By Andy Turner, Coventry Telegraph.
October 9 2014

...after £20m takeover of Ricoh Arena.  Wasps director of rugby wants the local rugby team to thrive and grow rather than become a rival after the sale of the stadium was confirmed 

Wasps director of rugby Dai Young has outlined the Aviva Premiership club’s plans to help rather than rival Coventry Rugby Club.

The two clubs have already held constructive talks about developing community projects, player development schemes in a “collaboration” to ensure both thrive and grow attendances at Butts Park as well as the Ricoh Arena.

“First and foremost we are very respectful of the history and tradition that Coventry Rugby Club have created over the years, and we see nothing but positives from our relationship,” said the  47-year-old former Wales international, who revealed Wasps are planning to build a state-of-the-art training facility in the city.

“Moving into the area we don’t see ourselves as competitors, we see ourselves as partners who can help each other.

“I’ve already got a pretty good relationship with some of the coaches and we’ve had a very productive meeting.

"We’ve looked each other in the eyes and recognised that both parties are people we can trust, and both parties are confident that they can deliver a partnership that can better Coventry as a city.

“With Coventry playing in division one at the minute we feel that we could support them with some of our younger players, which will obviously enhance their squad.

"That’s the easy part and something that can be seen, but an open door policy between ourselves is important so that we are there to try to help them.

“We have talked to them about the way we are going to invest heavily to be at the real cutting edge of our sports and medical departments, and we see that as something that can help Cov as well.

"We’re more than happy to open our doors to help in any way in up-skilling the coaching development and physios, so it’s a real pathway to helping each other.

“Obviously with some of the community stuff Coventry do, if we can help with that then we’re more than happy. We just want to assure them that we’re here to develop a strong partnership.”

Asked if there would be opportunity for talented Cov players to break into Wasps top-flight squad, he said: “Absolutely. No team likes to be called a feeder team and people can get a little bit upset by that.

“Obviously they have got junior systems and players coming through and there’s no reason, with our support, that we can’t help them get better and play as high as possible.

“Equally, we’d like to feel that with our younger players, if we have a young lad playing for Cov for two or three seasons and they really kick on and they are playing Premiership and want to play for England, Coventry would still be their club. You can’t take away where you played your rugby.

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Wasps' Dai Young promises to support Coventry RFC...

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 09/10/2014 20:32

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
09/10/2014 20:32

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