So after the opening game of the season ended in a hard fought draw, the Ospreys now prepare for the visit of the Emirates Lions to the Swansea.com stadium this Saturday kicking off at 19:35.
I think that it is likely that we will see some squad rotation to give those who did not feature against the Scarlets a first run out of the season.
I think the match day 23 will look something like this...
N Smith G Thomas/G Phillips D Lake S Parry T Francis T Botha A Beard R Davies AWJ D Lydiate J Tipuric W Griffiths E Roots
R Webb RMW G Anscombe J Walsh A Cuthbert G North O Watkin K Giles M Nagy M Protheroe
Discuss.
Interesting to read opposition view of this game especially 2nd half.They felt the Ospreys played deeper therefore kicking away possession .so eliminating penalties (we did not see many)and hard tackling Maris Louw midfielder made 14 tackles . My point really is that a bad tactic playing deeper?
Has Sam Moore proved to be a bust, or is there a chance of him getting some game time. Anyone heard why he hasn’t featured at all so far?
My take is basically what a few have already said our own errors led to our downfall, many points were let out there, ironic really that a few of the errors were from players that had scored for us Webb and Giles, Webb's compounded by Morris. Our saviour from last week Walsh making at least 3 fundamental kicking mistakes.
I really hope certain individuals on here are not going on a downer on Michael Collins, is he the fastest of players the answer to that is no, yet there is nobody in our team would have had the foresight when he was running towards the touchline to flick a ball behind and inside to Keelan to score his 2nd try (absolute class).
Hopefully Cuthbert could be back for next week having a threequarters of him North, Watkin, Giles with Anscombe and Webb (although he has to improve) with Collins at 15, sorry for the moment I don't think Max is safe enough under the high ball, he would be on the bench for me.
As for the back row combination the only sense I can see for that combination is 6 Lydiate, Morgan 7 and Justin at 8, I've seen him on numerous occasions anchoring the scrum other than that Roots I would play there.
Daves disco what ever games you're watching is beyond me, the style of play is so much better now after only 2 games, you wouldn't think the same players are playing, I wasn't looking forward that much when he was announced as the Backs (attack) Coach, the style of play is pretty good to watch.
Besides what Toby said on the PC, in the shop yesterday it was mentioned Sam Parry would be out at least a couple more weeks with his niggle
Missed the game , in rain drenched Lanzarote ,
but disturbed to read comments on Booth
he had a very poor squad to start his time and has improved it immensely
until the end of this season he is hand tied to old contracts, but will have a good clean out of underperforming players
he is the best head coach since inception , my only concern is we have not brought seasoned experienced assistant coaches
Garcia is a breath of fresh air and I do believe we are on an upward trend
my only concern is Booth seems to believe slow slow Webb is our best 9 , oh to have Aled back
Same old same old , season after season…Booth out! He is taking us nowhere. Trim the squad and pay extra for a better coach. I am so fed up of hearing him talk about “ things we can control” Control? That’s a joke.
Losing to that rabble is a disgrace. Really poor fare today, embarrassing loss.
They say that the difference between winning and losing are the small margins and that was very much the case tonight as evidenced by these five things-
1) Walsh hitting the post with his third conversion -2 points
2) Webb dropping the ball from that scrum -7 points
3) Walsh missing touch from his penalty
4) The messed up lineout that led to the winning try -7 points
5) Walsh missing his final penalty goal -3 points
Had any one of those gone our way tonight we would be celebrating a win instead of moaning about a loss.
Here is the squad - interesting 6:2 split on the bench
15 Nargy
14 Morgam
13 North
12 Collins
11 Giles
10 Walsh
9 Webb
8 Morris
7 Tuperic
6 Lydiard
5 AWJ
4 Beard
3 Francis
2 Baldwin
1 Smith
Garyn Phillips
Lake
Botha
Rhys Davies
Jac Morgan
RMW
Hawkins
This is our chance to make a statement of intent. It’s only the first home game of the season but our aim has to be to win everything at home this season, even against Leinster. 4 or 5 points following the 2 points from last weekend would be a very positive start.
For me first home game of the season we really need to set our stall out pick our best team and get the win, there is plenty of time for rotation later in the season.
Collins/Nagy Cuthbert North Watkin Giles Anscombe Webb as the starting back line
Thomas Lake Francis Beard AWJ Lydiate/Morgan Tipuric M Morris as the pack.
Smith Baldwin (is Parry fit?) Botha R Davies W Griffiths/Morgan RMW Wales and either Collins or Nagy on the bench
Yes, going by what Toby said in the post match PC, about not flogging players, I can see a number of changes. Personally I wouldn't have made that number the only changes I would have made was Hawkins out (not because of form) North into centre and Cuthbert in on the wing and Lydiate into 6 for his size, again Jac not dropped because of performance.
We picked up an extra point at the Pys Pot compared to last season so that's a bonus we NEED to start getting points against the SAs we had 0 last season so probably this is the easiest game against their Provinces we badly need 4 or even 5 this week, they took a bit of a beating last week, we have to show no mercy, they showed us none last season.