Dai’s fractured Wasps must rediscover sting

THE Wasps motto “once a Wasp, always a Wasp” is starting to look frayed around the edges. The loyalty shown by club talismen like Lawrence Dallaglio and Joe Worsley – two of the great one-club men – early in the professional era, and mirrored by team-mates such as Fraser Waters and Josh Lewsey, looks increasingly like a relic from a bygone age.

There are a few vestiges of the old allegiance, with Elliot Daly, Joe Launchbury and Joe Simpson all coming through the Wasps academy, and, until now, staying with the club through thick and thin.

However, the departures over the summer of two larger-than-life Wasps, Danny Cipriani and James Haskell, appears to have been a watershed. When it was followed a couple of months into the new season by the departure of another man-and-boy Wasp, Christian Wade – one of the Premiership’s greatest try-scorers – opting to try his luck at NFL, the watershed became more like a torrent of change.

Wasps director of rugby Dai Young has confirmed that they are in a bidding war with Saracens for Daly, while Simpson made it clear in April last year that he wanted to join Ealing – only for the scrum-half to be told by Young that he had another year on his contract, and was expected to see it through.

Simpson was injured in late November and has not played since, but it is highly unlikely he will be a Wasps player next season.

As a consequence, Launchbury could be the last man standing from the old London-based Academy system which served Wasps so well for the first 20 years of the pro era.

That sea-change brings with it an immediate challenge which, even this season, threatens to thrust Wasps deep into the relegation zone.

Young’s foray into the transfer market this summer, with 15 players brought in – of whom only three were from the academy – has left the club in a state of flux.

This is reflected in a dismal record of one win in the last 13 matches in all competitions. The attacking style that has characterised Wasps since their first European Cup win in 2004 to playoff places in the last three Premiership title races, is a shadow of what it was.

The Wasps sting has been bent out of shape and is in urgent need of surgery.

After being smashed by Leinster in the opening round of the European Cup, Wasps were dead and buried before the middle of the pool stage. To make matters worse they have slipped to eighth place in the Premiership table.

Given the revolving door at the Ricoh in recent seasons is not surprising that Wasps look like a group of strangers, or that there is little cohesion or accuracy come match day.

This afternoon they are at home to a reinvigorated Northampton side who are coming off a victory over Exeter at Franklin’s Gardens. The Saints have a mental edge over a disjointed, fractured Wasps outfit.

Young has exhorted his players to pick themselves up from last weekend’s ‘Big Game’ loss to Harlequins at Twickenham – but notwithstanding Launchbury’s return, it is difficult to see where they can get an edge.

Their most obvious lifeline is to attack a wobbly Saints scrum, but whether their newly imported All Black fly-half, Lima Sopoaga, can make it count is another matter.

Sopoaga has barely fired a shot over the last three months, but Young is putting a brave face on his star signing’s difficulties. He says that Sopoaga has not been helped by the injury absence of key backs like Jimmy Gopperth and Dan Robson.

Young has a phlegmatic way about him, and adds that it could take the New Zealand 10 a season to settle in.

The oversight in Young’s diagnosis – and it is a big one – is that if Wasps and Sopoaga do not get on the same wavelength very quickly the settling-in period could coincide with relegation to the Championship.

Given that there are 16 players in the Wasps squad who have been capped at international level – many of whom are being paid a king’s ransom – that would be a travesty.

By going down the import route Wasps have lost focus and direction, and with that comes the danger of a mercenary mentality taking root.

The transfer rumour-mill extends beyond Daly to Nathan Hughes, with reports that the injury-prone Fijianborn England No.8 is eyeing a move to Bristol. The idea of Hughes moving on after using the club as his launchpad for England eligibility is unlikely to meet with universal approval among Wasps fans.

Meanwhile, Willie Le Roux has said already that he will be returning to Japanese club rugby after the World Cup. Again, Wasps fans could be forgiven for thinking that if the South African full-back had been as diligent in defence for the club as he has been about his future playing plans perhaps they would have leaked fewer tries.

It can certainly be argued that Le Roux’s tackling at the back for Wasps has lacked the bite it had when he was playing for the Springboks against Eng- land in June. The reality is that Young may have taken a wrong turn.

Wasps might have overreached themselves in the transfer market, and failed to develop enough new academy talent to replenish their playing stocks.

Irrespective, the success or failure of his import strategy is in the balance, with Wasps desperate for a series of wins to restore confidence.

Another factor is that it is incumbent on any professional player to earn their corn.

That’s why the best paid internationals in the Wasps squad should stop gazing at the exit sign and knuckle down to the business of ensuring that the club whose colours they wear at least get value for money.

That way they will earn self-respect, and the respect of Wasps supporters – and not wince when they hear the words, “once a Wasp…”.

“Young’s foray into the transfer market has left the club in a state of flux”