Worcester v Ospreys. Challenge Cup 19/12 @8pm

He is a stop gap but a vital one. Luke Price was one of the worst 10's I have ever seen in pro rugby. He is 37 though and we have to get the 10 position right for next season and going with Anscombe would be a huge risk. If you look at our squad we should be able to find better quality for our back row and back row pool relatively easily. Finding a quality 10 is going tho be the hardest job.

Myler reliable as he is limits our attacking options and against better teams than Worcester we won't gain the forward and contact dominance we got. The fact Marc Thomas was their loose head tells you a lot about their forward quality.

We are simply far better organised in the basics which is why we are no longer beating ourselves. We still however have periods where we lose concentration and concede soft scores, which good sides unlike Worcester don't let you recover from. We have an attacking maul a competent scrum, can defend the maul and can exit properly. We also don't seem to panic as we used to. I think we finally have proper pro coaches in charge rather the embarrassments we have been witnessing for the past 3/4 years. We are overplaying a lot of players though because the depth in the squad is not there and there are still too many passengers on the books, most of whom Booth has not been selecting.

@Fiddler the defence in the backs is definitely a problem - we’ve given up some absolute howlers this year and I think teams know the way to score on us is to move us about.

@TaI Yes it is most definitely an issue. There is no defensive general. We are hiding Myler. We miss Webb's cover defence. Our best back North has never been a great defender and Dan Evans tackling as the last line has always been weak. Still despite all this we should not be as easy as we are to open up. Pugh has done a good job of defending the power teams but speedier players are cutting us apart so maybe he needs some help. Perhaps Brock James should look at the systematic issues we have in defending space in the middle and out wide.

Watching Beck cut us apart made me think back to the day Tandy decided to let him go for his star signing Scott Williams at close to three times the price. I wonder if Ashley might return to play out his final days helping our batch of young centres develop.

@daves disco if we can sign the right NWQ players at 10, 7 & 8 (for arguments sake) we will have a side that will be going places full of a great mix of young local talent and NWQ in key positions.

To become a decent side you need three good cycles of players coming into the squad. The first cycle has been good . Protheroe and Rhys Davies look keeper signings. Griffiths Morris Williams have cemented themselves as first 23 players and Lake Morgan and RMW look as if they could break in soon. We will need the same next season and the season after. I think there are around 7 or 8 players out of contract that need replacing and another two or three you would ideally like to loan out for the remainder of their contracts so there should be scope for retooling the squad to fit the game plan Booth and James want to play.

@Uplands9 agree there mate. Great to see them comeback from that points surge by Worcester. It would have been the same old story if we had given up then but we didn't. We dug in and beat a an almost full strength side. I think they thought they had the game won and took off their most attacking player in Nanai and they were shell-shocked by our comeback.

On a different note, I thought the ref as absolutely excellent but I did think he missed a few forward passes in their tries.

@ospreysfanforum just watched the try involving Beck, he received and gave a forward pass. How the officials did not see them is beyond me 🤔 That aside I was happy with the referee's performance...

@Gaffer the box kicking is a necessary part of the game as we don't always win the contact area and we don't possess enough line break runners in the squad or the players to retain possession to play all the time

ME TOO

@TaI yes, they seem to have gone practically full strength for the game which will make our task much harder.

@ospreysfanforum Even at full strength they are in the bottom 3 teams in England so it will be test of where we are. My money would be on a bonus point loss.

Given it will be a fast 4G pitch it may be that Gareth Thomas and Cross will offer more from bench than Rhodri and Cracknell and with North able to switch to centre Morgan may get the nod over TTW.