After a decent win against Cardiff last time out, attention now turns to the West Wales derby as they welcome the Scarlets to the Swansea.com stadium for what is a must win URC game. The Ospreys still have a mathematical chance to win the Welsh shield and they will hope to deny the Scarlets any match points.
The matchday 23 will likely be very similar to the Cardiff squad but I do expect the likes of Lydiate and George North to feature. Nagy might not be fit after he left the pitch early in the Cardiff game.
G Thomas N Smith D Lake S Parry T Francis T Botha A Beard AWJ R Davies D Lydiate J Morgan M Morris E Roots
R Webb G Anscombe K Giles O Watkin M Collins A Cuthbert M Protheroe RMW S Myler G North
Discuss...
The re-emergence of Keelan, Anscombe and now North in the last two weeks is really significant. A month ago, I'd have settled for one re-emerging. Now we have Anscombe looking like he's clicking again which gives us a structure we've not had since Sam D. Keelan gives us something we've not had since he was injured the first time and North gives us brutal but magical play. That's the first time under Booth we've looked like a rounded team in that second half - if we can keep going and adding in players, we may have a successful template.
https://www.theospreyliantrust.co.uk/post/monday-morning-quarterback-view-40
When I saw Williams and Jon Davies lining up for them, I was a little worried how our centres may get in against them. I needn’t have worried as I agree that Watkin was excellent as was Collins.
I would like to give a big shout for the most underrated player i can think of and that’s Owen Watkin…he just never puts a foot wrong.
If something good came out of that game last night, it could be through a bit of ill fortune we've found our 2nd or 3rd choice full back, Michael Collins hit some very good lines, I thought he completely overshadowed Foxy when at 13 and made a good fist of it when he went 15.
Well worth the trip up from Cornwall
Epic epic epic stuff. Great family day at the . Com today.
Fantastic performance, what was the crowd attendance? If only we could have the luxury of picking from a full squad more often……
That’s why we all love the Ospreys.
Well, that was a turn up for the books. A disappointing first half was completely surpassed by a dominant second half display as we ended up putting 50+ points on them.
I know that Dewi was given MOTM but for me the MOTM was Keelan Giles who made at least 2 try saving tackles, scored one try and set up another for Collins. That was his best game in an Ospreys shirt. Gutted to have conceded those last two tries that gave them a try BP but we finally used our attacking threats and scored lots of tries.
Off to the game we go.
On paper, I think we have the better front 5 with the back rows being very similar. I think that our back line looks slightly stronger due to the experience there but not by much.
I think that our bench has the slight edge as well.
However, in saying that, games are never won on paper and this is a derby match after all so it will likely be very close. Could well come down to the goal-kicking of the 10s.
Scarlets team v Ospreys (Saturday, April 23 17:10 Premier Sports)
15 Liam Williams; 14 Corey Baldwin, 13 Joe Roberts, 12 Jonathan Davies (capt), 11 Ryan Conbeer; 10 Sam Costelow, 9 Gareth Davies; 1 Steff Thomas, 2 Ryan Elias, 3 Javan Sebastian, 4 Sam Lousi, 5 Jac Price, 6 Josh Macleod, 7 Tomas Lezana, 8 Sione Kalamafoni.
Reps: 16 Daf Hughes, 17 Rob Evans, 18 WillGriff John, 19 Morgan Jones, 20 Aaron Shingler, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Rhys Patchell, 23 Steff Evans.
I think that’s about as best as we could've hoped for. Scarlets side looks very strong…no idea how to call this one.
Here is the team
If Lydiate is available I’d play him at 8 instead of Morris. We did this against Connacht last year and Turks in 2019, both times Lydiate dominated in defence. I’d have Morris as an impact sub.
According to Scarlet fever they will be beating us by at least 10 points it’s hardly worth us turning up is it.
Lol yes it cant be an easy task. I guess that shows the strength in depth that has been added to our pack. Genuine competition for places in every position and imagine the headache when Tips is back because Jac Morgan has been superb.
Couple of points OFF, I know you haven't named the starting pack, I think I would start the finishing props from the last game and possibly the hooker as well, even though Cardiff put on weaker replacements in the front row, you have to give encouragement to players that made a material difference when they came on. I also would pick Will Griffiths for his lineout prowess because the Scarlets will pick Shingler and we need to put him under pressure. Hopefully George is fit enough to start and that the only reason he wasn't selected for Cardiff was because of the pitch, if we can get Watkin to make half or full breaks and hand on to George could be very fruitful for us, and if Nagy is not fit I hope Booth doesn't revert back to Evans we need to stick with either Protheroe or put Michael Collins back there. IMO we need 2 5 pointers for these next 2 games as our point difference deficit is not going to be bridged. So apart from Will Griffiths I basically agree with your selection.