Scarlets V Ospreys Rainbow Cup Sat May 8th @ 19:35

Well I believe Toby Booth has to take a good look at himself, because after all , he is the one preaching the Gospel about what it means to be an Osprey and what it means to represent the region. Then on the back of a horrendous performance crashing out against Newcastle and all of the regions being slammed by all of the rugby world , he goes and puts out a side that every single Ospreys fan could easily have told him would not be anywhere near competitive enough AND against our nearest and bitterest rivals for goodness sake. I always believed in Toby, but that is nowhere near good enough for the Region, for The Ospreys and for the fans who deserve better. That performance against the Scarlets took me back to the worst days of Clarke when watching was torture. You cannot instil this pride in what the group stands for and then simply give up matches because they are not important in your scheme, because they are damned important to us fans. We dont want to be seen as the pushover region because we have now been outplayed and out thought by The Dragons, Newcastle and a poorly performing Scarlets side . Everything seems like “Coaching Manual Rugby” without flair players or heads up rugby. You could see the panic in the eyes of Luke Price and Cai Evans when they were called upon to field defensive kicks, all of which were pathetic . I don’t believe I have ever been so disappointed watching a match as that one. While we are at it, I am no expert , but why oh why, do scrum halves have to wait around waving their arms in the air at the forwards instead of simply getting the ball away, even the refs are fed up with it, screaming “use it” to try and get the games flowing. It’s all coaching manual stuff in my opinion and players seem to have become automatons. Oh for Gareth Edwards and his dive passes!!!

We learned precisely nothing from that, other than we’ve got serious problems.

We have no depth in the backs and have serious lineout problems. Hugely concerned for next season.

Seems to me that whoever was running the line out yesterday should have had a bit more respect for conditions & for the fact that Shingler is a very good defensive line out jumper but I guess it’s the easy option and blame the hooker!!

I think you are being overly critical of Sam’s throwing in yesterday as the ones he lost were all easy for Shingler to defend against as the set up was so obvious as to where the ball was going. The not straight was as straight as the majority of throws throughout the game and in all honesty none of the hookers on show looked entirely comfortable throwing in!

I thought Roots had a good game overall, we were let down in other areas of the pitch particularly half backs.

It’s almost saying the unspeakable but I have to agree about Alun Wyn , he had a very poor game against the Drags when we were beaten, and the same yesterday, I expected so much more from him, because I had become used to him being our savior in previous times. He seemed like a passenger yesterday.

I have to say with fear of being shot that I expected more from AWJ and Tips, who I believe is not captain material. The line out was a shambles without any leadership only Tips could win any ball - where was the variation 3 or 4 man line for example , easy to defend.

Unfortunately I have not seen any attacking play this season that was in any way memorable- I concede that the loss of Anscombe has affected our patterns also accepted that we have yet to see him on the field. I have not seen anything from Brock, we are not Clermont he needs to adopt. We were never going to win with that 9/10/12 combo but at least try to have some kind of attacking strategy - the wings never had any ball in anger. We are strengthening our squad but have to cut our cloth etc but please how many games does it take to see that TTW and Cai are not at this level and unfortunately never will be. I appreciate that the rainbow cup is not of major importance but we should be still professional in our approach and still try and fire a shot.

On reflection it’s a bit harsh to criticise the wings as they hardly touched the ball. As individuals the players could be carried by a strong team but played as a collective is a disaster. Everything we did last night was slow and ponderous , it was like none of our players wanted to be there and just went through the motions.

Yes I agree Fiddler, and Toby Booth is deluded if he thought for one minute that team could get a result. I take Keelan Giles is injured again, because how else do you explain Cai Evans.

But surely anyone looking at the team sheet before the match could see that we would lose that game, and as for the actual performance, I can’t remember a worst one this season. I said on WOL that I didn’t fancy our chances with this side that Booth had picked and a Scarlets supporter replied that I was mad to think Scarlets would beat us after the way they themselves were playing. Says it all really. You can never expect us to win games with CaI Evans, Luke Price , Sam Cross and Matthew Aubrey .

Very frustrating performance tonight. Conditions were bad but considering they train at st Helen's this season, they should be used to catching a rugby ball in the rain. Coughed up a criminal amount of possession and kicked aimlessly all game where as Hardy's box kicks put our backs under all sorts of pressure. I appreciate the budget constraints etc but it's difficult to justify some of the contracts that have been given of late. On the plus side for me, thought Gareth Thomas was very good at scrum time again and Roots looks like a decent carrier, bit raw with discipline but the parts are all there. You feel that if we went a season without a single injury, we'd be a cracking side but scratch just slightly below the surface and the drop off is really frightening.

After watching us tonight at 9/10/12 you have to hope Booth understands what has to be done. Beating up Cardiff reserves and pulling off an incredible final 20 minutes by ambushing a careless Leinster team should not be given excessive weight. I hope some of these contracts we have been doling out have some performance element tied to them.

That backline must be one of the worst to put on an Osprey jersey. Before the game I said we lacked speed and creativity but I didn’t think we would lack enthusiasm playing against the Scarlets.

Truly awful tonight, can’t blame the conditions as scarlets seemed to be largely unaffected by it. I think a scarlets team on all cylinders would’ve put another 20 points on us tonight. very poor indeed.

I missed the game and for some reason, my Sky did not record it. What did I miss?

Shameful - Booth needs to act. Lot of impostors on the pitch tonight

Appalling.

Complete shambles.

Weather might suit us. Not a lot of speed or creativity in that back line apart from Protheroe. Front five should at least be competitive and the back row will need to cover the field to make up for deficiencies in the backs.

Another mix'n'match day 23 but I am a little surprised that both AWJ and Tips are playing but I guess it is because we are playing the Scarlets and neither wanted to not play. The weather is likely to play a big part in how the game is played.

Surprised that there is no back row on the bench but I guess Rhys Davies could do the WIll Griffiths role in a push. Protheroe is the 10 cover should anything untoward happen to Price. Looking forward to seeing how we go....

Here is the Scarlets team - looks strong

15 Leigh Halfpenny; 14 Tom Rogers, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Jonathan Davies, 11 Steff Evans; 10 Angus O’Brien, 9 Kieran Hardy; 1 Rob Evans, 2 Ken Owens (capt), 3 Alex Jeffries, 4 Jake Ball, 5 Lewis Rawlins, 6 Aaron Shingler, 7 Jac Morgan, 8 Blade Thomson.

Reps: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Steff Thomas, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Jac Price, 20 Uzair Cassiem, 21 Dane Blacker, 22 Paul Asquith, 23 Joe Roberts.