Dai Young steps down as Wasps director of rugby for ‘an interim period’

Dai Young has stepped down as Wasps’ director of rugby on an interim basis, raising genuine questions over his future at the Premiership club.

The 52-year-old was due to speak to the media on Monday afternoon ahead of this weekend’s Premiership resumption, with Wasps taking on fierce rivals Leicester Tigers in one of their most important games of the season.

But the former Wales international was a surprise absentee as assistant Ian Costello filled in for him, with the club confirming that Young was unavailable as he was attending a meeting with chief executive Stephen Vaughan.

The uncertainty over Young’s position led to a statement being issued on Tuesday morning that confirmed the British and Irish Lions international was no longer at the helm of the senior team, with backs coach Lee Blackett set to take interim charge against Leicester on Saturday afternoon.

However, the club stressed that the move is for now on a temporary basis, with Young still contracted to the Coventry-based club.

A club statement issued on Tuesday read: “Director of rugby Dai Young will be stepping back from first-team duties for an interim period. Lee Blackett will step up to interim head coach. Further announcements will be made in due course.”

Wasps’ poor form this season saw them mired in the relegation battle, only for Premiership Rugby to confirm that Saracens will be heading for the drop in the summer following a second points’ deduction due to their salary cap breach.

But they have won just three of their nine games this season in the league, following on from last season’s disappointing eighth-place finish, and have already been knocked out of Europe after finishing a distant third in their European Challenge Cup pool behind Bordeaux-Begles and Edinburgh.

The former Cardiff prop won 51 caps for Wales during an international career that spanned from 1987 until 2001, and he won three Test caps on the 1989 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia as they sealed a 2-1 series triumph. Young was appointed as Cardiff head coach in 2003 before leaving for Wasps in 2011, leading the club through their turbulent relocation to the Ricoh Arena and rebuilding the squad into a Premiership title-challenging side, finishing top of the table in 2016/17 only to lose the final to Exeter Chiefs in extra-time.

He signed his current contract last summer that runs until the end of the 2022/23 campaign, and upon announcing the deal Young confirmed that he intended it to be his last at the Ricoh Arena due to aspirations of testing himself at international level. “I genuinely love the club and want to be part of it,” Young said in September 2019.

“(The deal is) to 2023 and this will definitely be my last contract at Wasps. After that, I’d like to think that over the next two or three seasons I can demonstrate to people that I’m worthy of a Test opportunity. I’ll hopefully come to 2023 having done enough in the game to warrant that.”