After a brilliant victory against Benetton last time out, preparations now turn to France in readiness for the trip to Montpellier who beat Newcastle yesterday. I know we beat them home and away last year but this is a different competition and a different squad and they will want to exact revenge on us. Apart from RMW and possibly Owen Williams we should have a decent squad available to us but I do wonder if Toby rotates for the Boxing Day derby.
Likely Squad
G Thomas N Smith D Lake S Parry T Botha B Warren A Beard J Fender R Davies J Morgan M Morris H Deaves T Davies
L Davies R Lewis O Williams J Walsh M Protheroe O Watkin G North K Giles I Hopkins K Williams
Discuss.
What I don't understand is how a prop gets penalised on 4 seperate occasions and should have been on all others that I could see and not even a warning. IIRC every penalty against him was given by the TJ, why wasn't AB in the refs ear about this especially after the first 2 were given, there was even one when the ref was going to penalise us, but the TJ changed his mind.
What I will say is in that performance I've never been prouder of some of our players, if nothing else you can see they are prepared to put their bodies on the line for us
Rhys Davies, Will Griffiths, James Ratti, Jack Regan, Will Hickey, Justin Tipuric, Jac Morgan, Morgan Morris, Alex Cuthbert, Keiran Williams, Toby Fricker, Keelan Giles, Dom Morris and Iestyn Hopkins are some of the players who were not available for selection today.
Not sure if the result would have changed had they been available but I think the score might have.
A brave effort. Lost players before the game and during the game . Never gave up but they had too many quality players. Thought Tristan Davies had a very decent game and Morse for an 18 year old was impressive.
Ospreys pinch the ball (North) and they go wide. Rhys Henry breaks down the wing and the ball goes through the hands. The Ospreys make it to the half way line but the last pass goes to ground and the game is over.
Wow, a great cover tackle from Dan Edwards sees Houston penalised and yellow carded for not coming in through the gate.
The ref allows another free for all at the breakdown and Montpellier score their 6th try. 38-5 with the conversion to come.
All things considered, we have not been able to take our chances and they have taken every one of theirs.
Our ball has gotten significantly quicker since the introduction of Luke Davies.
Another penalty to the Ospreys and we go to the corner again.
Protheroe is put into space but the pass is forward. Scrum to Montpellier.
Ospreys empty the bench.
A couple of missed tackles leads to a fifth try for our French hosts. 33-5 with 14 minutes left.
Almost but not quite as the pass doesn't go to hand and Montpellier can clear.
Montpellier score but the TMO comes in and awards Ospreys a penalty. They have given away a load of penalties but no warning or cards yet.
Montpellier score their bonus point try after a maul. Every time they hit our 22 they seem to score.
24-5 with the conversion to come. 20 minutes to go. 26-5.
Protheroe gets taken in the air yet the ref doesn't see it even though he is way closer than I am. TMO comes in and gives the penalty to the Ospreys. 2 front row changes for the Ospreys.
Deaves was on the ball then but no penalty given.
Finally we make the most of the situation we engineer. I cannot see us winning the game but some points will do wonders for the confidence of the team.
19-5
TRY - Ospreys. RMW scoots over from a little break away from Lake.
Surely now a yellow card must come? Nope, not even a warning.
Ospreys go to the corner yet again.
Two nice breaks from Houston and Protheroe sees the Ospreys win a penalty. We go to the corner again.