Press Conference Notes

Wasps Forwards Coach Andy Titterrell spoke to the media ahead of Saturday's European Challenge Cup clash with Edinburgh Rugby at Ricoh Arena (kick-off 3pm).



Here’s what he had to say:

On last week’s Edinburgh performance

We were disappointed. We thought it was a game we could go after and I think we did go after it but a couple of lapses in concentration and sticking to structure in terms of our defence let us down a bit.

The set-piece struggled and we weren’t able to run our strike plays we’d practised during the week.

There were some harsh words said in training on Monday which needed to be said but hopefully we can go out and deliver now.

On second-row

I think some people underestimate the value of the second-row in the back-five of the scrum. It’s a combined effort.

Where we’ve had Joe Launchbury, Will Rowlands, James Gaskell and Charlie Matthews, they hold considerably more weight than Theo Vukasinovic and Tim Cardall but those two are young locks coming through.

Through someone else’s misfortune you get opportunities and I think with Theo in for his first European game and Timmy calling for a second game from a lineout perspective, it can only bode well for them in the future. Edinburgh had two Scottish international locks and it was a good test for them. They’ve done well. Timmy has called well where we’ve had a back-row stepping into the lock position. It does become tricky but he’s held his nerve well.

On this week’s return fixture at Ricoh Arena

We’re fully aware of what Edinburgh will bring at set-piece. We know the type of set-piece that Richard Cockerill will have been used to during his time at Leicester Tigers.

We need to put things right from last weekend and being at home gives us a great opportunity to do that.

We want to make it tough for teams, whoever comes to The Ricoh.

The boys know what’s at stake and hopefully we’ll get a performance that we can all be proud of.

Injury/team news

Brad Shields has gone for a scan and is doubtful for this week.

Thomas Young came through the match fine. It’s about getting him more game-time and up to speed.

It’ll be a very competitive 23 this weekend. There are guys that we might look after if they’re a doubt as we have to look at three Premiership games across the Christmas period. But we are certainly going to go after this game so it’ll be competitive.

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