With the opening game done and dusted, the Ospreys are currently preparing for the visit of Zebre to the Swansea.com Stadium for the first home game of the new BTK URC season. With two very different halves already under their belts, this young Ospreys squad will be looking for more of the second half performance from last week, rather than the opening 40 minutes.
The squad is very likely to be very similar to the Connacht squad, depending on the fitness of Will Griffiths. Although the bench had a massive impact, I do wonder if they will remain as bench options or will they have done enough to warrant a start?
Squad from....(assumes Will Griff is fit - Fender in if he isn't)(No Parry? or Cuthbert)
N Smith R Henry E Lewis L Lloyd T Botha B Warren R Davies W Griffiths H Sutton J Ratti M Morris J Tipuric(c) H Deaves
RMW L Davies O Williams J Walsh K Giles O Watkin K Williams D Morris L Morgan M Nagy
Just wanted to let you all know that Proth is fine and should be available for selection for Friday.
From what I saw on Saturday, the backs are playing some good stuff better and more joined up than I have seen for years. The kicking from hand was awful and kept them in our half for longer than needed. The defence out wide wasn't great, but I hope that's fixable our pack will get stronger the young hooker is bloody good. Conacht did the same to Glasgow who have their internationals back. I think zebra will win a few games this season, I think we have done well without our wales players back. I am cautiously optimistic, I was hoping for a new TH and scrum half but like I said I am being optimistic.
When I seen both squads selected for this match, I expected a very tough game and wouldn't have been surprised to see us lose, of the 7 Zebre players that were involved in the recent WC, 4 were starting with 2 on the bench, so to come away with 5 match points was most gratifying, as a few have already said, some of the standouts were youngsters as well as our wonderful captain.
As Toby has said with youngsters you'll get lows ( Nagy's kick through that ended with their throw in our 22) with highs (his try and his contribution to RMW's try). We have to expect these games and really hope the highs are more frequent than the lows. Walsh is an enigma to me he fetches players onto the ball so well and then misses fairly simple kicks at goal, to me we have to persevere with him at 10 at the moment, because he does challenge the line, if Hopkins is due back soon him and Nagy can have a scrap for the 15 shirt, I would only start Jack at 15 if both are not available. I totally agree with Fiddler about the potential of Lloyd and Fender, they look excellent prospects.
A bit of news I was told yesterday from a very reliable source is that Cuthbert has damaged his hamstring again, he apparently had nearly made a full recovery after the final WC warm up game, only for it to go again, not sure how far along he is with his recovery.
Well, a win is a win is a win.
Another slow start and gifting them a 0-12 headstart inside 10 minutes is bound to frustrate Booth and fans alike but we came back well with two tries of our own - a lovely move saw Ruben finish it off and a fine individual try from Protheroe. However, we gifted them another try straight away. 17-19 at half time.
Once again, we came out for the second half, a different team to the one that had gone into the changing rooms and scored another individual try from Nagy.
Nicky Smith then powered over from close range and the BP was secured but we switched off when Zebre had a penalty and a nice cross field kick found their winger in acres of space to score their third try.
Owen Williams added a late penalty to take us two scores ahead but Zebre had the last word with their BP try and finished within 7 points for a losing BP.
We played some good stuff but were guilty of too many turnovers and some poor kicking. In the end though, we won and that is what matters. I can Zebre causing a few teams problems.
Watching the World Cup games , you can really see the benefit of good kick chase as England and Argentina showed last night. Also most of the other nations as well, with the one exception of Wales who are utterly hopeless at it. I would love to see us work more on that skill because neither Morgan, Cuthbert or North are good enough in that area and Keelan, although he recognises how important it is in retention and turnovers, rarely wins the ball. Can't see that changing with Prothero.
Going by Boothe's comments I can see Nicky starting and Sam Parry coming off the bench the team I would like to see starting, with also Will Griff missing would be
Nagy, Keelan, Morris, Watkin, Cuthbert, Walsh, RMW, Smith, Lloyd, Botha, Sutton, Davies, Ratti, Tips and Morris.
Yet I can't see Morris, Cuthbert, Walsh or Lloyd starting he'll revert to Kieran, Morgan, Williams and probably Lewis
Zebre will be coming close to or fully loaded for this game and with their improved performance against Ulster this will not be an easy game for us.
Edited the OP to show that Nicky Smith is available for Saturday. Not sure if he will start but he is definitely available and Sam Parry is a maybe.
Wasn't there a comment on here recently r.e. Booth hoping to reinforce the Squad i.e. Tight Head & Scrum Half.
Scrum half is a real problem position for us. I've never thought of RMW as nothing more than squad filler, and the more I see of him, particularly starting a match, reinforces my perception of him. L