The day Dallaglio gave Wasps heart
HOW LEGEND HANDED OLD CLUB NEW BELIEF
WASPS V BRISTOL 1.30PM
LAWRENCE DALLAGLIO has Wasps fired up to bring the glory days back to his beloved club.
Dallaglio’s old team are 80 minutes from the Premiership final after transforming their season since lockdown with eight wins out of nine.
They face Bristol at home today with a real opportunity to end 12 years without silverware since Dallaglio’s team won four Premierships and two European Cups in six seasons.
“It’s important for every club to be proud of their heritage,” said the World Cup winner. “And for the players to recognise they’ve got an opportunity to build on it and be part of that legacy.
“Wasps is not a place like a lot of other clubs. It’s not Leicester, it’s not Newcastle, Bath or Bristol. We’ve been nomadic for a long time.
“We’ve had lots of different training grounds, lots of different stadiums. It’s always been about the people. Wasps is a place that’s in your head and in your heart.”
Dallaglio reminded d the players of that when hen invited into camp to give ve a motivational talk not long ong after Lee Blackett took ok charge with ith them languishing three from om bottom in February.
Blackett admits some of his stars rs are so young that they ey “don’t even really know w who Jonny Wilkinson is – they think he’s a commentator!”
But Dallaglio’s rallying g cry resonated, with prop Kieran Brookes admitting: “Lawrence e definitely motivated the lads. What he said about what it takes to win silverware, and how hard you have to work, hit home.” The team’s response has stunned even Dallaglio, who admitted that “if you you’d d said to me when we were 10th that we’d finish three points behind Exeter at the top, I’d have said you were ready for the nut house.
“Twelve wins out of 14 since Lee took over, 10 try- bonus points, averaging over 30 points a game, is quite something.” But now for the acid test. Bristol, in the their first Premiership semi- fina final for 13 years, are a formidable force even without the injured Charles Piutau. The midfield clash between Semi Radradra and Malakai Fekitoa, Wasps’ bonecrunching All Black, would be w worth the ad admission money al alone – if any fans w were allowed in. “Semi has taken th the league by storm an and I’m glad I don’t ha have to tackle him,” sa said Blackett. “But wi with the firepower Bristol Bri possess we can’t can afford to make it a about one guy.”
What they have done is really quite something