GPro 12 - Ospreys V Edinburgh

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Ospreys V Edinburgh

At Liberty Stadium, 4pm. Live on S4C / BBC 2 Scotland
Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Simon Rees, Chris Williams (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Denis Jones (WRU)
TMO: Derek Bevan (WRU)

Head to head
24  Played 24
13  Wins 10
10  Losses 13
1    Draws 1
57  Tries 53
34  Conversions 39
71  Penalties 47
4    Drop Goals 1
578 Points 487
24   Avg. Age 25

Ospreys' only defeat in their last six Guinness PRO12 matches was 27-30 to Zebre in Parma in round 21 last season.
Ospreys have won their last four games at Liberty Stadium since Munster were the visitors in February.

The Welshmen have lost their last three fixtures against Scottish opponents, but have never lost four in a row to teams north of the border.

Edinburgh's only victory in their last seven fixtures was 14-13 over Munster in Limerick in round 1, the Scotsmen, therefore, are going for successive away victories in the PRO12 for the first time since November 2009.

Edinburgh won on their most recent visit to Wales: 23-19 over Dragons at Rodney Parade in April, and have not won back-to-back games in Wales since September 2009.

The last four encounters between the two sides have all been won by the home team on the day whilst Edinburgh have not been victorious at Liberty Stadium since a 32-30 win on 25th April 2009.

Teams

Ospreys

15.Dan Evans
14.Jeff Hassler
13.Johnny Spratt
12 Josh Matevesi
11.Hanno Dirksen
10.Dan Biggar
9.Rhys Webb
8.Dan Baker
7.Justin Tips
6.James King
5.Rynier Bernardo
4.AWJ
3.Aaron Jarvis
2.Scott Baldwin
1.Nicky Smith
Subs
Parry,Dunc,Arhip,Ardron,Allen,Roberts,Davies,Grabham.

Edinburgh

15. Jack CUTHBERT
14. Nick McLENNAN
13. Phil BURLEIGH
12. Andries STRAUSS
11. Tim VISSER
10. Tom HEATHCOTE
9. Sam HIDALGO-CLYNE


1. Alasdair DICKINSON
2. James HILTERBRAND
3. W P NEL
4. Fraser McKENZIE
5. Anton BRESLER
6. Mike COMAN (captain)
7. Hamish WATSON
8.Cornell DU PREEZ

Substitutes
16. Neil COCHRANE
17. Rory SUTHERLAND
18. John ANDRESS
19. Ollie ATKINS
20. Tomas LEONARDI
21. Grayson HART
22. Sam BEARD
23. Greig TONKS

Sorry Notch but can't resist another gloating comeback.

With our 5 pointer and the Luvvies getting an utter, humiliating pumping its fair cheered me up.

Funniest 80 I've seen in a long while - pure loser dunceyness ! Why do we have to wait until December to play these gnobs ?

Oi 21st - dinnae gloat to much. Or we will send the boys round to sort you out

Humiliating! No other word for it.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Humiliating! No other word for it.

Mince?

TJ wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:Humiliating! No other word for it.

Mince?

Pants

Well what a wonderful day, must say some of Edinburghs tackling was pathetic, some of our attacking lines was very good, a few players really stood out, Webb, Biggar and AWJ, some excellent lineout calling by Bernardo and competition on their throw ins, the back row unit was very composed, the combativeness of our wingers and the distribution skills of Matavesi and the eagerness of Evans to break into the line was pleasing, not only was the scrum relatively sound some of the loose work by that trio was outstanding, even when the subs came on there was no let up in the intensity, Allen was as prominent as Baker with some hard yards made, Roberts service was excellent when he came on for Webb, the games will only start to get harder now starting with Munster next week, considering what some people were saying about the strength of our Region, this has been a pleasing start to the season.

cakeordeath wrote:

TJ wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:Humiliating! No other word for it.

Mince?

Pants

Pish?

wayne wrote:............................ considering what some people were saying about the strength of our Region, this has been a pleasing start to the season.  

Despite the pishy quality of Edinburgh today Ospreys looked good. Well worth the top of the table

wayne wrote:Well what a wonderful day, must say some of Edinburghs tackling was pathetic, some of our attacking lines was very good, a few players really stood out, Webb, Biggar and AWJ, some excellent lineout calling by Bernardo and competition on their throw ins, the back row unit was very composed, the combativeness of our wingers and the distribution skills of Matavesi and the eagerness of Evans to break into the line was pleasing, not only was the scrum relatively sound some of the loose work by that trio was outstanding, even when the subs came on there was no let up in the intensity, Allen was as prominent as Baker with some hard yards made, Roberts service was excellent when he came on for Webb, the games will only start to get harder now starting with Munster next week, considering what some people were saying about the strength of our Region, this has been a pleasing start to the season.  

No surprise to see you over-excited Wayne when you're yet to face Glasgow, Ulster or Leinster. Having said that I agree with your review of today's game. It will be good for team Wales if Ospreys can keep this form up. Webb could get the nod for his partnership with Biggar, AWJ should be continue as captain, and Baker is in with a shout of that No.8 jersey but faces some competition there. If I was Tandy I would be looking for some more cover, more specifically perhaps an SA tighthead seeing as South African players are constantly getting pinched.

TJ wrote:

wayne wrote:............................ considering what some people were saying about the strength of our Region, this has been a pleasing start to the season.  

Despite the pishy quality of Edinburgh today Ospreys looked good.  Well worth the top of the table

TJ, I said before this game I'd be happy with 4 points, I wasn't expecting this, especially after your performance beforehand against Munster, the most pleasing thing for me was the back row performance, it was a total balanced unit.
We had to play King in the 2nd row a lot last season, due to Ian Evans suspension and a loss of form, he also had to play open side the last 2 matches due to Tipuric and Sam Lewis injuries it was good to see him in his natural position, even when Baker was withdrawn, Morgan Allen came on his hard yard running was as good if not better than Baker's we have IMO 2 excellent young No 8s on our books.

The Saint wrote:

wayne wrote:Well what a wonderful day, must say some of Edinburghs tackling was pathetic, some of our attacking lines was very good, a few players really stood out, Webb, Biggar and AWJ, some excellent lineout calling by Bernardo and competition on their throw ins, the back row unit was very composed, the combativeness of our wingers and the distribution skills of Matavesi and the eagerness of Evans to break into the line was pleasing, not only was the scrum relatively sound some of the loose work by that trio was outstanding, even when the subs came on there was no let up in the intensity, Allen was as prominent as Baker with some hard yards made, Roberts service was excellent when he came on for Webb, the games will only start to get harder now starting with Munster next week, considering what some people were saying about the strength of our Region, this has been a pleasing start to the season.  

No surprise to see you over-excited Wayne when you're yet to face Glasgow, Ulster or Leinster. Having said that I agree with your review of today's game. It will be good for team Wales if Ospreys can keep this form up. Webb could get the nod for his partnership with Biggar, AWJ should be continue as captain, and Baker is in with a shout of that No.8 jersey but faces some competition there. If I was Tandy I would be looking for some more cover, more specifically perhaps an SA tighthead seeing as South African players are constantly getting pinched.

I'm not over excited Saint, we thrashed the team that beat Munster away a fortnight ago, I'm not one eyed enough to think Baker will overtake Faletau anytime soon, IMO Webb was in the Welsh team before his injury, as he is now fit he should resume that position due to his outstanding form, and Gareth Davies should be his deputy, these 2 will hopefully be pushing each other for the next 5 to 10 years and that can only be a good thing.

TBH, I think Baker or Pitman could get in the Welsh team, it just a matter of whom Gatland chooses on the bench for Faletau. I'm a big fan of Gareth Davies, he's been on this form for going on 3 years so should be ahead in the pecking order IMO. Both him and Webb are definitely better than Phillips. Like I said though, Webb may have the advantage due to his partnership with Biggar. It will probably be Webb and Phillips in Gatland's eyes but I agree with your choice of 9's.

Yeh, great stuff yesterday. Edinburgh were poor but the Ospreys were sublime at times. Tipuric back to his best, Baker and Matevesi putting in the hard work. This happened last season, we played really well until it came to the top teams in the pro12 and HC then the team faded away. Tandy acknowledged this in the aftermatch press conference so I hope now we can get some scalps away from the Lib.

God, I picked up this result yesterday when I flew back into the country.

Well done the Spreys. And Edinburgh, see me after class.

Woeful performance from Edinburgh, there is absolulty no excuse for that type of display from professional sportsmen.

On saying that I thought the Ospreys were outstanding, which is surprising given some of the Welsh posters comments before the start of the season. I think the real test for them will be against one of last seasons top 4, but I fancy them to win a good number of those.

First up congratulations Ospreys, what I am about to post takes nothing away from your win, you can only beat the dross put out against you, and boy did you do that.  A good few of your players looked like they had a fair bit of pace to them, think you could threaten a lot of teams this season.  Not to the extent you turned us over, but I don’t think even the most die hard speys fan would believe that scoring 60+ points each week is realistic.

Now Edinburgh...f*cking hell we were bad.  I mean I can’t really think of a player out there who came away with much in the way of credit.  Watson got his try with a lung busting run and did ok generally, but it was hardly a standout performance, and I would say he was probably one of our better players.

Hilterbrand – What is the point?!  Sure it would appear he can hook, but his lineouts were shocking, even his throws to the front or middle were only stopped from going over the back because someone managed to stop them.  I didn’t rate him last year and I still don’t.

I’m used to Edinburgh losing, but to lose like that, questions need to be asked of the players and coaching staff as that level of sh*te is unforgivable.  A lot of the team need to really question whether they want to be professional rugby players.

Sorry for the wave of negativity, but I only watched the game late last night, and I’m still crushed by how bad we were.

Solomons certainly has to sit up and take responsibility for this. He blamed every defeat last season on a poor pre-season (i.e. not his fault) and he blamed the home defeat against Connacht on the ref (i.e. not his fault). Well, he has signed the players he wants and had full control over pre-season, and the team has performed well against Munster, poorly against Connacht and was utterly dreadful against the Ospreys. It sounds like the performance on Sunday was worse than anything overseen by Bradley.

It's early days in the season, and the points tally is probably par given the fixtures (I wouldn't have expected much away against Munster and the Ospreys), but the deterioration in performance is alarming (and we have quickly established a dreadful points difference). We must win the next game. We absolutely have to.

funnyExiledScot wrote:
It's early days in the season, and the points tally is probably par given the fixtures (I wouldn't have expected much away against Munster and the Ospreys), but the deterioration in performance is alarming (and we have quickly established a dreadful points difference). We must win the next game. We absolutely have to.

As you say the points tally is probably what we would have expected, and it is indeed the 'performance' that's the issue.  I wouldn't necessarily have expected to get anything from the Ospreys game, but the inept performance was do disheartening.

From your post I assume you didn’t see the match, if you’re on a late night feed or baby fes is awake at silly times, then it’s on the iplayer.  Just make sure you’re not holding the wee one when you watch the game.

But I would probably advise giving it a miss.

I think I'll skip it. It's just too depressing - I really thought that Solomons would make us tough to beat this season, and to be utterly walked over like that is a horrible warning of what may be coming this season.

We can all take losing (apart from Yes voters), but to lose in that manner is a disgrace.

Hard to think what would have made a difference - I didn't see the game but you would hope with the likes of Denton, Gilchrist, Scott and Fife coming back we will sharpen the hell up and actually fight a bit more.

I don't want to watch it. Like a Greek tragedy on mescaline.

Sadly GC our midfield were used solely to plough into the first opposition player and our wingers were pretty much bystanders, so I don’t think Scott or Fife would have made any difference.  Denton might, given he’s fairly physical, but he also tends to knock on, so maybe not.

The players didn’t really seem to care, they were so lethargic, there was little urgency about anything.

If you’re looking to be thoroughly depressed then it’s ideal viewing, however if you’re not a sadomasochist (what you do in your spare time is non of my concern) then probably best give it a swerve.

The same criticism was made after the Connacht performance. A lack of intensity and urgency. You'd think that a leader of the standing of Andries Strauss would have gee'd up his troops.....

A leader in the way that Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig was a 'leader'.

After the Munster game I thought crikey! We have turned a corner, at least the guys look willing to put their bodies on the line and hit their men.

To ship more than 60 points is worse than embarrasing.

It just baffles me regarding Strauss. He doesn't do anything well, and we keep hearing about his experience and leadership qualities, and those don't seem to translate into anything tangible either.

He plays at 12 and is clearly seen as the leader of the Edinburgh defensive line, which was torn to shreds.

Burleigh should be moved to 12 for the next match, with Dean or Beard at 13. I'd like Tonks to start at 10 with Heathcote on the bench.

Strauss absolutely has to be dropped. I do remember him being described as the defensive leader and if that is the case then 62 points just isn't acceptable.

Come back Matt Scott (12), your rugby team needs you!

I keep logging in to post something, then deciding against it. Just too depressing. I'd be happy with 12/13 changes to the side for Friday's game. Get a full starting XV of our young SQ players, including EDPs. Let's see if they can show some fight, regardless of the final result. Send a message that it isn't going to be tolerated.

JonnyEdinburgh wrote:I keep logging in to post something, then deciding against it.  Just too depressing.  I'd be happy with 12/13 changes to the side for Friday's game.  Get a full starting XV of our young SQ players, including EDPs.  Let's see if they can show some fight, regardless of the final result.   Send a message that it isn't going to be tolerated.  

Unfortunately, as most of them are playing tonight, that seems unlikely to happen. Hopefully though some of them have the hunger and talent to make an impression and will start to force their way into the squad.