Lee Blackett hails ‘confident’ Alfie Barbeary

Colin Newboult
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Wasps' Alfie Barbeary is tackled by Montpellier's Bismarck du Plessis during the Champions Cup match at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry.

Wasps head coach Lee Blackett praised the performance of Alfie Barbeary after the youngster inspired them to a 33-14 triumph over Montpellier on Friday.

Outstanding number eight Barbeary scored two of Wasps’ five tries, with James Gaskell, Paolo Odogwu and Charlie Atkinson getting one apiece, with Jimmy Gopperth adding three conversions and Atkinson one.

Alex Lozowski and Yvan Reilhac crossed for Montpellier, with Benoit Paillaugue converting both.

Wasps clearly have a huge talent in the highly promising Barbeary and Blackett said: “It was great to see Alfie and the half-backs, Charlie Atkinson and Will Porter, doing so well tonight as they are youngsters playing in key positions.

Move to centre

“Alfie was always able to be the boss in junior rugby, but he is now proving he is a good talent. There has been a huge change in his training mentality in the last four months and he is a very confident young man who believes in himself.

“He says he wants to play centre and I’m not sure whether he’s joking or not.”

The hosts left Dan Robson, Joe Launchbury, Jack Willis and Will Rowlands out of their side and were helped by the seventh-minute dismissal of Montpellier full-back Henry Immelman for a high tackle on scrum-half Will Porter.

But the win was not as decisive as the scoreline suggested as a spirited Montpellier refused to crumble.

Blackett said: “We wanted to get our European campaign off to a winning start last week so we played our leading players and it was a difficult decision to rest them this week, but it worked out well.

“With such a short nature of the competition this season, the most pleasing thing about the last two weeks are the results, especially with two bonus-point wins.

“We have been off the pace since the restart, but we are improving all the time as the speed around the park was better tonight.

“They are a top quality side and the early red card seemed to inspire them.”

Wasps have made an indifferent start to their Premiership campaign, with just one win so far.

“We are disappointed at the start we’ve made and it doesn’t get easier with our next three games against Exeter, Bath and Sale,” Blackett said.

“We’ll need our leading players back to take on those tough challenges.”

 

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