Ospreys v Glasgow Warriors, 31 January

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Ospreys v Glasgow Warriors
Sunday 31 January 2016
KO 14:30
Liberty Stadium, Swansea

Live on S4C and BBC Alba

Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (IRFU, 67th competition game):

Assistant Referees: Leighton Hodges, Wayne Davies (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Gwyn Bowden (WRU)
TMO: Jon Mason (WRU)

A. Head to Head

26 Played 26
12 Wins 12
12 Losses 12
2 Draws 2
579 Points 504

B. Form

Sun 1 November 2015
Glasgow Warriors 31 - 19 Ospreys

Fri 8 May 2015
Ospreys 21 - 10 Glasgow Warriors

Sat 21 February 2015
Glasgow Warriors 19 - 16 Ospreys

C. Teams

Ospreys

Dan Evans, Tom Grabham, Owen Watkin, Josh Matavesi, Eli Walker, Sam Davies, Brendon Leonard (capt); Nicky Smith, Sam Parry, Dmitri Arhip, Rynier Bernardo, Rory Thornton, Joe Bearman, Sam Underhill, Dan Baker

Replacements: Scott Otten, Gareth Thomas, Ma'afu Fia, Adam Beard, Olly Cracknell, Tom Habberfield, Ben John, JJ Engelbrecht

Glasgow Warriors

Peter Murchie; Lee Jones, Taqele Naiyaravoro, Sam Johnson, Rory Hughes, Duncan Weir, Grayson Hart; Ryan Grant, Pat MacArthur, Sila Puafisi, Greg Peterson, Leone Nakarawa, Rob Harley, Chris Fusaro, Ryan Wilson (capt)

Replacements: James Malcolm, Gordon Reid, D'arcy Rae, Josh Strauss, James Eddie, Ali Price, Gregor Hunter, Glenn Bryce

Apparently The half time feature is Nina talking about his love of Glasgow. I assume the weather or the food won't be some of his reasons.

IanBru wrote:Big Peterson is having a bit of a stormer.

Should be picked instead of Swinson any day from now on.

Nakarawa pinged for lightly bumping a player whilst going for a high ball!?!?!? Ohhhh Fitzgibbon

As I've been critical of him I feel I should highlight that Davies helped set up Evans' try pretty well.

Adam Beard looks like the real deal for the Ospreys.

Here we go Ospreys going to blow the game now.

Probably would have given MOTM to Watkin though.

Tough draw...!

Well played Glasgow... Great game.

mikey_dragon wrote:Probably would have given MOTM to Watkin though.

Looks great doesn't he. Glad it wasn't just a psychophantic Ospreys fan who noticed.

Yeah he made a nice break there to be fair to him.

maestegmafia wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Probably would have given MOTM to Watkin though.

Looks great doesn't he. Glad it wasn't just a psychophantic Ospreys fan who noticed.

If his form continues your one eye will be wanting him to start for Wales ahead of Foxy.

Bad result for Ospreys, leaves 6pts adrift from Munster and Ulster and played a game more, good 2 pts for Glasgow and they have a game in hand

So Fitzgibbon fails to notice Ospreys collapsing 3 mauls and Glasgow get punished for doing it once. Infuriating game for Glasgow. Osprey's escaped with a draw and Glasgow backs need to put in some tackling practice.

Not really much of a turnover battle though with Glasgow struggling when Fusaro went off. Did not feel like I saw much of Underhill before he was injured after all the fuss on the rumours page of how good a player he was. Watkin played well and for me it was between him and Weir for MOTM. Grant can't scrummage anymore and should be relegated to the back of the line for the rest of the season.

Match not on TV in Ireland, so wondering how did the funky gibbon ref the game? Has to be up there as the worst senior level ref in the universe. GC appropriate to have Fr Dougal as his avatar,

mikey_dragon wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Probably would have given MOTM to Watkin though.

Looks great doesn't he. Glad it wasn't just a psychophantic Ospreys fan who noticed.

If his form continues your one eye will be wanting him to start for Wales ahead of Foxy.

If a players form continues to improve and impress, I would have thought everyone who wants Wales to do well would want that player to get capped.

I hope Owen watkin gets withdrawn from the under 20s as he's needed here.

brennomac wrote:Match not on TV in Ireland, so wondering how did the funky gibbon ref the game?   Has to be up there as the worst senior level ref in the universe.  GC appropriate to have Fr Dougal as his avatar,

Didn't have a major impact on the game so I'm happy with him. Fans are always going to see the mistakes a ref makes against their team but it happens both ways and as long as he doesn't have a major impact then he shouldn't be criticised

It's funny this draw could mean that both team could miss out on the playoff but i thought overall the draw was deserved and Fitzgibbon had a decent game.

Ma'afu Fia continues to impress for the Ospreys, might prove to be a good signing.

Yeah its a blessing in disguise that Jarvis is with wales means he has to play games over the next two months.  He looks a decent ball carrier but not as dominant in the scrum I had hoped he was.  Scott often though needs game time in the front row, he looks top drawer

Well done the O's.I'd have taken that at the start.That was a pretty rough tough Glasgow 8 and they competed really well.Lineout(again) needs work.Dan E seemed quite sharp as were Watkin and Grabham. Good cameos from the subs. Good Saffers type try in first half and excellent try in 2nd.Sam D with more of the good than the bad but one poor penalty,a missed drop and a missed touch from a penalty needs to be set against his generally good game management.A thought for Joe B who never gives less than everything he's got.Hope his leg is Ok.More optimistic now about rest of Pro12.I watched the game on Alba,a very fair commentary.

Exile jack there's been a lot of talk on the Wales thread about Sam D but today summed him up perfectly, a few lovely breaks and a sublime pass for the try but missed penalties, drop goal, over kicking a touch find and missing a penalty long. People criticised biggar when he was younger for not having this 'flair' but even at 22 nailed his kicks to put points and the board and give us territory and we won leagues this way. Sam needs to work hard on his kicking because we're dropping points because of it despite the potential he has

brennomac wrote:Match not on TV in Ireland, so wondering how did the funky gibbon ref the game?   Has to be up there as the worst senior level ref in the universe.  GC appropriate to have Fr Dougal as his avatar,

Not bad. couple of strange decisions and some good stuff. Kept it from boiling over and wisnae too picky. Both sets of fans think he robbed them so thats about as good as it gets

TJ wrote:

brennomac wrote:Match not on TV in Ireland, so wondering how did the funky gibbon ref the game?   Has to be up there as the worst senior level ref in the universe.  GC appropriate to have Fr Dougal as his avatar,

Not bad.  couple of strange decisions and some good stuff.  Kept it from boiling over and wisnae too picky.  Both sets of fans think he robbed them so thats about as good as it gets

Oh he definitely robbed us TJ, how your second try was allowed to stand I don't know, it wasn't a second movement there were 3, that was a clear penalty for us. I don't know who allowed it, the Gibbon or the TMO, the shoulder charge into Sam Davies's neck area, should have seen yellow.
I'll watch it back tomorrow to find plenty of other Gibbonclangers (yes that is a word) the man is totally and utterly useless, and before any Glasgow fans accuse me of bias, he missed plenty of our stuff as well, the only difference is ours wouldn't have given yellow cards and stopped certain tries.

TR,i do agree with you.You'd hope the less good will be explained to him by his Dad and in the debrief together with the expectations of him.I did like Gibbes' point on O's TV last week about the players delivering the business on the pitch.I couldn't make the O's game today(it's a 10 hour round trip) but hope to be in Munster.That'll be a real test for Sam.

How Sam Davies received MOTM is beyond me, too many errors, over kick into the corner, drop kick etc, yes there was some sublime play, 3 really stood out for me Owen Watkin, the footwork and power he displayed right in front of me in the first half was excellent and that 2nd half break that really deserved a try. The other 2 were in the backrow both Dan Baker and especially Joe Bearman fought excellently throughout, I mention Joe because many on our board have really let fly at him, beyond what he deserves, a real dose of experience that was badly needed.

Let me just say, the 2 Fijians that I was worried about before the match flatter to deceive, does Nakawara ever take the ball to ground? these miracle offloads are going to cost you games, I think we intercepted 2 today, and the centre, from what I saw he needs a head of steam to get through players, wing is his position.

Wayne I happen to agree with you. For some reason our commentators and pundits tend to fawn over 'okay' players and Sam Davies is one of them. Priestland is another - when he manages to kick to the corner without messing it up, say kicking too far or not far enough, Jiffy is the first to start some big time fawning over it. If (a very big if nowadays sadly) he goes through the game with a low error count then they'll say he's played amazing and chuck him the MOTM award. I can't stand this fawning. Back to Davies, the drop-goal was a sitter and there wasn't much pressure on him. It was a terrible miss. I can't remember the lad 'winning' you much games unless you're counting Clermont(?), but he certainly is costing you games. Questions must be asked now, also you'll hopefully stop attacking people who point out the obvious.

Do you think your coaches see Matavesi as a kicker? He's kicked at international level for Fiji so he should be decent. Do you also expect to release Watkin and Beard? Both very promising players who always play well whenever I see them. The U20s could really do with that sort of spark as I expect that they'll be poorly coached again this year.

Sam needs to fill out. He looks 6 stone wet thru in civvies. He was more miss than hit today and the kick straight to touch on the penalty was poor, plus his pass to nowwhere after Watkins superb break. If only the Ospreys can take a leaf out of glasgows book in terms of speed in attack. Can the tv viewers explain Glas second try? Looked a double movement and a knock on before the line...

No, momentum pushed him to the line, never lost control and Gordon Reid picked up and flopped over the line. It seemed a legitimate try

mikey_dragon wrote:Wayne I happen to agree with you. For some reason our commentators and pundits tend to fawn over 'okay' players and Sam Davies is one of them. Priestland is another - when he manages to kick to the corner without messing it up, say kicking too far or not far enough, Jiffy is the first to start some big time fawning over it. If (a very big if nowadays sadly) he goes through the game with a low error count then they'll say he's played amazing and chuck him the MOTM award. I can't stand this fawning. Back to Davies, the drop-goal was a sitter and there wasn't much pressure on him. It was a terrible miss. I can't remember the lad 'winning' you much games unless you're counting Clermont(?), but he certainly is costing you games. Questions must be asked now, also you'll hopefully stop attacking people who point out the obvious.

Do you think your coaches see Matavesi as a kicker? He's kicked at international level for Fiji so he should be decent. Do you also expect to release Watkin and Beard? Both very promising players who always play well whenever I see them. The U20s could really do with that sort of spark as I expect that they'll be poorly coached again this year.

The problem Mikey, is that you said ALL Osprey supporters, and as was pointed out to you, I and many others picked you out, we had never said he was good enough for Wales now, you came out with the ridiculous statement that you post on other sites, if you add ALL those with the ones on here it is still not ALL, Sam had an overall good game, but still not worthy of MOTM.
Personally I hope neither of the 2 U20s you name get to go to Team Wales, Watkin as he showed today is good enough for this standard, in the 2 examples I quoted and the non effect of the giant showed why he should stay here.
Let me finally add, your hero worship of Gibbes and put down of Rees in particular is diametrically opposite to the opinion voiced by the vast majority on our Forum.

True Raven wrote:No, momentum pushed him to the line, never lost control and Gordon Reid picked up and flopped over the line.  It seemed a legitimate try

Sorry Raven, totally disagree, Breadvan above you was spot on

I think Sam Davies is a bit like Ceri Sweeney was.. he's poor if he starts a game but excellent if he comes on later on when the game breaks up.
He's best used as back up to Dan Biggar

brennomac wrote:Match not on TV in Ireland, so wondering how did the funky gibbon ref the game?   Has to be up there as the worst senior level ref in the universe.  GC appropriate to have Fr Dougal as his avatar,

I don't rate him personally he misses so much of whats going on, the game basically has to become a free for all before he starts doing anything to stop spoiling play.
I'm just happy if he's not reffing Leinster myself.

wayne wrote:How Sam Davies received MOTM is beyond me, too many errors, over kick into the corner, drop kick etc, yes there was some sublime play, 3 really stood out for me Owen Watkin, the footwork and power he displayed right in front of me in the first half was excellent and that 2nd half break that really deserved a try. The other 2 were in the backrow both Dan Baker and especially Joe Bearman fought excellently throughout, I mention Joe because many on our board have really let fly at him, beyond what he deserves, a real dose of experience that was badly needed.

Let me just say, the 2 Fijians that I was worried about before the match flatter to deceive, does Nakawara ever take the ball to ground? these miracle offloads are going to cost you games, I think we intercepted 2 today, and the centre, from what I saw he needs a head of steam to get through players, wing is his position.

I agree, didn't think Sam had s good night. In fact considering the impact he can have I thought he was poor.

Watkin, Baker and Bearman all good performances, thought Josh played well at centre too. Thomas the loosehead sub and Fia the tighthead sub both good.

Graham looked fast too.

Owen Watkin is a much better prospect than Garry Ringrose. Both have great handling and step though. Unfortunately nobody on the Ospreys team could finish it off.

Owen watkin is the real deal, that was his second start at 19 and he completely outplayed his opposite number. He reminds me of foxy a lot. Lets hope he's our version of foxy

Yeah that break he made was good, and only one player was there in support whilst there were about 5 or 6 Glasgow defenders back there.

True Raven wrote:Owen watkin is the real deal, that was his second start at 19 and he completely outplayed his opposite number.  He reminds me of foxy a lot.  Lets hope he's our version of foxy

That was Big T, a huge lump of a man usually deployed on the wing but selected out of position at 13. It's fair to say that he'll have sterner tests but sounds promising nonetheless.