After a famous 'double' victory over French champions Montpellier last week, the Ospreys have a short turnaround again, before they travel on Friday to the Midlands to face English champions, Leicester Tigers at Welford Road with an 8pm kick-off. The winner of this tie will almost certainly get a home tie in the HCC round of 16 so there is a lot to play for and the loser is still likely to qualify for the last 16 but will likely face a much tougher away tie against one of the top teams from Pool A. The full picture for the Round of 16 will not be known until all the games are played by Sunday early evening.
The Ospreys managed to come through Saturday's amazing game against Montpellier with only one major injury to speak off and that was to Rhys Webb who took a bang to the ribs. I do not know if Webb will be available for selection but RMW will no doubt be an able deputy should his injury be too much. Kieran Williams will likely return to the squad so I expect very little change but Ethan Roots might have gotten himself over his knock and could well be pushing for selection as well.
Likely Squad
N Smith G Thomas S Baldwin D Lake T Francis T Botha AWJ A Beard H Sutton/BBBD/ E Roots J Morgan J Tipuric M Morris R Davies
R Webb/M Aubrey RMW O Williams K Giles K Williams G North A Cuthbert C Evans J Hawkins M Collins
There is a chance of going 6:2 on the bench again. We could see R Davies continue at 6 with Roots on the bench alongside Morris and I think the starting team could look like this:-
N Smith D Lake T Francis AWJ A Beard R Davies/E Roots J Tipuric J Morgan
R Webb/RMW O Williams K Giles K Williams G North A Cuthbert C Evans
Reps
G Thomas S Baldwin T Botha H Sutton/BBBD M Morris
RMW/M Aubrey J Hawkins M Collins
Discuss.
Just started a Saracens Last 16 thread - Saracens v Ospreys RCC Last 16 Tie! | Mysite (ospreysfanforum.wixsite.com) so all chat about that game can go in there
Has anyone any idea when the Day and time for this game is announced, if any reasonable day and time can be arranged are the OSC expecting to run Transport for this.
The only problem for me is that the only away game I've ever been involved for a knockout game is our previous match against these, so I class myself as a bit of a jinx.
If anyone is thinking of going be aware that it is a smaller stadium, just over 10,000, so get tickets early. There is a huge car park and StoneX is just one part of Barnet Copthall Leisure Centre.
Ospreys could do with training on a surface like Cardiff Arms Park though StoneX has, if anything, an even more erratic bounce than the one that did for Jack Walsh recently.
So, having beaten the French champions twice and the English champions away, we now have to beat Saracens away, La Rochelle away and Leinster in Dublin to win the Cup - no problem.
They will as unhappy with that outcome as anyone, I think we can take em.
So Saracens away then...
The stupidity of Ben Healy, that forearm smash ended all hopes of a home game in the next round of the Champions Cup.
Well, I was glad I went. The boooing for the kick at the end as the Tiger fans streamed out made me so happy.
Looks like we need a huge favour (but not too huge) from Munster tomorrow. We need them to get 4 match points against Toulouse and we should finish 4th and secure the home tie.
I said last week I'm not usually picking on Referee performances, but that one last night had 2 opportunities in the last few minutes to give penalty tries and yellow cards for the above shoulder tackles on Rhys Davies and especially Michael Collins, that would have negated the need for the extra 10 minutes, when probably most of us were on the verge of heart attacks.
Fantastic result every player did their job, and no mistakes at all in that last 10 minutes to let the tigers off the hook. This team is just getting better and better, well done all.
I love this squad.
If I am reading this correctly (and I might well not be) but if Toulouse win and La Rochelle win they will move to 17 point so we really need a Clermont win against the Stormers for us to finish 4th.
I am bouncing here, absolutely delighted with that performance. Yes the exits were not perfect and costs us a few points but that defensive effort was bloody superb and we thoroughly deserved to win and to qualify for the Round of 16.
Outstanding.
Superb.
well done Toby.
Disco Dave we’re aren’t though:)
Fantastic performance
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Tigers-
STARTING XV 15 Freddie Steward [66] 14 Harry Potter [55] 13 Matt Scott [56] 12 Dan Kelly [50] 11 Harry Simmons [28] 10 Handré Pollard [3] 9 Jack van Poortvliet (vc) [59] 1 James Whitcombe [33] 2 Charlie Clare [67] 3 Dan Cole (vc) [303] 4 Ollie Chessum [42] 5 Cameron Henderson [26] 6 Hanro Liebenberg (c) [73] 7 Tommy Reffell [90] 8 Olly Cracknell [13]
REPLACEMENTS 16 Julián Montoya [32] 17 Dan Richardson [8] 18 Will Hurd [17] 19 Harry Wells [170] 20 Sean Jansen [14] 21 Ben Youngs [293] 22 Jimmy Gopperth [8] 23 Charlie Atkinson [9]
Gutted Francis not available but great opportunity for Rhys Henry. I’m assuming no 10 cover on bench due to Williams, Cai and Hawkins all in starting xv.