‘We haven’t played our final’ was the message inside the Wasps camp after securing victory in their Premiership last-four clash.
The 47-24 thumping of Bristol Bears saw Lee Blackett’s side progress to the Twickenham Stadium showpiece even where they will face Exeter Chiefs, who defeated Bath in the other semi-final.
Here’s what the Wasps head coach said after the game as Jimmy Gopperth kicked 22 points and Dan Robson, Jack Willis, Zach Kibirige, Matteo Minozzi and Malakai Fekitoa scored tries at the Ricoh Arena…
What was your chat in the gathering after the game?
“You’ll probably think it sound a bit negative but it wasn’t meant to be, it was actually, I spoke to Joe on the way through and he was actually the one who addressed the teams and his big comment was, look enjoy it, by all means but we haven’t played our final.
“Sometimes you think you’ve played your final to get there and it’s a load of emotion gone in so we just need to control ourselves. Yes, enjoy it, yes celebrate but actually in two weeks you’ve got a big game coming up.”
So you’ve quite quickly tried to keep the guys on it
“That was led by Joe more than me, I fully agree with what he said so obviously that’s the way we felt, probably a couple of years ago we looked at this game, we won the semi-final here v Leicester right at the end and we put so much emotion into winning there, didn’t have enough maybe for the week after so for us it’s about keeping the emotions under wraps. Okay, yes enjoy it why wouldn’t you? It’s a great performance but we’ve got a big game coming up in two weeks’ time.”
Could you talk a little bit about Jimmy Gopperth?
“He’s getting better and better towards the end of the season so it’s hard to remember back but about a year ago, he had over a year out, struggling for any game time, couldn’t get himself back fit and now he’s fighting fit, an absolute key for us. I thought the 9-10-12 were really good today in terms of the way they managed, it’s hard to really pick those three you could’ve picked anyone on the whole team.
“But Jimmy’s a great leader, gives confidence and the best thing about him, he always has a good feel of what the game needs at the right time.”
What was the bedrock of that performance ?
“Defence, it’s something we’ve spoken about for a long time, we’ve always had the ability as a team to score points, we’ve always seemed to have that ability but when you’re wanting to win things, when you want to get to the business end like you are now, defence generally wins it you, and set-piece.
“So those are your two main things, obviously your scoring points is vital but that for me was probably the big thing, those two things our set piece and defence. I know we end up scoring a lot of points but just have a look at how much that came off our defence or our set piece.”
Since you took over, what’s the big change in the group?
“You can pinpoint honestly, hundreds of tiny little things. I just think there’s such an air of confidence and the leadership within the group and that can be anyone within the group, everyone’s got their own area.
“I think beforehand the pressure was probably getting to us and that was the hardest thing. When you see players that are so passionate about the club or you see staff that are so passionate about the club, working so hard behind the scenes when they’re coming up you could see the pressure getting to boys, more and more nervous and by each poor result we had, I just feel that now obviously we’ve got that win for us under our belt and it’s great to see the environment, everyone’s hard-working and and that’s paying off on the field.”
Malakai looked quite emotional when he came off injured early on…
“Malakai he’s such a competitive guy. He’s been really excited for this battle, obviously two world-class 13s going against each other and so Malakai’s been like a little kid all week, he’s been so excited for what was coming and he’s obviously pretty gutted but he’s delighted with the win.
“It was a groin injury. Hopefully we will get him back, he’s big for us.”
