So the last home game of the season will see the Ospreys take on the Dragons in a mouth-watering local Welsh derby.
The Ospreys will be looking for revenge after their 32-25 loss in Newport back in October and will need a win for several reasons;-
1) To continue their chase to retain the Welsh Shield
2) A confidence builder for the Saracens game a week later.
The Welsh internationals will be back so I expect the Ospreys to name as full a strength squad as they can and they might even be able to call upon the likes of Dewi Lake and Gareth Anscombe, but they could well be without Alex Cuthbert who currently has a foot injury.
Likely squad (barring any more injuries and assuming that everyone is fit) although Booth might choose to hold back a couple of players for the Saracens game.
N Smith G Thomas D Lake S Parry T Francis T Botha A Beard AWJ R Davies J Tipuric M Morris E Roots *H Sutton/D Lydiate
R Webb RMW O Williams G Anscombe K Giles K Williams O Watkin G North I Hopkins J Hawkins*
*Edited to add Joe Hawkins.
* Edited again to remove the injured Jac Morgan. I think that Booth could well play Rhys at 6 and have Sutton on the bench instead of Lydiate.
Potential Starting Team?
N Smith S Parry T Botha A Beard AWJ R Davies J Tipuric M Morris
R Webb O Williams K Giles K Williams O Watkin G North I Hopkins
Moriaty to Bie e , best place for the thug, see how he manages against the real hard boys and French officials who tend to look the other way
Anyone know what the attendance was last night ?
Well that was a resounding victory.
Hopefully Jack Walsh will be okay after a nasty head shot that deserved a straight red card.
Onto next week now.
Giles was absolutely awful against Benetton
I think it looks something like this:-
15 Hopkins
14 North
13 Watkin
12 K Williams
11 Morgan
10 Walsh
9 RMW
8 Morris
7 Root
6 Lydiard
5 Sutton
4 AWJ
3 Botha
2 Parry
1 Smith
16 G Thomas
17 Warren
18 Lake
19 R Davies
20 Deaves
21 Aubrey
22 Collins
23 Scully
firzt time this season Toby Booth was not in the final run out, I hope he’s staying
Referee Jaco Peyper.SA
Ass Adam Jones, Aron Parry WRU
Tmo Marius Jonker SA
Jac Morgan ruled out of the France v Wales game with an ankle injury picked up a training.
Please let us all hope that it is not a significant injury and that he is fit for selection against the Dragons first and then Sarries a week later.
Kieran Williams is out of the Wales squad after suffering a groin injury against Benetton which could well rule him out of this game and, more importantly, the Saracens match a week later.
Have you forgotten Joe Hawkins?
Great ko time, looking forward to this... COTOs