JAMES Haskell believes Coventry will be the saving of Wasps and that the club had grown weary of being the working class heroes of the Premiership.

For years they challenged the wealthiest clubs in the land without having anything like their financial clout, but while that formed the club’s hard-nosed character in the time of Lawrence Dallaglio et al, Haskell says times have moved on.

He said: “We always had the mentality that we weren’t particularly privileged, we didn’t have the best.

“But that made you hungry and angry to play and you went out there and worked hard on the field and off the field. That was the mentality.

“But that only works so long. The game has transformed since I first started playing. You need to look after the guys now. The game is so much more attritional and there are so many more retirements.

"The game is going to kick on, the medical side, the fitness side, the business side...you need to be competitive in that environment. Coming to the Ricoh, we’re now up there.”

Haskell also believes that without the uncertainty off the field, the team will flourish on it.

He said: “Players should be focused on rugby and everything else should take care of itself. Unfortunately at Wasps because we have had different owners and all these issues, that’s become a problem.

“When guys turn up at rugby they should be concentrating on performance and playing. But at Wasps at times it’s been, are we going to get paid? Where are we playing? What’s the situation?

“As of today, that’s changed.”