With the 6 Nations taking a welcome week off, attention now turns back to the Pro 14 and the Ospreys welcome Zebre to the Liberty Stadium this Saturday evening.
With injuries and the players away with Wales, this could be a difficult selection for Toby Booth.
I think the team will look something like this...
G Thomas S Parry M Fia L Ashley R Davies W Griffiths S Cross M Morris
R Webb S Myler M Protheroe K Williams J Hawkins L Morgan D Evans
Reps
TBC
Best thing we can do against Ulster is avoid injury. It’s a totally unfair mismatch.
The worrying thing is we don’t have many options for the Ulster game apart from hooker and o/s half . I cannot see anybody who would make much of an impact on the way we play.
I’d be more inclined to think that due to the shambles that was unravelling, he took it upon himself to try and spark something, and unfortunately tried to often, and at the wrong times. Something that he will learn with experience.
Yes could be Fids, but I also wondered whether he might be buying into his hype about playing for Wales and maybe trying to win the game on his own, he certainly looked one dimensional and it really bothered me because I am such a fan.
Whoever is at fault it was not working. The problem with Williams is he is very one dimensional and easily read.
I have to say that I wasn’t surprised Kieron Williams was hooked, unless he was injured, he was poor. He kept taking one up balls and finding himself turned over and that dip shoulder was too easily read. His replacement fared better JH.
There is no variety or innovation in our plays we keep flogging a dead horse. Try a shorten line out , if we are not going to compete put Ashley at the front to make it more difficult for the opposition hooker to throw in. Try and keep the ball alive and limit the crash balls where we were continually turned over.Every thing we did was slow and predictable even Webb when we were on their line was slow in getting the ball away allowing them to regroup and defend.
Gareth Thomas is a more than decent scrumager these days fair play to him.
Is Fender an academy 2nd row ?
As for next week hopefully Nicky Smith will be back, although I think Gareth Thomas has not let us down, if Myler is fit and the changes I put in above are implemented we can at least give Ulster a game, if the team selected is anything like yesterdays selection I think we would be slaughtered, I also think the pack started to operate better when both Phillips and Botha entered the fray, so I wouldn't be disappointed if those changes also came in.
I thin k with the right players around him Cross can do a job for us, probably next season he'll be our 3rd choice 7 and that should be good enough for me, the other 2 Cracknell and Ashley should be among the first on the list to be let go. I thought if Griffiths had started at 6 last night it would have been an ideal game to give a start to Fender, that would have given us a 4 target lineout with Davies, Fender, Griffiths and Cross as viable options, as others have said we have to be thankful it was Zebre we were playing, anyone else in our league and we would have lost last night.
We lacked any intensity in our game and instead of looking for space we tried to out muscle them and failed miserably. We either kept running into contact or away from support and continually got turned over. With a lightweight back five we needed to be more street wise and not look for contact.
I can’t believe how much of a negative effect LA has on our pack, granted the step down from Tipuric to cross is stark but Ashley can’t do anything well enough.
It was a weird one last night as whilst you’d expect the odd player to have an off game, almost the entire team struggled with Webb being the exception. @Fiddler explained about losing the collisions but I felt that from the first whistle we were miles behind them in terms of general intensity and speed of movement. The inability to secure line out ball was obviously a massive problem but warning signs were there from the first minute. I thought that we’d be able to use our rolling maul to good effect but due to poor lineout and lack of field position that was never really an option so I guess it shows how important it is that Griffiths starts and how much we miss lydiate and beard.
I'm really sorry, but if I see the name 'Lloyd Ashley' on the team sheet then my heart sinks.
Well a win is a win, but that was miserable viewing.
This like 2019 again.
Why aren’t we challenging be any of their line outs...even in their half?
You have to have a plan B. Try a shorten line out, the pick and drive isn’t working , we have to speed things up . Have Protheroe and Morgan touched the ball yet?
I hope booth is going apeshit on them after that half