TOM Varndell is the second highest try-scorer in Premiership history, but even that record isn’t enough to guarantee a starting place in this season’s Wasps team.

That was the message from Dai Young on Sunday after his team had just beaten Aviva Premiership champions Northampton Saints for the first time in five years.

Varndell scored the all-important second try, having been left out of their season opener against Saracens at Twickenham the previous week.

At the time it was understood to be a niggle keeping out the man who has crossed the whitewash 76 times for Leicester Tigers and Wasps.

But Young said: “He just wasn’t picked last week and to be honest he was very disappointed. But we’ve got a squad with some depth and quality. Everyone has to fight for the jersey and everyone has to fight to keep hold of the jersey.

“There are no automatic selections. Somebody is always snapping at your heels.”

Alongside Varndell, Wasps have Christian Wade, Sailosi Tagicakibau, Jonah Holmes, Will Helu, Alapati Leiua and Tom Howe as options on the wing.

And that isn’t the only area where they suddenly look to have safety in numbers.

Rob Miller, Andrea Masi and Elliot Daly can all play full back, there is no shortage of centres, scrum halves or back rows, while Joe Launchbury, Bradley Davies, James Gaskell and Kearnan Myall are all first team quality.

Young also has three hookers to choose from and perhaps the only slight question mark comes at tighthead – and now fly half.

Young said: “I haven’t had many sleepless nights picking teams but now it’s starting to become a bit of a headache.

“It’s a lovely headache to have and it’s added to everything. Training is a little bit more intense and competitive because players are vying for positions.

“A lot of times last season and definitely the season before there were a lot of automatic selections which didn’t allow me to put much pressure on people.

“You can say what you like to players but if they know they’re going to play again the next weekend it takes the edge off. But now we’re not going to play the same team every week.

“Everyone is going to have an opportunity to put their hand up and the only time when I’ll definitely pick what I believe is our best team at that moment is in the European games.

“We’ve got to utilise the squad. We’ve got make sure people don’t overplay or underplay. We’ll make changes this season and it won’t necessarily mean people are being dropped.

“But everybody wants to play and it’s difficult to tell a player they’re not playing and it’s time to give somebody else an opportunity.

“Players hurt when they’re not playing. They want to make it impossible for you not to play them and Tom certainly showed how to respond.”