’ALLO ALO!
POWERHOUSE PROP SIGNS PERMANENT DEAL AT WASPS
PROP Biyi Alo has been offered some consolation for his disallowed try against Leicester Tigers by signing a permanent deal at Wasps.
The powerhouse tighthead was drafted in on loan from Coventry by director of rugby Dai Young following injuries to tightheads Jake CooperWoolley and Kieran Brookes.
Having been an unused substitute against Sale Sharks, the 24-year-old made his Wasps debut off the bench against Leicester and appeared to have snatched a late try that, if converted, would’ve won the game for the Black and Golds.
However, referee JP Doyle did not get a view of the grounding and after more then three minutes of deliberations with the television match official, it was adjudged held up and Leicester won the game 19-14.
Alo becomes the fourth tighthead to sign for Wasps ahead of next season with Jeffery Toomaga-Allen (Hurricanes), Jack Owlett (Exeter Chiefs) and most recently, Mike Daniels agreeing a move from Nottingham.
From the existing pool of players, Kieran Brookes will be the only surviving tighthead as Jake Cooper-Woolley and Will Stuart leave to join Sale Sharks and Bath respectively.
Young, who earned 51 international caps as a tighthead for Wales, believes the former Worcester Warriors and Saracens forward has come to the right club to develop his talents.
“Biyi’s a really big guy with lots of potential, I think that was recognised at Worcester,” said Young.
“He’s come to us and demonstrated to us he has that desire to work really hard and to better himself. As we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, you can’t have too many props. They seem to be an area where you pick up a lot of injuries.”
Alo arrived at Wasps’ city neighbours Coventry Rugby in October but found first-team opportunities limited before making the move from the Butts Park Arena to the Ricoh Arena. Young added: “He picked up a bit of an illness that laid him low then he was getting back into a bit of rugby. Coventry were happy for us to have him on board. That only strengthens our links, we try and help each other when we can. “It’s a massive opportunity for him to impress, a massive opportunity for him to look at being a Premiership prop. We’ve done a pretty good job of developing Premiership props in the past couple of years.
“We’ve got two or three Premiership props coming in now that have the potential to be very good Premiership props and he will certainly add to that list.”
Props have been an ongoing issue for Wasps this season and Young was left sweating on the fitness of Will Stuart and Tom West ahead of the Leicester Tigers game with Brookes and Cooper-Woolley out injured while looseheads McIntyre (concussion) and Zurabi Zhvania (international call-up) were also not available.
Experienced loosehead Matt Mullan was also released in January by mututal consent.
Fortunately Stuart and West both pulled through to feature at Welford Road but not before the Wasps boss had made a series of calls in search of temporary solutions. Something Young hopes to avoid in 2018/19.
Biyi’s a really big guy with lots of potential. He’s come to us and demonstrated to us he has that desire to better himself. Dai Young