Ospreys 17 - 12 Cardiff Blues

First topic message reminder :

For Ospreys:
Try: Bowe
Pen: Morgan 2, Biggar 2

For Cardiff Blues:
Pen: Halfpenny 3
Drop: Parks

Ospreys: 15 Barry Davies, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Andrew Bishop, 12 Ashley Beck, 11 Shane Williams/Hanno Dirksen, 10 Matthew Morgan, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 George Stowers, 7 Justin Tipuric (Capt), 6 James King, 5 Jonathan Thomas, 4 Ryan Jones, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Ryan Bevington.
Replacements: 16 Huw Bennett, 17 Duncan Jones, 18 Aaron Jarvis, 19 Tom Smith, 20 Joe Bearman, 21 Rhys Webb, 22 Dan Biggar, 23 Tom Isaacs.

Cardiff Blues: 15 Gavin Henson, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Gavin Evans, 11 Alex Cuthbert, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Lloyd Williams, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Josh Navidi, 6 Maama Molitika, 5 Paul Tito (c), 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Scott Andrews, 2 Ryan Tyrell, 1 John Yapp.
Replacements: 16 Marc Breeze, 17 Sam Hobbs, 18 Ryan Harford ,19 Michael Paterson, 20 Sam Warburton, 21 Richie Rees, 22 Dan Parks, 23 Harry Robinson.

Referee: Nigel Owens


Ospreys reapplied the pressure on Leinster at the PRO12 summit after defeating Cardiff Blues 17-12 in their Welsh derby clash on Sunday.

Indiscipline from the Blues during the opening exchanges gifted Ospreys an early lead. Matthew Morgan was on target twice with the boot in the first four minutes to give the home side a 6-0 lead.

The Blues rallied, however, and were back on level terms before the end of the first period, courtesy of two accurately struck penalties from Leigh Halfpenny.

Neither side was able to cross the whitewash before the interval or further trouble the scorers, meaning there was nothing between the two Welsh rivals when the whistle blew for half time.

Ospreys crossed the whitewash and delivered the game's first try ten minutes into the second half, when the ball was worked right straight from the scrum and Tommy Bowe crashed over. The conversion was missed but the hosts held an 11-6 lead.

The Blues reduced the deficit to just two points when Halfpenny struck for the third time after Ospreys had infringed at the ruck.

Then, after the home side missed a penalty, Cardiff kicked a drop-goal. The ball was flung from the ruck to the poised Dan Parks, who made no mistake from 20 metres out to give his side the lead.

But the slender advantage was cancelled out on 72 minutes when substitute Dan Biggar slotted over a penalty after Cardiff had infringed at the ruck.

Then, as the Blues desperately searched for a way back in to the game, Biggar cemented the win with a second penalty in the dying seconds.

maesteg, i thought you said in another post that biggar didn't know what to do, now he's a thinker........

as for morgan, you say it looks easy for him , do you mean he's an instinctive player who makes quick decisions? easy choices?

i agree with curly about morgan, a crowd pleaser, some way to go,
some welsh fans still looking for the rinky dinky player, truth be told a lot of these fans are only supporting priestland because hes what we've got.

if an 'old fashioned welsh 10 ' was to come on the scene those fans would dump their support for rp.

the game now has a 'today' 10, not a 'yesterday ' 10, and coaches and statisticians control games not the 10. as we saw in the rwc, game control was not at 10 for the majority of the games.

Biggar has limited spatial awareness. Because of his lack of vision, he makes many mistakes and poor decisions. He's too slow to make clearing kicks (often charged down because of poor technique and too slow); throws too many unnecessary miss, looped passes (squandering overlaps/greater numbers and too often being intercepted); and his first instinct is to kick, and he kicks the ball away far too much and badly, giving possession away. He's had many playing opportunities to develop and he's still very poor -- simply not good enough for a starting position in a regional team.

Morgan already shows far greater skills -- vision, pace, running ability/good footwork in tight spaces, good kicking ability (place-kicking and out-of-hand, tactically), and good general distribution skills, bringing his backs and forwards into the game. Morgan still has to improve the consistency of his place-kicking and tactical kicking, but by far his greatest weakness is defence. But he can learn the latter, and with more game time, he should reduce his weaknesses and improve his all-round game. Biggar has had far more game time, but still shows an inabilty to learn from his frequent, often-repeated mistakes. Biggar seems to lack an instinctive feel for the game despite all his playing opportunities -- when Ospreys clearly need to hold onto the ball because of limited possession, or when behind, he almost always will kick it away, even when there are plenty of attackers outside him and there is an attacking opportunity.

The Ospreys should have recruited a proven, experienced flyhalf that the likes of Morgan could learn from.

I have no doubt that, barring injury and with plenty of game time, Morgan will prove himself to be a far better player than Biggar.

i thought you said in another post that biggar didn't know what to do, now he's a thinker........

No I said he has to think. Things are not instinctive and clear to him.

the charge downs i've seen have been under pressure kicks which should never have happened if the team had been closing down the opposition effectively. the clearing kick biggar did off his own line was outstanding in the last game. certainly nothing wrong with his technique on that one.

yes he has faults, but the rest of the team are not stepping up to the plate, as i said in another post, the ospreys appear to approach each game the same way, regardless of the opposition; lets hope its not true that the job to replace johnson will come from within the club.

the players need a wholesale clearout of the coaching staff.

Jeepers Johnson makes me more annoyed by the day...

Duncan Jones NEEDS to play, he is the best loose head in Wales on form, yet for 3 weeks he has been dropped since we lost at Saracens.

Why Kahn Fotuali'i is picked ahead of Webb is anyones guess, Webb is on form and playing well, Fotuali'i is off form and playing poorly, so common sense dictates we play the poorer player.

Hibbard is playing poorly also, so of course he is first choice!

usually in the 2nd half, holley makes statements when interviewed that make him sound as if he's only thought about how to play the game after getting the first half tactics wrong .....AGAIN!

same approach, every game. they are doing their stats on their own players , but game planning always needs changing. this should not be the case for EVERY game.

Gavstar,not your last post but the previous 2 posts were absolutely spot on, judging by most of Maesteg Mafia's postings I wouldn't be suprised if he isn't one of Biggars boo boys, and Alyn if I was a Referee ( I used to play in the front row) I would penalise Duncan on practically every scrum, as on the hit his hand goes to ground straight away and then comes up to engage. The best scrummaging loosehead at the Ospreys is PJ with RB second and DJ next and in the loose RB leads DJ second and PJ, IMO the best player is selected for tomorrows game and the future.

gavstar, as to your comment re: clearout of the coaching staff -- I don't expect anything to change.

Regarding clearing kicks, a flyhalf has to be able to clear his lines and adjust the kick (position himself maybe 1 metre back, possibly kick the ball side-on, change trajectory to reduce chance of chargedown etc) to suit the situation. I would expect an inexperienced flyhalf to be charged down more often until the flyhalf learns to adjust his kick under pressure, but Biggar has had enough time to acquire the skill by now (that doesn't mean that I never expect an experienced 10 to ever be charged down!).

we can all make comments to suit the point we are trying to make, me included.

lets just be fair to everyone .use the same yardstick for the technical, tactical, positional specific skills of all players.

the ospreys are giving their 10 as long as it takes, some never get there, biggest victim of charge downs, interceptions, wasted alley runs with good ball, yes you know who , the one and only mr hook.

the coaching staff were blamed for him not reaching his potential.

Gavstar, that just isn't correct at all. There were numerous games last year where Biggar went off, Hook took the reigns at ten and everything started to work.

Biggar will be a decent ten one day hopefully but he is not at the moment. I think a bit of competition for his place will help and look forward to seeing a lot more of Matthew Morgan.

Loose at home to the Blues and Holley and Humphries must surely feel some heat?

Considering that in that respect they have been culperable for every ospreys failure, they seem to be very secure in their jobs.

I know that we need to encourage welsh coaches but the level of protection that some are awarded is possibly creating an environment where they don't have quite the same fear of failure as they would at other clubs.

Glas a du wrote:Loose at home to the Blues and Holley and Humphries must surely feel some heat?

LOSE!

ah, hooky, not forgotten, any news about him lately?

Well, S4C are about to start coverage, and kick off is in twenty minutes.

Should be a cracking encounter

Evening All

I'm bricking this if I'm honest. O's MUST win it. Gav looked as nervous as I feel getting off the bus earlier - looks like he had a cordial welcome from the locals anyway...

It did Cari,

Blues played some good rugby last week, Ospreys have made a few changes, Matthew Morgan replacing Biggar could make a big difference.

Andrew Hore was just saying that Ospreys board have not decided whether to look to appoint a replacement for Scott Johnson. The situation is under evaluation. As is apparently the clubs goals.

Yes it could - but not necessarily in a good way either - only time will tell...I'm nervous anyway. The guys need to win this to lift their chins off the floor if nothing else! Be interesting to see what sort of game Gav has...

Mark breeze a late replacement for the blues

Shane Williams is fit though

Jonathan Thomas down with an injury already, this could really test the Ospreys second row resources if he has to go off

Uh-oh, time stopped for a possible JT injury, but he's staying on. I hope he doesn't regret that. Penalty to the O's.

3 - 0.

Tito not rolling away, penalty infront of the sticks. Morgan steps up for the kick.
And converts

3 - 0

Electric break by Morgan.. What a player

Penalty conceded Morgan converts

6 - 0 Ospreys

Beautiful play by Henson with an up an under

Kicking battle between Morgan and Sweeney, Morgan wins it with a wonderful touch finder...

Tom smith on for Jonathan Thomas.

maestegmafia wrote:Electric break by Morgan.. What a player

Happy New Year All

Have to disagree with you there Maesteg (Happy New Year mate)............... headless chicken he run into a wide open space past two back row forwards nothing special in that, then didnt look up and see Barry Davies tp his left in an open space for a certain try scoring opportunity

Tito going off too, Patterson on for him.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH! That should've been a try for Tommy!

flyhalffactory wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:Electric break by Morgan.. What a player

Happy New Year All

Have to disagree with you there Maesteg (Happy New Year mate)............... headless chicken he run into a wide open space past two back row forwards nothing special in that, then didnt look up and see Barry Davies tp his left in an open space for a certain try scoring opportunity

Evening FHF...!

I didn't think he could get the pass away, so he tried to grabber to his left.

Ospreys are looking a great deal more fluent than with Biggar at ten... Morgan is looking in exceptional form.

Doubt Biggar could do it though...

Good match this I have to say. Any neutrals in?

Nice interception by lacy hooker Marc Breeze taking Bowes pass

Aye, but Tommy caught up with him thank eff.

Nigel moaning about the scrum now...what's the betting a forward gets binned tonight?

Wouldn't surprise me. Its a very childish way that he disciplines it.

Cari wrote:Good match this I have to say. Any neutrals in?

It always seems to me that with you are an ospreys fan or you hate them with a venom last demonstrated by the allies towards the third reich in 1944

Nigel chatting to welsh players in welsh.

Yup im watching it and makes the game even more enjoyable coz I dont mind who wins - o's certainly look sharper with morgan and hes out playin sweeney tho thats not hard

gowales wrote:Doubt Biggar could do it though...

groan why not?...................... it was open space for 25 mtrs with only Tito and Navidi in front of him................ Barry Davies was on his shoulder for 15mtrs, Morgan just ran and ran with no awareness, could have passed 2 mtrs early.

Saying that he is kicking well indeed

Ooops me and my big mouth ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, terrible kick

Blues concede a penalty offering Morgan another chance at goal but he misses.

flyhalffactory wrote:

gowales wrote:Doubt Biggar could do it though...

groan why not?...................... it was open space for 25 mtrs with only Tito and Navidi in front of him................ Barry Davies was on his shoulder for 15mtrs, Morgan just ran and ran with no awareness, could have passed 2 mtrs early.

Saying that he is kicking well indeed

Bigger would have kicked and not taken on the blues forwards.


Ryan jones concedes a penalty that halfpenny converts

6 - 3

maestegmafia wrote:

Cari wrote:Good match this I have to say. Any neutrals in?

It always seems to me that with you are an ospreys fan or you hate them with a venom last demonstrated by the allies towards the third reich in 1944

Maes - I don't understand that comment, unless it's just poor grammar.

Bad grammar...

Sorry I meant to say
"It always seems to me that you are either an ospreys fan, or you hate them with a venom last demonstrated by the allies towards the third reich in 1944

OK i should have said 'would do it'

Ah OK, I thought you meant me, not posters in general. Halfapee going for another penalty.

6 - 6 just makes it within the sticks.

1/2p gets another crack at it as Adam makes a scrum offense

6 all 26 mins gone

Henson looking good .............. and playing well

Wish I could say the same for Tommy