Last week's fantastic comeback against Benetton Treviso should stand the Ospreys in good stead as they travel to Ireland to face a Connacht side who have also had mixed results this season. Wins against Edinburgh, Zebre and Glasgow are punctuated with losses to the Blues and the Scarlets, away and at home respectively.
I do not recall any injuries from last week but *George North might well be called back up to the Wales Squad so the team will pretty much be the same as last week apart from the suspended Gareth Evans....
G Thomas, I Phillips/S Otten? T Botha R Davies A Beard W Griffiths D Lydiate O Cracknell
R Morgan-Williams S Myler H Dirksen* K Williams T Thomas-Wheeler L Morgan M Protheroe
Reps
R Jones D Lake M Fia L Ashley S Cross S Venter J Thomas AN Other
Discuss please....
not been there for a while sorry
All tesfed negative so far.
think it’s Josh Thomas who tested positive
It seems totally bizzare that nobody seems able to get any form of injury report out of the Ospreys.
Probably a good thing? If we play Connacht on a European knock out weekend, which neither of us will be in, we can field a stronger side.
Ah well
The Round 8 Guinness PRO14 fixture between Connacht and Ospreys has been postponed.
The game was due to take place on Saturday, November 28 in Galway, however, one Ospreys player has returned a positive case of Covid-19 and others identified as close contacts are now isolating. Having considered all the available evidence, the PRO14 Rugby Medical Advisory Group has deemed that this fixture cannot go ahead.
Benetton Rugby, who played against Ospreys on Sunday, carried out routine squad testing this week and returned negative results all round.
PRO14 Rugby will examine potential dates in early 2021 to reschedule the game.
Very weak bench. Not much impact there beyond Lake and maybe Venter. I am surprised that Ashley and Cross rank above King and Volpi. He had to swap the props after last week and I am also surprised Otten does not get a run.
Team
Has anyone heard about how long Evans is banned? I’ve been expecting to hear about his ban and a citing for the Ulster player who shouldered Sebastian, but not heard anything at all.
I would like to see what Otten has to offer. I think Gareth Thomas is better suited to being a replacement. So we may see the props switched between starters and replacements. We have a massive issue at 8. He may give King another shot or take the view as we have not got an 8 he will ask Cracknell who is our next best back row after Lydiate and Griffiths to start there. I would love to see what Volpi has to offer as a carrier from the bench.
He may go 6/2 again given the position flexibility of Thomas and Venter. If he does not then I would prefer to see a young player like Hawkins or Carson there rather than Scott Williams.
I’d pick Otten and have Rhodri Jones start over Gareth Thomas. Need to prevent Connacht gettimg easy footholds in territory.
According to this afternoon's press conference, Booth said that George North is available for selection so he will be in the team ahead of Dirksen who will now be on the bench.