Cardiff Rugby v Ospreys April 23rd @ 5.15pm

You are in my view wrong if you think we have had a decent enough squad to have won more than half our games in the past two years. Sure if we could have fielded our first team for most of this season that would be a decent side. A decent squad is very different. It requires depth in quality not having to field the likes of Dan Evans Luke Morgan Lloyd Ashley and Sam Cross when there are injuries and unavailabilities.The side will get better not because of big money players but because the weak players will gradually be phased out and the young players will become better and stronger players. You quote 5 young players but other than Jac Morgan I doubt any of the others would get selected for any of the current top 8 sides in the URC, yet in your view they are good enough to compete. If you think coaching and tactics are bigger issues than squad depth in the back division then I would not agree. Add another scrum half, an athletic outside back and an out half who can put some pace on the game and we would be comfortably inside the top 8 of the URC. They don't have to be big names either.

@brodyrbach When you consider where we were a few seasons ago when we won only 2 games and then consider how much stronger our squad is and how much better our first choice 15 is, there has been significant progress.

Yes, we need to score more tries but Toby himself said that for now, we are not equipped to play fast and loose as we are more of an arm wrestling team. Toby also said that he wants to recruit the sort of athletes who can cut teams apart and score wonderful long range tries but that takes time.

You are right in saying that it might well take until after the next RWC but next year is huge in that 30 of the squad are out of contract but it is likely that only maybe 20-25 will be retained. That will free up a major chunk of cash to recruit these athletes.

I don't think we are as far off as you think we are. Leinster are a class apart and so are three of the four Saffer teams when at full strength. But as for the rest we are not far away. We will mainly win at home lose the odd game and mainly lose away and pinch the odd win. That is generally what happens in most competitive team sports. What we need to do is eliminate weaknesses and work on strengths and find ways of securing not only try bonus points but losing bonus points. If you cannot see we are in a far better place on and off the field after the Y11 takeover and the Booth and Ruddock arrivals then you are not looking very closely. Are we were we want to be? No. But I think your interpretations are some way off the mark. We are putting foundations in place and you seem to want to go to the penthouse suite before building the rooms below it.

But we were in a position to score tries which has not been the case recently

half full !

@Jake Bullet I think this is a fair assessment. Last year we had less crucial injuries to deal with and whilst I have been as frustrated with performances and selection choices this year, we’ve so far matched last year and it gives us a platform to kick on again next year. If we can get some consistency to selection I think that would be key to boosting accuracy too

@ospreysfanforum what makes you think we will sign better players and who are they? We have Jac Morgan, Matt Prothero, Beardy, Griffiths , Lake,Cuthbert, North, Giles, the list goes on…who are the better players we will sign?

@daves disco obviously I am not part of the Ospreys' top level player discussions but surely it is possible to see that certain backs have or are coming to the end of their usefulness to the Ospreys. We are likely to sign a new scrum half to replace Webb, a new 10 to replace Myler/Anscombe, a fullback to replace Evans and maybe a winger as well.

There are no guarantees that these players will be better but they certainly should be younger, faster and fitter.

@ospreysfanforum Well I agree that they will be younger, but Anscombe was once seen as the great hope after Sam Davies, certainly I feel we will be better , but maybe only slightly by signing replacements for Webb and Evans. Myler has been great for us and I feel he brings a bit of much needed calm to our game. My point is that all coaches say their team will be better the next season, or the season after in our case. Russell Martin is saying the same thing for the Swans, it’s easy coach talk in my book, and I am not confident that we can even identify what needs putting in place when it’s likely we will not have the funds to achieve it.

Agreed Jake

Disappointed at the negative reaction , many were saying we would not win , we did handsomely, albeit we left a bonus point on the park,

limited preparation of ” full team “ and away win at

Cardiff who were desperate to carry on from last week in front of a full crowd and we overcame them

over the years we have not had players in crucial positions , props,9,10 etc , but came through due to a sprinkling of superstars , Shane etc, hopefully Mr North and a few other players will step up

the only decent coach we had was Scot Johnson and he fell by the wayside

its accepted that Booth has been handed a poor hand , but things seem to be improving under him

we need an attack coach , but it was pleasing there were few line breaks to deal with

So sorry boys my pint is half full, but next week will be the acid test

@khbw82 and Jake totally agree, the first half yesterday was IMO better than SA especially defence, and second half was noticeably better again, as Booth said in the Q&A session and reiterated around this match we had no competition in many facets of training to prepare for the matches we had to play (scrum maul attack) because of the lack of players available, these are now being addressed.

I just hope the improvement carries on.

@Tal for me Jac Morgan is going really well. Scrum needs to up the ante.

@TaI should be at least 3-6 now.

@Tal neither side is looking anything like a pro rugby side. We seem to lose all our shape after a couple of phases.

@Cymro100 It could well be their pitch that prevents GN from making his comeback but he could just as easily be on the bench. The team will be out shortly so we will find out soon enough.

Agreed. Building an attack will take time. Building a defence that can transition into quick attack should take a shorter time. But our defence is very suspect on the road when we cannot slow teams down. Avoiding slow unathletic or poor defenders is the first key building block. Recognising the difference between good wet weather and good dry track defenders is another. Expecting Gareth Anscombe to take an interest in tackling is another key ingredient in building a defence that can stop teams regularly running up try bonus points when we are on the road.

@daves disco this match should be the first real opportunity for Booth to select from his strongest ever squad, he has never had that before. So we will see arm wrestles and close matches for the rest of this season and probably next season as well BUT there is work going on behind the scenes that should see a radical overhaul of the squad and some exciting backs brought in.

We play turgid rugby because the squad he inherited was only capable of playing turgid rugby and playing it not very effectively. What he has done is built the pack to at least ensure we can play turgid rugby more effectively. Hopefully over the next couple of years the squad will be adapted to build more attacking options. Whether this is done succesfully or not only time will tell but you cannot switch a light immediately and transform the side in a good attacking unit.

If that is not good enough for you so be it.

@Fiddler from training this week it looks we’re trying to get our driving line out operating certainly for Cardiff

I agree with you, we are not so well placed as we might think.

@daves disco Can we at least wait for the game to be played first?

@ospreysfanforum one wonders how true some of these “supporters are” 😂

Hopefully on a fast track we won't start with BBBD Morgan Morris and Lydiate. They may be good wet track players but on a fast track we need Rhys Davies Jac Morgan Deaves and Roots in that back five and we need a back three of Protheroe Nagy and Cuthbert. Picking Anscombe would be a gamble after his last nightmare but Myler on a fast track even more so therefore we need Josh Thomas.

@TaI So you would have Deaves at 7 and Jac at 6 to start? Would you have Will Griffiths or Lydiate on the bench?

@ospreysfanforum Would put Jac at 8 and have Lydiate and Deaves as flankers.

Would definitely have Deaves there for his ability to defend out wide. We’ve seriously missed Tipuric.

Hopefully we will find out more about the proposed communications strategy on Monday. They had advertised for a Comms director around Xmas but don't know if the position is filled. Even if it is the CEO may have to overule the rugby department as to what information can be released as it may be their reluctance to communicate that is the issue rather than always blaming the non rugby side of the business

@Fiddler I think that it is still mathematically possible but as you say, unrealistic.

Back to Cardiff though and they faded terribly yesterday. If we can stop their fast start, we should be able to wear them down as the game goes on.

@ospreysfanforum I think it will be better in the long run if we do not qualify. Our half backs are old and slow. Our full back makes slow players look fast, our left wing cannot defend. We cannot score tries through the backs and we cannot defend in the backs. The coaching group below Booth needs an infusion of experience and coaching ability. The back division needs remodelling. Fortunately there is a group of young talented back players coming through. I think Carrington and Lien Morgan will be top class wingers. Houston Hopkins and Florence all have potential. The problem is we have too many old slow players clogging up the budget behind the scrum. We need a proper pro standard defence and attack coach to help mould and develop the talent.

We have a pack with decent depth. A good pathway but a back division that cannot score tries and woeful attacking system and a defence that is easily punctured on the road.

@Fiddler I think that's a really fair assessment. First point of order is to make sure we survive any potential cull of teams. Qualifying for the "Big Boys" cup and suffering beating after beating will do us no favours long term. We must be getting close to revealing our plans for next season with regards to our coaching setup, if only to provide some semblance of a boost to our fans to show that we know what's wrong, and are trying to fix it, these are our plans. Unfortunately, like most of our recent history, engagement with the fans seems pretty low on the O's list of priorities.

@surfdragon I'm fairly confident North has played at 13 for us. I think Booth might just want to get his strike options on the pitch at once and that selection certainly does that.

Nothing against Dan Evans but as I have just said, we need our best strike options on the pitch and on the bench - we have all of the backs covered with just 3 players.