West: It’s crunch time now and we’ve got work to do

AS he prepares to make his 50th Premiership appearance, prop Tom West is adamant that the endof-season play-offs are not beyond Wasps.

Back-to-back defeats to Harlequins and then Bristol have halted the team’s momentum and they go into today’s game in ninth place, level on points with opponents Northampton but with an inferior points difference.

“We are getting to crunch time now, and we know we have got some work to do,” said the 26year-old, who admits there is little margin for error.

“We can’t muck up but it’s (top four) within reaching distance, that is the goal. The Quins game was close, we had a blip against Bristol, but we are still in good spirits and the boys are training well.”

Wasps beat Northampton 26-20 when the sides met in Coventry back in October.

West, right, added: “They seem like a good pack, they’re well-organised and come with a lot of weight so we’ll have to find a way to negate that and make sure the scrum stays balanced. It’ll be a really great contest.

“Anyone can beat anyone on their day in this league, that’s the beauty of the salary cap, I think.

“You speak to the older guys and they say it is night and day compared to when they first came into the league.”

West has battled back from knee surgery in the summer and a few subsequent niggles, to make ten appearances this season and stake a claim as Wasps’ number one loosehead.

Head coach Lee Blackett is a big believer in the academy graduate and recently awarded the man from Norfolk with a new deal.

A strong ball carrier, West is never afraid to put his head in where it hurts for the club he has served since first joining the academy as a 15-year-old and is happy to keep on doing the unsung work.

“I just want to do what I can for the team on a weekend,” he said. “If that means I hit 20 breakdowns and I don’t do anything else in the game, I don’t care I just want to help us win.

“It’s massively pleasing to get a new deal. I appreciate the confidence shown in me and, hopefully, I can repay it over the next few years.”

West, who has been on the fringes of the England squad, has been talked about in international terms recently – but more as a reference point than in terms of a call-up.

Mention of his name was made during the Ireland v Italy farce when the Azzurri were reduced to 13 men when they lost their two nominated hookers to injury and a red card.

A similar thing happened when Wasps played at Bath a couple of seasons ago and West was asked by referee Wayne Barnes if he could confidently play hooker. The answer was no, and the match went to uncontested scrums.

West was fairly oblivious to the latest incident until he looked at social media because he’d not long arrived in Paris at the start of a five-day mini break with his girlfriend during Wasps’ bye week.

Rather than worry about front row regulations, West was too busy taking in the Parisian culture.

“I had surgery in the offseason so I didn’t have any time off, and I had another injury in the first part of the season which made me miss the first week off, so it was good to get away,” he said.

“I think it (the bye week) is so needed, especially with the stage the Premiership is at now with how physical and how intense it is.”