Resurgent Dan Robson won’t be giving up his place without a fight

It has been 18 months in the making but Dan Robson is finally enjoying a good run of games and is determined to prove he has what it takes to be a Premiership starting scrum-half.
Two seasons ago, the 23-year-old managed to make his mark at Gloucester, overtaking All Black Jimmy Cowan in the pecking order.
With Cowan gone, Robson was hoping to become the Cherry and Whites’ incumbent scrum-half but Greig Laidlaw was signed.
Struggling for game time last season, he joined Wasps this summer and has proved more than just cover for Joe Simpson, who suffered an ankle injury in the Champions Cup win over Leinster at the end of January.
On Sunday, against Quins, he made his fifth consecutive start, and proved once more he can be more than an understudy.
Robson told TRP: “It’s unfortunate for Joe to get injured but it’s great for me to get the game time I’ve been craving for a while now.
“I had that opportunity two years ago with Jimmy and I thought I’d done enough to be the starting scrum-half when he left but it didn’t work out like that.
“It was good to learn off Greig last season but with him being the captain and the kicker, no matter how well I was playing it was difficult to make my mark.
“I needed a fresh challenge and after speaking to Dai Young about where he wanted Wasps to be heading it was something I wanted to be a part of.
“Myself and Joe are pretty similar in the way we play. We push each other pretty hard in training and I think you can see the result of that on game day.
“I was on the bench a lot at the start of the season but I thought I pushed Joe hard. I feel I’m improving every day and the competition for the No.9 shirt will be even tougher when he gets back.”
Two weeks ago Wasps put in the performance of the season with an eight-try 64-23 demolition of Saracens at Allianz Park.
they backed it up with a 24-18 win in Bath to make it nine points from two of the toughest away fixtures in the Premiership but, such is their mindset, they were left wanting more.
Robson said: “We’re happy with the win at Bath but it shows how far we’ve come as a squad to be disappointed for missing out on the bonus point.
“We want to play exciting rugby and it’s great fun to be part of. We learned a lot from our home game against Saracens back in December where we came unstuck trying to be pragmatic.
“We’ve built some good momentum in recent weeks and we don’t want the weather conditions to stop us doing that. We’re working hard on our skills all week to make sure we can deliver come the weekend.
NICK VERDIER