With a fantastic RCC away win against Montpelier, a home URC win against the Scarlets and an away URC win against Cardiff in their last three games, the Ospreys will be full of confidence going into their URC match against unbeaten table-toppers Leinster. I think that the Ospreys make look to freshen up the squad and they might even rest some players in readiness for the RCC games coming up in the following 2 weeks. Obviously, whatever side Leinster send over will be a great one, but I expect them to ring the changes as well.
I think the squad could look like this if Booth does rest certain players...
G Phillips G Thomas S Baldwin S Parry T Botha R Henry AWJ R Davies H Sutton J Morgan H Deaves M Morris T Davies
RMW M Aubrey O Williams J Walsh K Giles K Williams M Collins L Morgan C Evans J Hawkins
It will all depend on Booth's mindset and if he believes we can get something from the Leinster game or do we target the HCC?
I'm not normally one to criticise the officials, but they had a large bearing on that result last night, the penalty against Nicky when Al'alatoa (sp) went flat on his face, the lack of response of the Ref and the touch judge when Justin was not allowed to come back to the ground, when he was talking to both of them, he then went to the TJ to query why we were not awarded a penalty for that, the call for a forward pass against Kieran when it was clearly flat. They were all point scoring opportunities for us.
As others have said the defensive organisation and workrate was superb, but what it so clearly should have been was 4 points for us.
Well done Ospreys
Obviously never nice to lose but that was a very good performance by us last night. Although the ref/linesman made one or two strange decision, I genuinely felt we could’ve won it anyway With the intensity we played at. The Leinster bench and our injuries were the telling points IMO.
Is it just me or do we seem be play with more tempo with RMW instead of Webb ?
Piardi is playing a blinder for Leinster, it will be an excellent win if we can get past his whistle.
There are about 21 players unavailable or rested and it looks like Booth is prepping for Montpelier and Leicester. The Leinster team is as formidable as always but an incredibly young Ospreys team did take their home record off them so anything is possible.
Here is the team for tomorrow...
15. Cai Evans
14. Mat Protheroe
13. Michael Collins
12. Keiran Williams
11. Keelan Giles
10. Owen Williams
9. Reuben Morgan-Williams
1. Nicky Smith
2. Dewi Lake
3. Tomas Francis
4. Rhys Davies
5. Alun Wyn Jones
6. Ethan Roots
7. Justin Tipuric ©
8. Morgan Morris
Replacements:
16. Scott Baldwin
17. Gareth Thomas
18. Tom Botha
19. Huw Sutton
20. Harri Deaves
21. Matthew Aubrey
22. Joe Hawkins
23. Jack Walsh
Parry took a very nasty shoulder injury so doubt he will be available. I doubt there will be much more than tinkering between bench and starters other than adding North and Watkin if fit.
Jason, I was coming on here to tell you get a move on and start this topic lol. So you beat me to it, you can tell I'm bored over here. Do you think North might make an appearance, I wouldn't make as many changes as you, imo we need to keep the momentum going, I would rest Parry for Lake, Justin has just had a rest, can agree with your 9 choices as I thought Aubrey was outstanding in SA and deserves another runout, and probably the 2 wings could give Cuthbert a rest. I'm really looking forward to this and hoping for something for us.