So, with the first local derby and away game of the season done and dusted, attention now turns to next Saturday and Cardiff Rugby visit the Swansea.com Stadium. Dan Evans may well struggle to shake off the knock he sustained on Sunday, so what other changes do we expect for this game?
I don't think we will see too many changes from Sunday's squad but could AWJ be lined up for a return on the bench? Yes it is only a 6 day turnaround but you don't really want to change a winning team. We could see Collins at FB if Dan is not fit and would TTW start or would Kieran Williams?
Likely Squad....
N Smith R Jones S Parry E Taione T Francis T Botha R Davies A Beard AWJ (Maybe???) J Morgan W Griffiths M Morris E Roots
R Webb R Morgan-Williams G Anscombe J Thomas L Morgan M Protheroe O Watkin M Collins M Nagy (If D Evans unfit) T Thomas-Wheeler
United Rugby Championship
Somewhat later than planned but here is our reflective view of the match....https://www.theospreyliantrust.co.uk/post/monday-morning-quarterback-view-24
There is a clear role for Dan Evans as a wet weather full back in the squad but on fast tracks Nagy's athleticism and ability to cover ground with his foot speed has to be preferable
In terms of the maul, I thought Elvia brought some good variation when he came on with some explosive carries. I would like another big ball carrier as I feel we can seemingly get away with it at league level, we’ll struggle without one in Europe
The way Collins collapsed looks an Achilles problem to me, which is such a shame, as I think Watkin, Kieran and TTW all seem to be better at 12, hopefully one of them can slip across to 13 with not a large drop off in quality.
The old adage of forwards win you games and backs determine by how much was the perfect scenario for how yesterday went, if BBBD is out for a few weeks at least we can start Adam and Rhys next week with hopefully AWJ coming off the bench if needed.
Watching PS yesterday it was mentioned that some of the Sharks Internationals could be back for next week, that would make next weeks game a lot harder than it could have been, the only hope could be if they need to isolate for a few weeks, even without their Internationals they do seem to be getting better anyway.
We were quite fortunate to win but there should be more to come from us - we’ve got some big problems though.
Webb is over the hill and is hurting the cohesion of the attack (hard to fix)
Maul hasn’t worked yet (fixable)
Potential long term Collins injury (have to hope for best)
It’s great that there’s Dan, Nagy and Protheroe that can be considered there, whereas before we only had Dan. Strength in depth developing nicely.
I thought M Nagy showed a lot of promise, hope they stick with him with more experience he can only get better.
I had no idea anscombe had the range to kick from over 50 metres…that is a huge bonus for a 10 to have that distance. His kicking was superb but hopefully he continues to get better too. He looked shattered when he intercepted their ball and was running at Lane. Looked like someone chucked a fridge on his back, but so great to see him playing after so long. Thought josh Thomas did well too.
I'm just glad we won, we were working a lot of backs into the side which won't help the attack in the short term. Hoping Collins is ok.
A hard fought win against a good Cardiff side. I thought there was no flow to our game with players taking the ball standing still and with slow distribution from the scrum halves we could not build any momentum and any back play looked lethargic and disjointed . A win is a win but we only created one try scoring chance in the whole game and we butchered that one.
Cardiff backs looked far more dangerous than our backs but our forwards had the upper hand. We need to start creating more than we have done in our First two games. If we want to challenge for silver at the end of the season then improvements must be made. North, Cuthbert, Tips & Alun Wyn will make a big difference. Although Morgan Morris is doing a great job at 8, I would like to see a bigger ball carrier in this position in. But, at the end of the day we are 2 from 2.
thanks @ospreysfanforum nasty business. Do u know what the attendance was? Looked pretty busy In the east stand.
Hope Collins ok…he was nowhere near anyone when he got injured. For me, we seemed to stand still when priestland hit the post...cant Imagine booth will be happy with conceding that try, but Cardiff’s second try was well worked. We had the edge up front but we seemed unable to open their defence up. Credit to them as some of the hits were off the chart. really happy with a win though as their back line is excellent . 2 from 2 …ymlaen!!!!
Phew, that was a good win against a strong Cardiff team who put in some rather big hits in defence.
It must have been a difficult game to play in as the players looked shattered coming off.
I felt we were unlucky to concede the try to Adams when Priestland's penalty hit the post and we were unlucky not to score on a couple of occasions. Fortunately Anscombe had his kicking boots on.
Bradley looked to have banged his knee and Collins rolled his ankle or pulled his calf and could well be out for a couple of weeks.
Getting ready to go to the match.....the excitement is building. Let's go Ospreys.
First game back after well over a season missed and I can't make it for todays game, my chauffer's (Brother in law) grandson is in a boxing match in Neath tonight, and I couldn't arrange any other form of transport, so will have to wait until next week to return.
Will have to watch on PS, but will be there in spirit.
Come on you Ospreys.
Think this one will be very difficult to win, think Young has picked a team to neuter our strengths and exploit our weakness.
Ospreys team..
Strong looking Cardiff team:
Cardiff Rugby: Hallam Amos; Owen Lane, Rey Lee-Lo, Willis Halaholo, Josh Adams; Rhys Priestland, Tomos Williams; Rhys Carré, Kirby Myhill, Dillon Lewis, Seb Davies, Matthew Screech, Josh Turnbull (capt.), Ellis Jenkins, James Ratti
Replacements: Liam Belcher, Corey Domachowski, Dmitri Arhip, Rory Thornton, Will Boyde, Lloyd Williams, Ben Thomas, Matthew Morgan