THOMAS Young insists Wasps need to be “switched on” when they travel down to Bath in the Gallagher Premiership this weekend.
Young played the full 80 minutes as Wasps were thrashed 56-15 at Saracens last time out – as head coach Lee Blackett made 12 changes from the side that was beaten by Exeter Chiefs a fortnight ago.
And next up for Wasps is a trip to the Premiership’s bottom side Bath but Young insists they cannot take their opponents lightly who have lose three of their five matches by seven points or less.
Young said: “We’ve got to make sure that we go down with our heads switched on because we know just how tough of a game it’s going to be.
“Bath are a good team – other than the Saracens match they’ve been in every game – we know Bath are dangerous, we’re fully aware of that.
“We know what their threats are – we’ve got to make sure we nullify that – they’ve got threats all over the pitch.
“We want to win every game we go into – playing at home is an advantage – the away form isn’t something we’ve spoken about.”
Despite a raft of changes being made for the defeat against Saracens, Youngs feels the performance was below par and hopes to return to winning ways in Somerset.
Young added: “We were disappointed with the result – we had a lot of people playing for the club for the first time – we’ve quickly changed our mindset towards Bath because we know we’ve got to put things right this weekend.
“We’ve had to take our lessons from it and move on quickly – one thing for us as a squad is to make sure everyone has got a voice no matter who plays and to keep talking.
“We gave the ball away too easily – we did get turnovers and chances but we didn’t keep hold of the ball for long enough really.
“Everyone who takes to the field is capable – the performance wasn’t good enough but Saracens are one of the top teams – it was a learning curve us and especially the boys that were playing for the first time.”
Kieran Curran made his long-awaited comeback from injury from the bench at the StoneX Stadium in what was just his second Wasps appearance in over a year with Young describing the back-rower as a freak.
Young said: “He’s a freak – he’s a physical freak – he’s a different level in terms of fitness, he enjoyed the weekend, he has lessons to learn like all of us, hopefully he’ll play a lot more.
“He’s very fast and he’s strong – I think he’s quicker than half the backs!”
It was announced earlier this month that Young would join his father Dai at Cardiff Rugby at the end of the season and the 29-year-old flanker admitted it was a tough decision to bring his eight-year spell with Wasps to an end.
He said: “If I didn’t take the opportunity I would have regretted it – it wasn’t an easy decision, I’ve been here a long time, I’ve loved every minute of being here – it was a lot to think about, it was something I felt like I had to do.
“Rugby’s a short career and everyone says when you finish you don’t want any regrets – I was born and bred in the valleys, I’m from that area, I decided to go down that road.
“I know how he [Dai Young] goes about things – him being there was a factor – the quality players they’ve got in the back-row, if you’re not playing well you’re not going to play which is the same at Wasps.”
Wasps travel to Bath on Saturday, October 30 with kick-off at the Recreation Ground at 3pm.
