Ospreys v Perpignan Challenge Cup Fri Jan 12 @ 8pm

Fantastic win, we were up against a right set of monsters. It wasn’t their first choice team, but it wasn’t ours either, albeit for differing reasons.

Luke Davies is still raw but the speed of his service is really helping us. Lots of good performances, but I’ll single out Owen Watkin as it was the best game I’ve seen from him in a while.

Our bad luck with injuries continues, hope they’re not too serious.

Just back from the game. It was obvious during the warm up that George was not going to play as Kieran did all the team run throughs but it was still a shame and then to lose Dewi after less than 5 minutes was even more of a shame. Credit though to Will Hickey who put in a bloody good shift, apart from one missed tackle.

I thought that both teams pretty much cancelled each other for most of the first half but once we took the lead, I was quite confident that we would win. When Hopkins grabbed that loose ball just before half time, I was even more confident. That was some gas he showed. To lead 8-0 at half time was pretty impressive all things considered.

The second half was just a thing of beauty. Two fabulous tries and some lovely kicking from Dan Edwards put us well ahead and it was a shame that we did not get the bonus point.

I think that tonight's result puts us through as one of the Top 4? Now confirmed by the Ospreys.

Perpignan: Louis Dupichot; Boris Goutard, Eddie Sawailau, Apisai Naqalevu, Lucas Dubois; Jake McIntyre, Sadek Deghmache; Akato Fakatika, Ignacio Ruiz, Nemo Roelofse, Tristan Labouteley, Shahn Eru, Lucas Bachelier, Kelian Galletier (capt), So'otala Fa'aso'o.

Replacements: Victor Montgaillard, Sacha Lotrian, Arthur Joly, Bastien Chinarro, Alan Brazo, Joaquin Oviedo, Matteo Rodor, Jean-Pascal Barraque.

Anyone know anything about that line-up? Our Marvin is missing as is Tommy Allan but that's me done.

Thirteen changes from last week, Jake McIntyre is their first-choice 10 at the minute and Ignacio Ruiz went to the RWC with Argentina but otherwise it's a very decent team but mostly their second-string. Plenty of good players in there (Naqalevu, Dubois, Dupichot are all tidy in the backs). Disappointed we missed out on pro rugby's first Tristain vs Tristain battle.

Check out the Toby press conference where he mentions players soon to be returning. Morris was named along with Cuthbert, Fricker, Morgan Morris and Tips as hopefully back in February.

Uplands, if you watch the Toby Boothe PC he mentions a number of players that will be back in the next month or so, Dom is one of those, I don't think he said he would be available for this weekend.

I think that with one or two lucky breaks on injuries we can beat whoever they send. The team have had an extra week to recover from a long and arduous run and we thumped Bennetton who in turn thumped Perpignan. We shouldn't fear anyone. Respect yes, fear no.