THE last thing you need when you’re trying to make up ground is a match against Saracens.

They are top of the league after comprehensively beating play-off rivals Bath and Harlequins in their last two games and in recent years have become so powerful that their sheer bulk creates a surge that precedes their arrival.

Their opponents feel it wash over them in the days before kick-off and some are sunk before the match even starts.

They are the Leicester of old.

Wasps director of rugby Dai Young said: “They’ve just built and built and built and got stronger and stronger the last three or four years.

“They are certainly the team to beat and are looking to dominate English rugby for a long time to come. They’re only getting better.”

Wasps, who scrambled to a desperate win over the bottom team in their last match and lost five in a row before that, appear to be up against it.

But, despite the two clubs’ diverging fortunes, Premiership matches have been close in the last three years with the winning margin greater than a score in only one of the last five.

Young said: “Like any team they can be beaten on the day. First and foremost you have to match their physicality because they’ll certainly come at you.

“They’ve got a strong set piece and big kicking game, but you’ve just got to take the game to them.

“That’s what we’ve got to do. To give yourself a chance you’ve got to take them on. You can’t sit back and defend and hope you don’t lose because they have too much armoury.

“You’ve got to go out there and try and play.”