WASPS director of rugby Tony Hanks has not been afraid to try things this season, and Dan Ward-Smith and Ben Jacobs follow previous positional experiments with Mark Odejobi and David Lemi.

Winger Odejobi is learning the ropes as a flanker with the A team, while Lemi has been encouraged to develop his nine skills.

Hanks said: “My background has always been development. I’ve spent a lot of time with young players and you’re always trying to determine what position is best for them. Everyone is looking for that modern day player and saying, ‘what is the skill set’, but maybe we’ve got caught up in it a little bit and we need to make sure we don’t take it too far.

“The coaches have probably looked at me sideways a couple of times this year, but some of it has been through necessity and we felt Mark van Gisbergen needed a break.

“Ben [Jacobs] went to full back against Sale and did well and he’s just a really good footballer who would do a job anywhere in the team.

“Some of them are more long term. I spoke to David pre-season about developing his nine skill and I think the Odejobi one has real potential for the future.

“The A League performances have shown that he’s got something a little bit different in that position and I think he could make a real good fist of being an openside flanker.”

Jacobs and Ward-Smith have been the big hits though.

Mark Van Gisbergen has shown his best form for years this season – it says something about Jacobs then that the team weren’t knocked sideways when the centre filled in a full back against Gloucester on Sunday.

Jacobs said: “Mark has played a lot of games and had a couple of niggling injuries.

“I had been training there all that week and if the coaching staff are confident in me then I’m more than happy to play full back.

“My advice to myself was to run it from everywhere.

“I like to run the ball more than kick it, and with the weather at the moment we’re really encouraged to run the ball these days.

“As it was it was a good game and it all worked out well.”

Playing in an unfamiliar position in a European quarter-final was a big ask and a nerve-settling first touch would have been ideal.

Instead, Jacobs’ first involvement was dealing with a ball that bobbled at right angles as Gloucester backs closed in on him.

He said: “It hit my foot and kept on going, but I picked it up and kicked it through and then the next play it was like ‘great first touch’.

“But I’m pretty relaxed out there. I’ve seen it all and played a few games. If one thing goes wrong I know it’s not the end of the world.”

Wasps went on to score five tries against Gloucester, following the four they plundered against London Irish the previous week.

Jacobs said: “We’re finishing off our line breaks now. We’ve always been promising. We’ve always made the line breaks but it was just that last pass or last catch that was falling away.

“But we’ve kept on doing it every training session, we’ve kept working on it and we knew it was going to come. A lot of hard work over the season has come together over the last few games.

“The passes are sticking, the communication is good, the support lines are there. Everything is coming together.”