Lee Blackett - How Leeds Carnegie and Rotherham Titans player and coach took Wasps to Twickenham

Rotherham Titans had just thrashed Yorkshire Carnegie in front of 2,000 supporters at a windswept Clifton Lane, providing yet more evidence of the burgeoning reputation of one of the brightest young coaches in English rugby.

“In my two-and-a-half years – and with everything that has gone on recently – I’ve never been more proud as a head coach,” said Blackett.

‘Everything that has gone on’ alluded to the battles Rotherham were having about where they were going to be playing the following season, after Blackett had transformed them from Championship strugglers to a club suddenly wondering where they would play if they won promotion to the Premiership.

It was clear his ambition had outgrown Rotherham Titans, and there were already murmurings back in February, 2015, that he would end up in the Premiership the following season, with or without Rotherham.

As it turned out, it would be without. Blackett moved his young family to north London to take up the post of backs coach at Wasps, the former European champions and one-time dominant force of English rugby, who had been beguiled by the attacking brand of rugby that the 32-year-old had instilled in the Clifton Laners.

This evening at Twickenham, Blackett – now 37 – leads Wasps out in the Premiership final. Should they beat recently-crowned European champions Exeter it will be an accomplishment that will replace the defeating of Yorkshire Carnegie as his proudest moment.

Even getting this far is no mean feat. Blackett only assumed the reins in February following the shock resignation of Dai Young, but either side of the coronavirus pandemic he has transformed Wasps into a try-scoring machine, in a similar vein to how he used to have Rotherham playing.

“Concentrating on what we are good at,” was how Blackett modestly assessed his influence on Wasps, who dropped to ninth after he lost his first game in charge, before winning all but one further fixture since to reach the Twickenham showpiece.

Coaching was always his end-game, combining playing for Rotherham and Leeds Tykes/Carnegie with coaching Sheffield Hallam University since the age of 25.

Barney Maddison, a forward with Rotherham at the time, saw first-hand the head coach in the making.

“It has not surprised me at all how he has taken Wasps to the final,” Maddison, now with Ealing Trailfinders, told The Yorkshire Post.

“He was always a really, really good coach.

“I worked with him at Sheffield Hallam University and you could see the signs then.

“And I played alongside him at Rotherham when he first came in as a player and then under him in those two and a half years with the Titans.”

It has not been the easiest build-up for Blackett and team, and even as late as the early hours of Thursday morning, Wasps’ appearance in the Premiership final was in doubt due to a raft of positive Covid tests among the staff.

Blackett, whose side to face Exeter has been weakened considerably, said: “If we are all being honest, it hasn’t been ideal preparation, but I have to give credit to the players because they have coped with it admirably.

“A lot of credit must also go to the staff, the amount of work that they have put in behind the scenes to allow us to play in this game is phenomenal.

“It has been a difficult week in terms of all of that, but the one thing that we spoke about at the start of the season is being adaptable. Now the players will do everything they can to put in a performance.

“We know it will be tough – Exeter deservedly finished top of the league this season – but we are confident with the form that we can take into the game.”

Exeter have reached their fifth successive Premiership final, and they will arrive at Twickenham in pursuit of a trophy double following last week’s European Champions Cup victory over Racing 92. Only three other English clubs have achieved that previously; Leicester, Saracens and Wasps.

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