Ospreys Pre-Season Friendlies

Roots is looking in good shape, starting to think he can kick on.

An entertaining game, end to end, some excellent tries, couple of yellow cards, probably a red would have been issued if a TMO was in the house, and a vintage Tipuric performance was the cherry on top of the cake.

I was looking forward to see what to make of Jack Walsh, let me just say I wasn't disappointed, perhaps a little short with some of the distances when kicking for touch, but that really was nit picking, he was prepared to attack the line when the opportunity arose and his conversions from both touchlines were superb.

I think Mr Booth is going to have quite a difficult job selecting the 15 and 23 for the first few games coming up.

I wonder if the squad for tomorrows friendly against Northampton will be announced at the normal time, noon a day before the game, it would give some indication as to the makeup of the squad for the Scarlet game, as surely they wouldn't put out players for that game without any warm up.

After a resounding win against Hartpury in the first of the pre-season friendlies, attention now turns to the Northampton Saints and their visit to the Brewery Field on Friday September 2nd.

Tips is hoping to have maybe 35-40 minutes and the Internationals could well be up for selection.

Was there camera at the game yesterday, ours or theirs obviously I was wondering if there was any chance of footage turning up .

thanks Fiddler, interesting.

A bit of a game of two halves with a surprisingly strong wind. First half we were dominant. Back row were immense. Deaves was superb at the breakdown. Hickey played 8 and looks far more physically developed than last year, Roots looks to have shed weight and was very effective at counter rucking. Sutton also looks to have physically developed. Some good dynamic body positions from the back five. Stark contrast to Baldwin who was far too upright in contract and made too many unforced errors. Jury out on Warren. Has certainly developed physically and had a couple of dominant scrums but struggled on a few engagements. Behind the scrum the passing was a lot slicker than last year and there was more depth. Interestingly Hawkins who can pass and kick to a high standard played 12 and Kieron who is normally the crash ball 12 played at 13. Dan Evans sadly looked as badly conditioned and slow as last year and was yanked after 20 minutes following a woeful execution of a kick straight into touch and replaced by the young Caiser who at least looked a bit sharper. Webb was not particularly sympathetic with some of his short passing and he and Myler went off after 25 minutes to be replaced by RMW and Walsh who both looked quicker and slicker than the older pair.

The second half we were less dominant and playing into the wind made it harder for our kicking game to establish territory. The Hartpury driving maul started to cause us trouble with two very young players in Lewis Jones and Tristan Davies at 4 and 6. Jac Morgan and Morgan Morris helped negate their drives at the breakdown though. The line out throwing was better in the second half but we could not establish the same level of dominance from our forwards and the game was a lot tighter. Interestingly we played Scully at 12 and he had some nice handling touches but his defence will need to move up a notch. Tom Florence is another who has developed physically from last season and he looked pretty good defensively and in attack in the 13 channel.

Matthew Aubrey scores a long range try to make it 14-41

and that is the last action of the day. Big thanks to our roving reporter at the game for our updates.

Hartpury's turn to rip through the Ospreys' defence 14-36

The Ospreys hit back with a nice pick'n'go try that is not converted 7-36. Morgan Morris with the try.

In a somewhat disappointing passage of play, Hartpury score a converted try 7-31

First try of the second half sees L Morgan in to make it 0-31.

Second half backs-

Cai, Hopkins, Florence, Scully, Morgan, Walsh

Second half pack -

Phillips, Elvis, Henry, Lewis Jones, Rhys D, Tristan, Morris, Jac M

Try Ospreys 0-24. Scott Baldwin on the end of another driving maul. Half time.

Expect a lot of changes.

Subs from the Ospreys -

Webb, Myler and Warren off

RMW, Walsh and Henry on.

Webb rusty - up and down.

Great work from the pack sees our driving maul go close before Keelan finishes the try 0-19.

Dan Evans is subbed off. Replaced by Cai Evans.

The try came at the end of a well worked Ospreys move.

As I type, Webb has crossed from close in after a series of phases that Myler converts to make it 0-14 after almost 20 minutes.

Hickey scores the opening try that is converted by Myler 0-7.

Any questions, post them now

Here we go as the first pre-season game kicks off.....

Starting back line - Dan, Proth, Keith, Joe H, Keelan, Myler, Webb.

Starting pack - Nicky, Baldwin, Warren, BBBD, Sutton, Roots, Hickey, Deaves.

Updates would be much appreciated if possible, thanks in advance.