Although winning the Premiership title is his top priority at the moment, it will not be Wasps director of rugby Dai Young's biggest achievement as a coach.
The former Cardiff Blues coach made the revelation ahead of his side's clash with Exeter Chiefs in the Premiership Final at Twickenham on Saturday.
Young said helping Wasps avoid relegation by the narrowest of margins in his first year in charge of the club in the 2011/12 season was his best feat.
“Getting to the final of the Premiership is huge for everyone at the club, but my biggest coaching achievement was keeping Wasps up in 2012, when we should have gone down," he told the Coventry Telegraph.
“I’ve been lucky enough as a coach to win the Amlin and the EDF Cup, but keeping that team together and staying up was a bigger achievement.
“I was asked last week if I felt emotional after the game, but I felt more emotional before it.
“The noise and support is unbelievable, and you have to pinch yourself sitting there and seeing the full ground and thinking back a few years to our survival at Adams Park.
“They were dark days as I kept getting told someone would come and buy us, but after 18 months you started to wonder where that somebody was.
“I never considered leaving because of the bonds with the players. We threw the likes of Elliot Daly, Joe Launchbury, Christian Wade, Sam Jones and Joe Simpson in as kids and they gave me absolutely everything.
“I never felt at any point during that season that any of them were looking at options elsewhere because we might go down. It was important for me to show that if they were prepared to stick it out, so was I and that we were all in it together.
“It was hard to see past the end of the season. When you’re a coach getting used to the pressures of winning and losing is part of the job.
“You get used to that, but financial pressures were not something I’d ever come across before, and were completely out of my control. It was a new experience for me, and not a pleasant one, and one that I felt I had to shield from the players as much as possible.”
Young said his players are excited to be involved in Saturday's clash at Twickenham which will be the club's first final since their triumph over Leicester Tigers in 2008.
“It’s a big day for the squad,” he added.
“We’ve shown steady improvement year-on-year – we’re going to enjoy it and we want our supporters to go and really enjoy what I’m sure is going to be a fantastic occasion.
“I’d like to lie to you say and say it doesn’t matter if we win or lose, but it would be nice if we can come away with the prize.
“It would be great for the supporters that have stuck with us from London and Wycombe, for the supporters that have come on board in Coventry and Warwickshire and for Derek and Dawn Richardson who got right behind this club when there weren’t many other volunteers.
“Financial support is one thing, but Derek’s drive and ambition has taken this club forward both on and off the pitch.
“You only have to look at the occasion on Saturday in front of nearly 30,000 to measure how far we have come. Win lose or draw it is a win for Wasps when you are looking at the occasions we’ve had.”
The post ‘A title win won’t be my best coaching feat’ – Young appeared first on Planet Rugby.