Wasps eager to learn from Quins (From Bucks Free Press)

Wasps: Harlequins are the blueprint

2:30pm Thursday 7th February 2013 in Sport

SOME people say that to see Wasps in four years time you have to only look at Harlequins four years ago.

From the depths of relegation Quins have emerged as one of Europe’s strongest clubs and Wasps director of rugby Dai Young admits there is a lot to learn from their historical rivals.

He said: “Quins going down was the best thing that could have happened to them.

“They had a root and branch review of what they were doing and came back a stronger team and have just built and built to where they are now.

“Last year was the lowest of the lows for Wasps. We didn’t have to get relegated to look at ourselves. We have looked at ourselves and things are improving greatly off the field.

“It’s taking longer than anyone expected and we’ve still got a long way to go, but there is a blueprint there for us to follow.

“If you look at Quins now you’d have to say they do most things right.

“They’re number one in Europe, top of the Aviva Premiership, just won the A League, through to the semi-finals of the LV=Cup...they’re pretty faultless.

“We’re trying to make our history and tradition over the next couple of seasons and they’re certainly someone we should look at and say there’s a real blueprint for how we should go.

“They’ve taken two or three years to get there but there’s no reason why we can’t do that.”