Young relishing summer challenges
With the squad into its second week of pre-season training, we caught up with London Wasps Director of Rugby Dai Young to give us the inside track on the build-up to the new season.
The majority of players returned to training in the middle of last week, with the likes of new arrivals Stephen Jones, Fabio Staibano and Lee Thomas all joining up with the squad at Twyford Avenue.
The Club’s international players, including its four England U20s players, have a four week break before returning to the squad.
Young explains what’s been happening around the training ground.
“We have got the bulk of the squad here but it won’t be till the start of August that we have absolutely everyone back. We have a brand new strength and conditioning (S&C) team and this is the time of year where we of course focus very hard on that area. There was assessment and testing last week and that’s really to see where we are as a squad.”
Young said the key aim at the moment is to arrive at the start of the season as fit as possible.
“In my view I don’t believe we have been fit enough to play the kind of game that I want to play so I have given the new S&C team my brief on how I want to play and how I expect the players to be delivered to me from a conditioning point of view. That will be done on a stage by stage basis but our goal is now to arrive at the start of the season as fit and as durable as possible. I want us to do everything we can to prevent us having the injury problems we had last season so injury prevention is also a key part of this work.”
Wasps will kick the season off at Twickenham at the London Double Header and Young is enjoying this time of year with the squad working their way towards that first competitive clash.
“I came in pretty late in the summer last year and I missed a lot of the planning and preparation and this season it will be far more my team than it was last year. We will get to that first game better prepared than we did last season and I’m looking forward to it all unfolding in the coming weeks.”
Young has also rejigged his coaching team over the summer with Shane Howarth joining next month as Backs Coach. He explains.
“We will have one less coach next season in order to work much closer together as a team. We all have individual roles but we will be very much working together as one. Trevor’s main role is with the forwards and Shane’s is with the backs and I am looking to bring in consultant specialists coaches at various points. One of these will certainly be in defence, but I will have a big role in that areas as well.”
Watch London Wasps kick the season off at the London Double Header. Details on tickets can be found here here
