The Ospreys will take their next match around the Region when they face the Dragons at the Morganstone Brewery Field on Saturday March 6th with a 19:35 kick off. This is a game that the Ospreys will have targeted as a 'must-win-game' in their pursuit of that all important third place in their conference and certain qualification for the Rugby Champions Cup.
The short turn around will do the Ospreys no favours but will hopefully welcome back Mat Protheroe, especially given the hamstring injury to Luke Morgan. With the injury list not getting any shorter and the Team Wales boys still away in Camp, the matchday 23 pretty much picks itself.
Discuss.
The alternative view of the the game.
https://www.ospreyssupporterstrust.co.uk/post/monday-morning-quarterback-view-13
We have got decent front row depth, our lack of depth in the second row was exposed again, our window back row is so lightweight and one paced and lacks any kind of dynamism it killed us last night. I hope these will in part be fixed this close season. But I still think Boothe is taking us in the right direction. Ymlaen y Gweilch.
Could see this happening when teams were announced, how come Dregs select Wainwright to start and we put Watkin on the bench, I seriously doubt that Booth was told not to play Owen from the start, have to say for all that is put on our website TTW totally underwhelms me, I said 2 or 3 months ago on here that we needed to play Fender in case of the eventuality that Beard would get called up for TW and that BBBD would be injured. We need the fundamentals sorted that is a secure scrum and lineout. Having Fender instead of Ashley would certainly improve at least one of those.
Glasgow yesterday had 3 players from their 6N squad Kebble and Stewart from the front row and Hugh Jones in the backs I would say at least 2 of those will be back with TS.
We all know on here that fundamentally the fault for all this is down to the Chuckle brothers Hore and Tandy, but Booth also needs to learn the lesson that Cross, Ashley and Cracknell cannot be in the same team, hopefully he has now learned this lesson
The Ospreys squad is full of silt players that teams with our limited budget always end up with, just not in such large amounts at the better ones. And a lot of the reason that we ended up with so many of them is down to Tandy, he really, really overrated some players (Ashley, Cross, Cracknell, Price...etc) who ended up taking up positions more senior in the squad than they deserved on ability. So to find minutes we've ended up with even more dross.
Booth is trying to use these players to find player minutes, but (and I missed the game purposefully last night) too many on the pitch at once kills us and last night there were faaaaar too many.
Match report - https://www.ospreyssupporterstrust.co.uk/post/ospreys-v-dragons
We simply have to gut that squad. Dirksen can barely run. Dan Evans is slowing down massivelly. TTW cannot defend space. RMW kept kicking for touch against a dominant line out. Peers/ Ashley is the worst pro tight forward I have ever seen at this level. Cross and Cracknell are passengers. You cannot coach some of these players you simply need to learn lessons and move on from them.
It’s our lack of speed in everything we do. There is no aggression running onto the ball and our passing is so laboured . What do our skills and attack coaches do as nothing seems to change.
We missed the likes of Beard in the line out. No one was trying to stop that driving maul. We need a proper 13 instead of TTW. Someone who has gas to go for the gaps and create space or the wingers. Need a big 8 to make hard yards. We also in need of a 10 that can challange the line to fix defenders. We need to cut some dead weight from the squad. Their holding us back.
Unfolded pretty much as I’d feared. Inability to win collisions and they had better players in a lot of by positions. real shame our maul was so ineffective and our inability to defend theirs was poor. obviously Better than last season but tonight was the type of performance that we saw week in week out last season. We’re gonna need more than Tom Francis and Jac Morgan.
Perhaps the inevitable happened today. They had some very good players and we were rank. It the long term it may be for the best. Nobody can now believe that our back up playets are remotely good enough. Booth has to gut this squad. Nobody ahould be papering over the cracks anymore.
We pick shit players, that happens.
Dreadful performance. We have so many players not up to the standard of professional rugby...Botha, Ashley, Cross, Cracknell, RMW, TTW, G Evans, all very crap.
Also, how is Bridgend home advantage? Closer to 'port than Swansea, ridiculous decision.
Lastly, how in heaven's name could Hewitt's try on 74' be given? Clearly a forward pass...I am slowly but surely being put off our once wonderful game
An utter shambles.
Ah well....
Very disappointing performance.
Yep
Pathetic.
Maybe not?
GAME OVER
Need a miracle
We need to speed things up, our passing is so laboured. Once again Williams is our only attacking option.