Newcastle United’s famous Premier League choke has Wasps on alert
Dai Young warned his Wasps 'galacticos' not to copy Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United and bottle their trophy hunt
DAI YOUNG warned his Wasps 'galacticos' not to copy Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United and bottle their trophy hunt.
Keegan's great entertainers threw away the title after setting the Premier League alight in 1996.
And double-chasing Wasps racked up 28 tries on their way to a Champions Cup last-eight date with Leinster in Dublin on Saturday.
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But boss Young admitted: "Contrary to people's thoughts, we don't advocate the Kevin Keegan approach where we're happy if they score one because we will score two.
"We are not going to win these games with five minutes of brilliance.
"We have plenty of X factor but that has to be underpinned by work-rate and physicality. I am confident we can deliver when our backs are against the wall."
As well as being Europe's top try-scorers, Wasps are five points clear in the Aviva Premiership.
They have the leading points scorer in centre Jimmy Gopperth and the league's ace try-scorer Christian Wade has crossed the whitewash 14 times in 17 Premiership games.
But a near sell-out crowd of Irish fans will pump up the volume at the Aviva Stadium — the scene of England's Grand Slam disaster.
So Young reminded his big-money summer signings Danny Cipriani, Kurtley Beale and Willie Le Roux that turning it on in these epic battles are just why Wasps broke the bank to sign them.
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Aussie fullback Beale, 28, is the Premiership's highest paid player on a £700,000-a year deal at the Ricoh while fly-half Cipriani, 29, is chasing a tour place with either the Lions this summer.
Welshman Young added: "We need these guys to really step up and play like we all know they can.
"We are playing against a formidable team and we know how tough it is going to be.
"This is the stage where you pay that extra bit for players to do something a little bit different and hopefully win the game for you.
"I'm sure Danny will want to be playing rugby somewhere in the summer, but he's no different from anybody else.
"Every game is a chance for people to state their Lions case but for us it's solely about making sure we play our game.
"In fairness to Danny, he's really led us well this season and I don't expect him to do any different this weekend."
Springbok fullback Le Roux got a bang on the head in Sunday's 40-33 win over Worcester while England flanker James Haskell is carrying a couple of niggles.
Young added: "We're not really going to know if Willie's fit probably until Friday but it's looking pretty positive.
"James has a dead leg and he's picked up a bit of a back spasm — but apart from that he's all right.
"He's limping about but he's pretty confident he'll be OK."