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Dai Young laments Wasps' collapse in front of 24,000 at the Ricoh

(Photo by PA)

Wasps director of rugby Dai Young was bitterly disappointed to lose 28-22 to Harlequins after seeing his side throw away a 17-point lead.

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In front of a crowd of over 24,000 at the Ricoh Arena, Wasps looked in total control when they built up a 17-0 advantage in the first quarter but then conceded 28 unanswered points to gift their opponents victory.

Wasps’ tries came from Jack Willis, Zach Kibirige and Thomas Young with Jacob Umaga kicking two conversions and a penalty.

Quins responded with tries from James Chisholm, Kyle Sinckler, Elia Elia and Marcus Smith, who converted all four for a tally of 13 points.

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Young said: “For the first period, I thought we were excellent as we were really dominant in all facets. We were very physical and won five turn-overs and when you go 17 points up, you think it’s probably job done.

“They then scored a soft try and the intensity went completely from our game. We struggled to get it back and it took us until 14 minutes from the end to spark it up again.

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“It’s hugely disappointing as we lost all the collisions when Quins started to chase the game and the belief then started to drain from our players as their heads drop too easily when you should dust yourself down and come back strongly.

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“It was a fantastic crowd and a fantastic occasion but the biggest emotion I have is letting the supporters down and we have to do better.”

It was a different story for Quins director of rugby Paul Gustard, who was elated to come away with a bonus-point victory.

He said: “It was a game of three-quarters for in the first quarter we were extremely poor as we regularly lost possession and dropped off tackles to concede 17 soft points.

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“For the next 40 minutes, it was one-way traffic as our set-piece was on top throughout but then the final eight or nine minutes saw us nearly manage to grab defeat from the jaws of victory.

“We were under the cosh but fortunately Elia Elia managed to rip the ball from a maul at the end to save us.

“I thought our back row were excellent as last week at Ulster we were bullied and centre Paul Lasike also made a vital contribution as he gave us momentum.

“Marcus (Smith) kicked well to give us field position and to come away with a bonus-point win is a good leg up for the team.”

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Head high tackle 2 hours ago
Can Samoa and Tonga ever become contenders when their top talent is skimmed?

I think you have gone in the wrong direction here Nick. I think you need to delve down into the rules etc around Moana Pacifica’s selection policies and then you need to understand that a lot of KIWI BORN rugby players have PI heritage. It appears ok for the 4 home nations to pillage NZ born players constantly without retribution but you want to question whether NZ BORN players should be eligible for NZ? Seems a real agenda in there.

Go back and look at the actual Aims and agenda for MP becoming a entity and you see lots of things enshrined in policy that you arnt mentioning here. EG there is an allowance for a percentage of MP to be NZ eligible. This was done so MP could actually become competitive. Lets be real. If it wasnt this way then MP would not be competitive.

There also seems to be some sort of claim ( mainly from the NH ) that NZ is “cashing in” on MP, which , quite frankly is a major error. Are you aware of how much MP costs NZR Financially?

39 NZ born rugby players played at the last world cup for Samoa or Tonga. PLUS plenty for Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales.

Taumoefolau is a BORN AND BRED NZer. However I very strongly doubt he will be an AB, but who do you believe he should be allowed to play for? Levi Aumua is ALSO a born and bred Kiwi.

Aumua was eligible to represent Samoa and Fiji for the Pacific Nations Cup in July that year but ended up playing for neither. He IS eligible for his nation of Birth too Nick

He is a Kiwi. Are you saying an NZ born, raised Kiwi cant play for NZ now?

Sorry Nick Kiwi born and bred actually qualify for NZ.

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