackett, who came from Rotherham, for the work he has done in giving the players the confidence to back themselves, to find the spaces and then use them.
As I mentioned, the big question might arise when it comes to the middle of winter and some pitches are heavier, and we have to see how the others not in that list, say the props Matt Mullan and Jake Cooper-Woolley, cope with the scrummaging pressure and tight work to keep Wasps on the front foot and in the right parts of the field. Their scrum can definitely come under pressure, as was shown against Northampton last weekend.
But what has not bothered them at the moment is which part of the field they play, as Gopperth’s try against Northampton, fashioned by Cipriani inside his own 22 and continued by Thompson, showed.
If there was a try that reflects the Wasps approach, that was it. It also showed Cipriani’s qualities at their best, demonstrating what he can bring to a team with his ability to see such an opportunity early, then to react and finally to execute.
As a group their work at the contact areas is excellent, always geared to keeping the ball free and alive, with their support lines and footwork so good, too. That allows them to keep the momentum and dynamism up, which is one of the characteristics the All Blacks have and one of the reasons why they are so much better than every other Test side. It is not a bad template for Wasps to follow.
When they do turn the ball over, their first instinct is to get it into space and use it, and again there was a wonderful example of that last weekend when they scored the matchclinching try against Northampton. The ball was knocked on and Wasps pounced, Robson running and kicking ahead before wing Josh Bassett scored – he is not slow, either, and I did not even mention him on that list earlier!
We can talk all day about their work with the ball, but especially in away victories at Leicester and Northampton this season, their work rate without the ball has also been outstanding. Often, performances away from home define how good a side are going to be, and these were two outstanding examples.
And what was even more impressive was that those two victories were constructed differently. The win at Leicester was achieved by pace and accuracy, with a score being built through some ruthless finishing.
By contrast, the success at Northampton came despite being under serious pressure for long periods and having to do an awful lot of defending. It can be said that Northampton missed a lot of chances, but the flip side of that is that Wasps forced them to rush those overlaps and then took their own chances, or created them from nothing, as the first try from Gopperth showed.
No game is ever the same, and Wasps are reacting impressively to those changing challenges.
Quins will need to come up with something very special today to upset them.