He’s still my dad, but on the pitch I know who’s boss!
THE son of the boss at Wasps, Thomas Young has long since banished any suspicions that he was benefiting from nepotism — but he can’t escape the wind- up comments from certain team-mates.
Dai Young, the club’s director of rugby, thought long and hard about signing his boy in 2014. He did not want there to be any sense that family loyalty was clouding his professional judgment. He need not have worried.
Thomas has emphatically proved his worth and in June his sterling exploits in Wasps’ back row propelled him into the Wales team for his first two Test appearances.
‘ When things didn’t work out at Cardiff Blues and my dad gave me an opportunity to come here, he thought I was capable of playing at this level and I’m thankful for that,’ Young Jnr told Sports
mail. ‘It’s down to him that I’ve got where I am.
‘I knew people were bound to think, “He’s only signing him because he’s his son”. Every time I train and play, I want to make sure I do well because in my head I’ve still got points to prove.
‘I still get banter from within the squad, guys saying, “Come on then, what’s the team? Did you pick it last night?”.
‘(James) Haskell is quick to jump on the bandwagon and get into me. You just have to take what he says with a pinch of salt. It’s all harmless fun.’
Thomas is matter of fact about how the dynamic works. ‘ He is still my dad, but when we’re out on the pitch he’s the boss,’ he said. ‘Some players will say he is harder on me but I wouldn’t have it any other way. He gave me this opportunity and without him, I don’t know what I would be doing.’
Thomas’s two brothers were born in Salford, while his dad was playing rugby league there, but he is ‘Welsh through and through’.
‘My mum went home when I was born, then came back to Salford, where we lived for about six years,’ he said. ‘ She just came home to give birth. I have no idea why!
‘I grew up in Aberdare. I went to a Welsh-speaking school, the only one in that area. Dad can’t speak Welsh but my mum can, so when we all lived at home, if we were speaking Welsh to my mother, he’d think we were talking about him and he didn’t like it!’
Growing up in Aberdare, Thomas’s repertoire included swimming, athletics and triathlon, as well as rugby, but the oval ball game was always No 1. There was no paternal pressure to make a career out of it though.
‘We never got pushed into rugby because my dad played,’ said Thomas, whose brothers both play for Aberdare’s 1st XV. ‘It was just that all our friends played, so it all fell into place. You just follow the crowd and do what your friends do. There was no pressure from my dad.’
He certainly wasn’t a chip off the old block in terms of position. ‘I’ve never been big enough to be a prop, or perhaps my mother kept us out of the front row!’ he said. ‘I was a back when I was younger and it was my dad who ended up moving me to seven.’
Tomorrow, he will start at No 8 against Saracens at Allianz Park, but the unfamiliar role won’t faze him. Explaining his outlook, he said: ‘I like having the ball in my hands. I see myself as an attacking back-row forward.’
In time, the plan is for a postrugby move into the police, but that is on the back burner for now. Thomas Young has gone from being the son of a famous father to a man of the moment in his own right.