Ospreys vs Zebre

PRO12: OSPREYS V ZEBRE
Venue: Liberty Stadium
Date: Friday, 4 January
Kick-off: 19:05 GMT

Referee: Neil Paterson (SRU)
Assistant Referees: Neil Hennessy, Neil Perkins (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Russell Howell (WRU)


Ospreys

15 Matthew Morgan

14 Ross Jones

13 Tom Isaacs

12 Andrew Bishop

11 Eli Walker

10 Dan Biggar

9 Rhys Webb

1 Duncan Jones

2 Scott Baldwin

3 Adam Jones (Capt)

4 Ian Gough

5 Lloyd Peers

6 James King

7 Sam Lewis

8 Jonathan Thomas

REPLACEMENTS

16 Richard Hibbard

17 Ryan Bevington

18 Campbell Johnstone

19 George Stowers

20 Morgan Allen

21 Kahn Fotuali'i

22 Jonathan Spratt

23 Richard Fussell

Halangahu, Venditti, Pratichetti, Garcia, Sinoti, Orquera, Chillon, Van Schalkwyk, Bergamasco, Caffini, Van Vuren, Geldenhuys, Redolfini, Giazzon, Aguero. (A disposizione : Manini, Perugini, Tripodi, Ferrarini, Sole, Martinelli, Benettin, Sarto) All. Gajan

Have no idea why they are not playing Ross Jones at full back?

ZEBRE :

Halangahu, Venditti, Pratichetti, Garcia, Sinoti, Orquera, Chillon, Van Schalkwyk, Bergamasco, Caffini, Van Vuren, Geldenhuys, Redolfini, Giazzon, Aguero. (A disposizione : Manini, Perugini, Tripodi, Ferrarini, Sole, Martinelli, Benettin, Sarto) All. Gajan

maestegmafia wrote:Have no idea why they are not playing Ross Jones at full back?

He didnt have the best game against the Dragons maybe his confidence had taken a knock so their keeping him on the wing.

Be interesting to see how Webb does now he's been given a shot. I know its only Zebre but if he can put in a good performance and carry that through to the 6N he may be on the bench.

Interesting to see what crowd turns up to watch a side making up the numbers, this game should be played on a park ground to get ready to play the Blues.

Shifty wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:Have no idea why they are not playing Ross Jones at full back?

He didnt have the best game against the Dragons maybe his confidence had taken a knock so their keeping him on the wing.

No he didn't really. Probably the only Ospreys player who seemed a bit put off by the Parade.

glamorganalun wrote:Interesting to see what crowd turns up to watch a side making up the numbers, this game should be played on a park ground to get ready to play the Blues.

They should do ok, given the ST deal and the three game deal they have on.

I take it Ryan Jones is rested, to allow him to launch his testimonial year properly, ie so he can appear on the pitch and have a bit of a fuss made of him?

Bonus point will do nicely tonight..

Need a kick up the backside at 1/2 time.

Still 6-8 to zebre

Breadvan wrote:Bonus point will do nicely tonight..

*****ing LBP is that Why rest a squad that is a on a roll and lose momentum

What hope do Ospreys have of winning something if they can't get the TBP against Treviso?!

Leading 9-8

Morgannwg wrote:What hope do Ospreys have of winning something if they can't get the TBP against Treviso?!

As with all games there are usually mitigating factors contributing to results.

Watching the televised game you have to say there have been a number of mitagating factors involved in the result. One usually involves an idiot with a whistle.

We have had worse results and still won the rp12/Celtic league.

http://m.espnscrum.com/s/3498/MatchCenter?matchId=167056

16-15 to Os Biggar all their points

Ah grand, the sort of performance to strike fear into the hearts of Europe

Ospreys 16 (1T, 1C, 3P) Zebre 15 (2T, 1C, 1P)

Fair enough. Sounds like Biggar carried you.

Morgannwg wrote:Fair enough. Sounds like Biggar carried you.

Maybe I didn't see the game.

Pretty sure we are top four though now as Scarlets got pasted again...!

Well done the Ospreys on yet another fantastic performance from the Welsh 'region' showing how well the current setup is in Wales

We are second in the RP12.

Good result.

Bishop was ruled out before match started -- Jonathon Spratt played instead.

This is the sort of result that will keep fans away, I bet the guys buying the £35 three match tickets are regretting their purchase after this game.

glamorganalun wrote:This is the sort of result that will keep fans away, I bet the guys buying the £35 three match tickets are regretting their purchase after this game.

Why...? Did you see the game..?

Started off hoping for a bonus point win... ended up being grateful for scraping a win by one point. Credit to Zebre, they didn't seem like the pushover I expected but the Ospreys were very poor. Missed Hibbards go foward up front and the backs were very poor, Webb was particularly shocking. Matthew Morgan was also poor, never thought I would be so glad to see Fussell take the field! The subs definitely improved things later in the game but it was a very nervy affair!

From the Ospreys Website

Ospreys 16 Zebre 15


The Ospreys secured the narrowest of wins over Zebre at the Liberty Stadium on Friday evening, but were made to fight every inch of the way as the Italians secured a losing bonus point.Zebre outscored their opponents two tries to one, but the Ospreys were grateful to Dan Biggar, who scored all his side's points on a night where they never really clicked or found the rhythm that had seen them win eight of their previous nine games in the PRO12.
After an untidy opening, with both sides struggling to retain possession, it was the Italians who opened the scoring nine minutes in, Alberto Chillon slotting over a straightforward penalty from 30m out after Jonathan Thomas was pinged for not rolling away.

The response from the Ospreys saw them predictably stepping up a gear, attempting to assert their authority on the contest, without creating any real opportunities. The best they could muster in the opening 15 minutes was a clever line break from Rhys Webb, the scrum-half spotting a gap in the Zebre defence as he collected the lineout ball on the 10m line, bursting through to the 22 only to lose his footing as two defenders closed in on him.

However, the game was level in the 19th minute, Biggar making no mistake after Michael Van Vuuren was guilty of a similar offence to Thomas earlier.

The Ospreys defence then had to be alert to snuff out the Zebre threat as Alberto Benettin sliced through the middle, James King tracking back well to intercept the fullback's offload.

The visitors retook the lead on 25 minutes with the first try of the game, the points again coming from scrumhalf Chillon. It was a classic sucker punch, Andries van Schalkwyk the catalyst, stealing the ball on halfway with a well timed interception of Tom Isaacs floated pass and charging upfield. The ball was moved through several pairs of hands before the big number eight again drove forward, Thomas halting him a metre short of the line. The alert Chillon was on hand to pick up and dive over, before missing the conversion attempt.

Biggar then kicked his second penalty of the night after Italian hands in the ruck, bringing up the half hour.

Zebre were reduced to 14 minutes before the break, van Schalkwyk sinbinned after illegally halting an Ospreys driving maul that was rumbling towards the line. Having enjoyed a clear advantage in the scrum eight on eight, with an extra man in the pack it was no surprise to see the hosts opt for the setpiece.

On the first occasion the Ospreys turned the screw, inching towards the line, only for the scrum to go down, resulting in a second penalty. After the reset, Zebre once again went in retreat. Thomas opted to pick up and go for the line only to be held up, allowing referee Neil Paterson to blow for the break.

HALF-TIME: OSPREYS 6 ZEBRE 8

Biggar had a chance to put the Ospreys ahead five minutes after the restart, following a huge scrum from the home pack that saw Zebre driven back 10m before the penalty was awarded, but the Ospreys' 10's radar was off and his kick drifted wide of the sticks.

The Ospreys were enjoying the lions share of possession and territory but were lacking a cutting edge, Zebre defending their line without any real issues as the clock ticked into the final 30.

The hosts were almost made to pay the price after Tito Tebaldi danced his way past two challenges into the Ospreys 22. Paolo Buso was in support but he just overran it, forcing Buso to delay the offload for what looked a certain try, giving the defence the opportunity to scramble and snuff out the threat.

A penalty against Matthew Morgan for holding on after he had run into a brick wall attempting to carry the ball out of defence offered Zebre another attempt to go for the posts. The Italian's timewasting techniques and antics at the breakdown were infuriating the home crowd, who were delighted to see Daniel Halangahu's kick from the Ospreys 10m go wide of the sticks.

The Ospreys showed then good patience to work their way upfield, the forwards making the hard yards with a series of drives to suck in defenders, an offside offence eventually allowing Biggar to split the uprights, his penalty putting the hosts ahead for the first time with less than 20 to play.

The breakthrough for the hosts followed just a couple of minutes later and it was a wonderfully crafted team score, taking advantage of a Zebre knock-on deep inside their own 22 to go the length of the field and score.

Richard Fussell, on for Matthew Morgan, was the catalyst, pouncing on Samuel Pace's knock-on and launching immediate counter attack. Isaacs carried well up the left flank, the ball came back across the width of the field to Ross Jones on the right. He fed Kahn Fotuali'i on his inside, who immediately offloaded to Biggar who trotted over to score before picking himself up to convert.

Just as the home fans thought the game was safe, Zebre hit straight back with their second try of the night within two minutes. Again van Schalkwyk provided the spark with a powerful charge, shrugging off a challenge to offload to Tebaldi on the blindside, the replacement scrum half going over in the corner. The successful conversion from Halangahu brought Zebre back to within a point with just under 10 minutes remaining.

Zebre continues pressing and the influential Halangahu almost found a way through, before a surreal moment in the Zebre half saw Pace look to take a quick tap penalty, haring away with an open field in front of him, only to find his progress halted by a Zebre medic leaving the field, who produced a sliding tackle on his own man that Bobby Moore would have been proud of, much to the relief of the home fans.

The Ospreys were able to see out the closing minutes to secure the win, but left the field disappointed with the performance despite leapfrogging local rivals the Scarlets to go into the top four, even if it may prove only temporary with Munster entertaining Cardiff Blues on Saturday night.

Shocker tonight. Zebre would've won if they'd been more clinical and hung onto the ball. Fair play to them, excellent second try. Fuss and KF made a huge difference when they came on. Dunno what's happened to Rhys Webb. Another ropey display.M Morgan at FB? Not again please Tandy! How many times did he run into contact? And with his build! Good job the regulars will be back for the tigers game...

maestegmafia, No, I didn't see the game -- I picked up the info about Bishop from this match report (see 4th paragraph):

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/15595.php

Not good news for Ospreys. Bishop has been a cornerstone...!

No news on what happened or what the injury is?

Maestegmafia, He's an excellent defensive centre. I assumed something must have happened in the warm-up. Hopefully, it's not too serious. We need all our best players for Leicester!

Ospreydragon wrote:Maestegmafia, He's an excellent defensive centre. I assumed something must have happened in the warm-up. Hopefully, it's not too serious. We need all our best players for Leicester!

He was ruled out this morning so hopefully it was just through illness, he is crucial to the Ospreys cause as he is a defensive rock so hopefully he will be back asap.

mpc28 wrote:

Ospreydragon wrote:Maestegmafia, He's an excellent defensive centre. I assumed something must have happened in the warm-up. Hopefully, it's not too serious. We need all our best players for Leicester!

He was ruled out this morning so hopefully it was just through illness, he is crucial to the Ospreys cause as he is a defensive rock so hopefully he will be back asap.

Probably caught that bug the kiwis had.

It was a really odd game to be fair. The Ospreys front 5 was totally dominant, we simply shunted them all over the park in the scrums, and our side had control of the line outs.

The real problem was our back row, it didn't appear at any time that they were on the field. I actually got to the point where I was trying to find 6 and 7 during the match and at no point could I find them anywhere, doing anything useful. The other major problem is we had no strength to go forward. With King and JT it shouldn't of been a problem. This meant we were basically drifting across the field in attack.

Basic skills were also lacking, sometimes when you watch under 6's play, they just throw the ball at the nearest player on their team and often will bounce off the player or the pass will miss completely, that is what the Ospreys were like a lot of the time, it got to the point when you knew they were not going to be able pass it along the back line without messing it up.

I guess other major problems were firstly Rhys Webb, everyone knows he's a player who has no confidence and almost everything he tried went wrong. He spent most of the first half on his backside because he seemed to have hard ground studs in, not ones suitable for a wet ground. I did watch him just before half time kick off, he was talking to the linesman who appeared to be asking him if he had changed his studs.
Sadly everything he did went wrong, passes totally missed their target, he was hesistant at the base of the ruck etc. Basically he needs to be sent back to the premiership for a few weeks to get his confidence back.

The experiment with Matthew Morgan at full back wasn't really a success either, he tried his best, and always looked to counter, but instead of running into space he seemed to go looking to run into contact every chance he got. He isn't Lomu but he seems to think he is and often simply gets smashed, which puts a lot of pressure on his team mates.

To be fair to Zebre they were really gutsy and give it everything, but again the referee was shocking. At the end of the first half they were down to 14 men on their try line, several times we smashed their scrum back and stood up collapsed it to avoid going over their try line and the referee just reset it. We really couldn't believe it. Many times their players went over the top of rucks or in from the side, totally blatant and it simply did not get picked up by the referee. It got to the point where fans were screaming at the lineman to pick these things up, and the linesmen started to make a big physical show that they were informing the referee of such incidents, basically overplaying thee fact they were in communication with him. Only then did penalties start to come for us. But sadly a really poor ref who didn't seem to have any clue what the rules were at the ruck, the Zebres played on the referees unwillingness to apply the rules and screwed the situation for all they could.

Cheers for the report alyn..

Why are these games not on TV. Espn, Sky sports etc.

What would seem logical to the fans might not be to the coaches. Why didn't they give Ross Jones a start at 15? Why didn't they rest Fotuali'i and have Habberfield in the squad? And Spratt, Issacs, Bishop must be the worst centres in Wales. Get recruiting Spreys, get recruiting.

Morgannwg wrote:What would seem logical to the fans might not be to the coaches. Why didn't they give Ross Jones a start at 15? Why didn't they rest Fotuali'i and have Habberfield in the squad? And Spratt, Issacs, Bishop must be the worst centres in Wales. Get recruiting Spreys, get recruiting.

Bishop has been fantastic all season. I agree Ross Jones should be fullback.

Habberfield has had a serious injury layoff. Can't see him being rushed in.

Bish is too slow and not very smart. He would be a decent club player at 12 with a good 13 outside him but he doesn't have that luxury. Habberfield was on the bench last week so why was he not considered there again?

Morgannwg wrote:Bish is too slow and not very smart. He would be a decent club player at 12 with a good 13 outside him but he doesn't have that luxury. Habberfield was on the bench last week so why was he not considered there again?

They don't want to rush him back from injury. Has been out a long time.

majesticimperialman wrote:Why are these games not on TV. Espn, Sky sports etc.

When are Rabo games ever on Sky Sports or ESPN? Have you heard of contracts and tv deals? If you want to watch rugby that bad, lose the armchair pal. There was a Welsh game on BBC2W last night.

Full of sh1t again when it comes to the Ospreys Morg. Bish has been mr consistent yet again. Does all the hard donkey work in the centre. Issacs has pace to burn but is a squad player at the mo. Matt Morgan must never start at FB again. To lightweight.

Bish and Issacs are sh1t, just like you Breadvan. Where does the lack of tries come from, poor backs perhaps?

Hardly. Try watching us live instead of on tv. We've lost/released a raft of players and recruited zip or freebies. Dirksens injury is a huge loss. Fridays game had a lot of changes btw..

Stifling refereeing was an issue too I hear..!

These games happen. At least we won that's all that matters.

It's a case of "foot off the pedal now we've beaten the Scarlets" disease.

Breadvan wrote:Hardly. Try watching us live instead of on tv. We've lost/released a raft of players and recruited zip or freebies. Dirksens injury is a huge loss. Fridays game had a lot of changes btw..

Yes and Ospreys should have recruited in the backs but didn't. There weren't that many changes and you still had Hibbard and Fotuali'i on the bench. It was an opportunity to try Ross Jones in his natural position as that is where his future is, at 15. If you get any more injuries in the backs it would be wise to recruit the way you guys brought in Johnstone. I'm with Alyn though, the ref was probably gash and Ospreys scrum dominance was not properly rewarded.

Biggar needs a big game against Tigers, that should cement his Wales jersey.

The ospreys, a team in transition, yes, but that doesn't explain why they struggled at home so much against Zebre. Poor.

Morgannwg wrote:

Breadvan wrote:Hardly. Try watching us live instead of on tv. We've lost/released a raft of players and recruited zip or freebies. Dirksens injury is a huge loss. Fridays game had a lot of changes btw..

Yes and Ospreys should have recruited in the backs but didn't. There weren't that many changes and you still had Hibbard and Fotuali'i on the bench. It was an opportunity to try Ross Jones in his natural position as that is where his future is, at 15. If you get any more injuries in the backs it would be wise to recruit the way you guys brought in Johnstone. I'm with Alyn though, the ref was probably gash and Ospreys scrum dominance was not properly rewarded.

Biggar needs a big game against Tigers, that should cement his Wales jersey.

Agree..

Breadvan wrote:

Morgannwg wrote:

Breadvan wrote:Hardly. Try watching us live instead of on tv. We've lost/released a raft of players and recruited zip or freebies. Dirksens injury is a huge loss. Fridays game had a lot of changes btw..

Yes and Ospreys should have recruited in the backs but didn't. There weren't that many changes and you still had Hibbard and Fotuali'i on the bench. It was an opportunity to try Ross Jones in his natural position as that is where his future is, at 15. If you get any more injuries in the backs it would be wise to recruit the way you guys brought in Johnstone. I'm with Alyn though, the ref was probably gash and Ospreys scrum dominance was not properly rewarded.

Biggar needs a big game against Tigers, that should cement his Wales jersey.

Agree..

Much better to promote from the academy than to buy in foreigners. The academy players have served us much better. Just look at the stars in our team. Bar Khan they are all academy players from the area.

Must be why your Premiership teams are in the bottom 4 of the league then.