Wasps 23 - 26 Biarritz: Young Wasps earn praise despite defeat

Wasps boss Dai Young declared himself “proud” of his young team after their brave second-half fightback was ended by France scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili’s late penalty which secured a Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final win for Biarritz.

Injury-hit Wasps started with six – and finished with eight – players aged 21 and under and Young believes they are the future of the club, currently battling against relegation from the Aviva Premiership.

Wasps, looking down and out when they trailed 23-9 after 60 minutes, hit back to level the scores at 23-23 before Yachvili settled the issue with his sixth successful kick from as many attempts.

Director of rugby Young said: “The players showed a lot of determination and a lot of guts to pull themselves back into that game. All our players are talking about the youngsters coming through so the future looks good.”

Young is also pleased to have 20-year-old wing prospect Christian Wade, who marked his return from three months on the injured list with the try which sparked the Wasps revival, back for the run-in as his side, second from bottom of the Premiership, battle to stay above basement club Newcastle.

Winger Richard Haughton was replaced at half-time because of an Achilles injury, former Scotland full-back Hugo Southwell followed two minutes later with an arm injury and centre Ryan Davis, scorer of the second try, took a bang on the knee. But Young expects all three to be fit for next Saturday’s visit to Premiership leaders Harlequins, along with scrum-half Nic Berry, who is recovering from concussion.

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s put themselves out for next week, which is important for us,” he said.

Desperate to avoid a last-day relegation crunch match when Newcastle visit Adams Park, Young added: “We are not out of jail in the Premiership – we need at least another win and we don’t want to leave it to the last game.

“Our focus moves on to Harlequins now and we know how difficult that’s going to be.”

Victory secured Biarritz a home semi-final against the winners of today’s clash between Brive and Welsh side Scarlets.