Ospreys 17/18 Season

This is not an exact replica of what is on our website, and unlike last season cannot give exact years left on contract, as some that have been reviewed length of contract have not been given. Games in 2018 are given in order, but as there are 3 dates, will not put any, until exact dates are given.
Head Coach Steve Tandy
Backs Coach Gruff Rees
Forwards Coach Allen Clarke
Defence Coach Brad Davis

Players: Cory Allen, Dmitri Arhip, Lloyd Ashley, Dan Baker, Jay Baker*, Scott Baldwin, Adam Beard, Ashley Beck, Dan Biggar, Olly Cracknell, Bradley Davies, Sam Davies, Hanno Dirksen, Dan Evans, Ma'afu Fia, Kieron Fonotia, Keelan Giles, Hugh Gustafson, Tom Habberfield, Jeff Hassler, James Hook, Dafydd Howells, Paul James, Ben John, AW Jones, Rhodri Jones, James King, Brendon Leonard, Dan Lydiate, Rob McCusker, Brian Mujati, Scott Otten, Sam Parry, Luke Price*, Nicky Smith, Gareth Thomas, Joe Thomas*, Rory Thornton, Justin Tipuric, Eli Walker, Owen Watkin, Rhys Webb.
The players with asterisks are not in the squad according to the website
11/8 Leicester Tigers           H                           L                     14-21                  Friendly  
20/8 Bath                          A                           L                     14-28                  Friendly
25/8 Leicester Tigers           A                           L                     14-40                  Friendly
2/9   Zebre                        H                                                                           GL
9/9  Glasgow Warriors          A                                                                           GL
16/9 Munster                     H                                                                           GL
22/9 Treviso                      A                                                                           GL
29/9 Cheetahs                   A                                                                           GL
7/10 Scarlets                     H                                                                           GL
15/10 Clermont Auv             H                                                                           RCC
21/10 Saracens                  A                                                                           RCC
27/10 Dragons                   H                                                                            GL
4/11 Edinburgh                   A                                                                            GL
10/11 Wasps                      H                                                                            AWC
17/18/19-11 Cardiff B          A                                                                            AWC
24/25/26-11 Glasgow W       H                                                                            GL
2/12 Munster                     A                                                                             GL
9/12 Northampton S            A                                                                            RCC
17/12 Northampton S          H                                                                            RCC
26/12 Scarlets                   A                                                                            GL
31/12 Dragons                   H                                                                             GL
       Cardiff B                   H                                                                             GL
       Saracens                  A                                                                             RCC
       Clermont Auv            H                                                                             RCC
       Gloucester                A                                                                             AWC
        Bath                      H                                                                              AWC
        Connacht                A                                                                              GL
        Southern Kings         H                                                                              GL
        Cheetahs                H                                                                              GL
        Zebre                     A                                                                              GL
        Leinster                  H                                                                              GL
        Connacht                H                                                                              GL
        Ulster                     A                                                                              GL
        Cardiff BL                A                                                                              GL
That squad has been so injury hit over the past 5 years or so, if we have the same sort of injury this next season, we will be back in RCC2 next season and nowhere near the playoffs, our 3 NWQ tight heads are at the moment not 100% fit even though 1 could make it for the first game. There is even talk of having Paul James filling in there.

Ospreys team selected for game against Zebre tomorrow afternoon 2.30 kick off is as follows
15 Dan Evans, 14 Keelan Giles, 13 Ben John, 12 Cory Allen, 11 Jeff Hassler, 10 James Hook, 9 Tom Habberfield, 8 Dan Baker, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Olly Cracknell, 5 Rory Thornton 4 BBBD, 3 Ma'afu Fia, 2 Sam Parry, 1 Paul James with Nicky Smith, Scott Otten, Rhodri Jones, Lloyd Ashley, James King, Reuben Morgan Williams, Sam Davies and Kieron Fonotia on the bench.
With the injuries already reported can't really argue with the backs starting or on the bench, there was a lot of talk last year on who was selecting the forwards, so the inclusion of Thornton over the much more aggressive Beard, adds weight to the theory that Tandy is overruling Clarke as he did with Gibbes and how Ashley is on the bench again ahead of Beard is mystifying.

Just to keep it up to date, the team selected to face the Glasgow Warriors away at Scotstoun tomorrow 9/9/2017
Dan Evans, Keelan Giles, Kieron Fonotia, Cory Allen, Jeff Hassler, Sam Davies, Tom Habberfield, Paul James, Sam Parry, Ma'afu Fia, BBBD, Lloyd Ashley, Olly Cracknell, Justin Tipuric (C), James King with Scott Otten, Nicky Smith, Rhodri Jones, Adam Beard, Guy Mercer, RM Williams James Hook and Jay Baker on the bench.
Don't expect much if anything from this match, if there is no change in attitude it will be zilch.

Wayne, i was waiting for a summary of last weeks game but it never came.. Was that a case of Zebre being better than expected (they beat Treviso 7-0 in a friendly..) or rather Ospreys playing poorly?

Also, how the scrum fared? as i rate that 1st choice Zebre front row pretty highly.

VinceWLB wrote:Wayne, i was waiting for a summary of last weeks game but it never came.. Was that a case of Zebre being better than expected (they beat Treviso 7-0 in a friendly..) or rather Ospreys playing poorly?

Also, how the scrum fared? as i rate that 1st choice Zebre front row pretty highly.

Vince I was so irate with the performance along with many others, I couldn't write a report, the scrum in actual fact was pretty good, even Rhodri Jones was ok when he came on, we started pretty well and scored an excellent team try very early on, whether we thought that was the end of it, but Zebre came back and dominated the collisions and especially the breakdown, and to be fair the better team over the whole game lost, as I've mentioned a couple of times in different posts it all came down to attitude, if it doesn't change tomorrow we're in for a real hiding.

wayne wrote:
Vince I was so irate with the performance along with many others, I couldn't write a report, the scrum in actual fact was pretty good, even Rhodri Jones was ok when he came on, we started pretty well and scored an excellent team try very early on, whether we thought that was the end of it, but Zebre came back and dominated the collisions and especially the breakdown, and to be fair the better team over the whole game lost, as I've mentioned a couple of times in different posts it all came down to attitude, if it doesn't change tomorrow we're in for a real hiding.

Interesting that the scrum held up well as i feel out of your 3 THs i think Ma'afu is your worst scrummager but still pretty good and Rhodri Jones is ok as a 4th choice i guess, although he must have faced Zebre's replacement props. It's easier with Bradley Davies behind you too, something you severely missed towards the end of last season.

Scotstoun is a plastic pitch so if the attitude isn't right it can get ugly although most of the recent Glasgow-O's games have been (boring) slugfest.

There is a topic on our Team Forum, that over the next 8 games, the possibility that most people have indicated that we could end up with only winning 2. IMO the non failure to have our 4 Lions either starting or at the worst on the bench is mystifying. Tips has started all games so far and the talk is that Rhys Webb could make the bench, the other 2 Dan Biggar and AWJ not to be seen, there is even talk that Dan is part of the Sky commentary team.

There is some news that Dan Lydiate would be seen on the pitch at some point, whether Watkin and Baker make some sort of recovery and make the 23 is open to question. I really hope a proper 2nd row partnership would be started, ie Thornton or Beard partnering BBBD.

We really need at the minimum 1 or 2 BPs, an actual win would be fantastic if not a little fanciful.

Copy n paste what I wrote on the forum about Sats game..

I think that was the first time I've been to a game where expectations were low. Even when we've faced big teams in Europe I've always thought we'd have a chance, especially as our home form was...was, quite decent. What summed our total lack of imagination, creativity and general confidence up was when Cory Allen did a grubber kick , yet another, to the wing and who was there...Scot Baldwin.
I don't know what this supposed half time bollocking came from as the Munster second string easily dealt with what dirge the Ospreys served up. As for Tandy to whine to WOL about the performance, you set the ****ing team up ffs!
Overhead behind the North as everyone scurried home in the downpour..' Those Bas***** will come up from west next month and run us ragged'. Can't wait.

Ospreys are taking a 31 man squad for the 2 matches against Treviso and the Cheetahs, the full squad is as follows
Backs Dan Evans, Keelan Giles, Jeff Hassler, Jay Baker, Ben John, Kieron Fonotia, Cory Allen, James Hook, Dan Biggar, Sam Davies, Rhys Webb, Tom Habberfield and Reuben Morgan Williams

Forwards Scott Baldwin, Scott Otten, Sam Parry, Nicky Smith, Paul James, Gareth Thomas, Ma'afu Fia, Rhodri Jones, AWJ, BBBD, Adam Beard, Lloyd Ashley, Olly Cracknell, Dan Lydiate, James King, Justin Tipuric, Guy Mercer and Dan Baker.

For the game against Treviso the following 23 have been selected
Dan Evans, Keelan Giles, Ben John, James Hook, Jeff Hassler, Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb, Nicky Smith, Scott Baldwin, Ma'afu Fia, BBBD, Adam Beard, Olly Cracknell, Justin Tipuric, (C) Dan Baker with Scott Otten, Gareth Thomas, Rhodri Jones, AWJ, James King, Tom Habberfield, Sam Davies and Kieron Fonotia on the bench. The 3 players that were taken off very early in the Munster game Sam Parry, Paul James and Lloyd Ashley have been dropped totally out of the 23. This is truly a must win game.

I have a feeling Tandy won't make it to the end of the season. I know he's signed a long term contract but I reckon his days are numbered! Ospreys deserve better. I suppose the players must take some responsibility for the performances - however, the buck stops with the  coach so I expect him to take the hit, unless they have a considerable upturn in fortunes in the next few weeks.

Just think what a Dave Rennie or Wayne Pivac type could do with a squad like the Ospreys have. Time to look far and wide from a coaching perspective, IMO. We need a strong Ospreys.

Griff wrote:I have a feeling Tandy won't make it to the end of the season. I know he's signed a long term contract but I reckon his days are numbered! Ospreys deserve better. I suppose the players must take some responsibility for the performances - however, the buck stops with the  coach so I expect him to take the hit, unless they have a considerable upturn in fortunes in the next few weeks.

Just think what a Dave Rennie or Wayne Pivac type could do with a squad like the Ospreys have. Time to look far and wide from a coaching perspective, IMO. We need a strong Ospreys.

Griff, thanks for putting it so mildly, it is a helluva lot milder than anything on our board, that is not to take anything away from Treviso their first up tackling was superb. Many want him gone yesterday, there was a double interview with Roger Blyth and Andrew Millward preseason, if there are any people within our organisation that are delusional it is this pair, not only Tandy should go, them as well. We badly need a hard hitting DOR, something similar to the 2 you mention, this experiment of promote from within and especially being Welsh has to stop, the new appointment of Bowring to shadow the Regions head coaches is ridiculous as well.

Yes some of the players must share in the responsibility, but I and many on our Forum lay most of the blame on the signing and selection of certain players for first team duty and obviously Tandy is involved in that. Probably the only part of our game that has been improved this season (Ulster fans on here won't like this) is overall the scrum, it is in no way perfect but generally better than last year, especially the performances of Gareth Thomas and Rhodri Jones. I dread to think what is going to happen in the next month or so, I would NEVER want the Ospreys to lose a game, but would a real hiding in the next few weeks signal his departure, with games against Cheetahs (A) Scarlets (H) Clermont (H) Saracens (A) it could very well happen.

Griff wrote: Ospreys deserve better. I suppose the players must take some responsibility for the performances....
Just think what a Dave Rennie or Wayne Pivac type could do with a squad like the Ospreys have.

Well firstly, they deserve exactly what they get, I love the irony in their One True Region Hore-shizzle coming back to flush them down the pan. Rennie or Pivac aren't miracle workers, the likes of King, Gashley, Baldwin...there's some steaming pile right there, the kind that we're used to seeing steam up the pitch at Dave, the only difference between them and the Dregs is three very good players in their prime have been daft enough to stick around to dig them out of the brown stuff. Now they're getting older or moving on, well you can't hide the stench anymore.

Eloquent as ever Stone but you're right. Tandy's loyalty to players like Baldwin and TAFKAP is stinking the place up. Similar to last season with Matevsei who might as well of been in Newcastle as soon as the move was confirmed he was that ineffective. We're going to probably win 2 games out of the next 6 and those listed above are going to result in total humiliation. Tandy & Ress have had their time and the rot started away at Exeter 2 seasons ago.

Stone Motif wrote:

Griff wrote: Ospreys deserve better. I suppose the players must take some responsibility for the performances....
Just think what a Dave Rennie or Wayne Pivac type could do with a squad like the Ospreys have.

Well firstly, they deserve exactly what they get, I love the irony in their One True Region Hore-shizzle coming back to flush them down the pan. Rennie or Pivac aren't miracle workers, the likes of King, Gashley, Baldwin...there's some steaming pile right there, the kind that we're used to seeing steam up the pitch at Dave, the only difference between them and the Dregs is three very good players in their prime have been daft enough to stick around to dig them out of the brown stuff. Now they're getting older or moving on, well you can't hide the stench anymore.

'Deserve better' was probably not the right words. Just a saying which I used without thinking it through. Of course no one is entitled to anything in pro sport. But for me the Ospreys have for whatever reason (and this is not the time or place to debate the perceived imbalance in regional 'resources') a better squad and potentially better resources than, say, the Dragons. So they don't deserve better necessarily, but could/should be doing better with their squad and resources. And the difference for me can be made in the coaching. I know those names are not miracle workers but I do feel Scarlets, for example, have got the recent success they have due to the coaching. Where were they before Pivac got there? He hasn't exactly signed a raft of superstars. So his coaching, style of play, etc. has turned Scarlets fortunes around. Can't see why, by extension, a coach with a better pedigree than Tandy can't improve the fortunes of the Ospreys. Yes they've got aome ageing stars and some who want away, but I see enough talent there to be better than they currently are (as a team). Also, if you bring in a bigger/better coach that often attracts decent players. Players that may not aspire to play under someone like Tandy.

Hi wayne, you would know if there is any truth in this, but I was speaking to somebody who is quite high up at Aberavon RFC the other day, I do not want to put too much on here, as the usual suspects will be all over it and accusing me of all and everything.

But I was told, that there was a lot of problems down at Ospreys. Player power, and one in particular, who thinks he deserves more money, no money available to pay players, and there is a lot of angst at how Owen Watkin is getting treated. But apparently, a certain player has really soured things up there, and he has divided the camp.

If you want to PM me on this please feel free.

LordDowlais wrote:Hi wayne, you would know if there is any truth in this, but I was speaking to somebody who is quite high up at Aberavon RFC the other day, I do not want to put too much on here, as the usual suspects will be all over it and accusing me of all and everything.

But I was told, that there was a lot of problems down at Ospreys. Player power, and one in particular, who thinks he deserves more money, no money available to pay players, and there is a lot of angst at how Owen Watkin is getting treated. But apparently, a certain player has really soured things up there, and he has divided the camp.

If you want to PM me on this please feel free.

Thanks for that Lord, and I've sent you a PM.

Why would somebody red bar what I put on this thread ?

This place is becoming a joke.

I'd be interested to know more if its not too private/slanderous

I mean, its an anonymous internet forum

LordDowlais wrote:Why would somebody red bar what I put on this thread ?

This place is becoming a joke.

Lord it is probably the bloke that works in a set of urinals, when most of his comments ends up with words like excrement etc.

Hi wayne, thanks for the PM.

So we both agree then, there is something seriously wrong within the Ospreys set-up.

And it is not the obvious.

LordDowlais wrote:Hi wayne, thanks for the PM.

So we both agree then, there is something seriously wrong within the Ospreys set-up.

And it is not the obvious.

Lord to put our problems down to one or even 2 issues and especially the one you've highlighted, is way off the mark, there are fundamental core issues wrong with our organisation, yet if the right decisions could be made it could all be settled in under a week.

Hi wayne, I was just talking to somebody from the Ospreylia region, he used to play 2nd row for Neath during the 90's. I asked him about the player in question and he had only good things to say about him.

I will PM you again.

Justin Tipuric is out of Fridays game with the Cheetahs due to his wife being due with their 2nd child, will be sorely missed, but good luck to the 3 of you. Probably Guy Mercer will make his first start to a match after a couple of substitution entries.

Ospreys team to play Cheetahs tomorrow 29 Sept 4 PM kick off.
15 Dan Evans, 14 Keelan Giles, 13 Ben John, 12 James Hook, 11 Jay Baker, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Rhys Webb, 1 Nicky Smith, 2 Scott Baldwin, 3 Ma'afu Fia, 4 AWJ, (C), 5 Adam Beard, 6 Olly Cracknell, 7 Guy Mercer, 8 James King with Scott Otten, Gareth Thomas, Rhodri Jones, Lloyd Ashley, Dan Lydiate, Tom Habberfield, Sam Davies and Kieron Fonotia on the bench.

Our magnificent skipper Alun Wyn Jones captains us for the 100th time a Welsh Regional Record, both Jay Baker and Guy Mercer make their first starts for us, plenty of shocks, no sign of Jeff Hassler and BBBD, and TAFKAAP brought in to the bench, it could be a very embarrassing evening unless there is a dramatic improvement on the last few matches of this season and most of the last month or so of last season.

No Mexican waves today folks.
Players outnumbering punters by the look of it.
Shambles.

25-20 after 52 minutes.

Interesting to see Dan Evans' try allowed, when you look at Amos' foot in touch at Edinburgh. Wonderful consistency.

Awful coaching team with a few awful players.

Apparently Scott Baldwin missed the game as he got his hand bitten by a Lion when he tried to pat it whilst the team visited a Game park!

Maybe not the sharpest knife in the box?

Can't believe that. Must've been a baby lion though, but still.

If it wasn’t a cub then he’d be shy of one hand.

That's what I mean. It's just the way it seems to be spoken about though.

It's one for question of sport alright.

The clip of the lion bite with the music put to it is hilarious What an absolute pr&ck !

I used to be involved with an informal cycling club that met up once a month or so and rode overnight from London to the Coast on a Friday night.

One night there was a guy riding a specially adapted trike who had a false arm. Eventually during the night, someone more curious and less polite than me, asked him what had happened to his arm and he took great relish in telling us in all the gory details.

He used to work for Chipperfields Circus as a big cat keeper and one day, when he was feeding the tigers, he had beamed up for a millisecond whilst feeding them and one of the cats had grabbed his arm and bitten it clean off below the elbow!

He used to post on the cycling forum under the name of 'tigerbitten'. Interestingly he did not blame the cats at all, saying it was entirely his own fault for not concentrating and being in a rush.

Scott Baldwin may well have been a lucky boy to have gotten away with a few stitches!

I hope that lion gets food poisoning for failing to remove this pointless Gatamite from the Wales' selection equation. For Baldwin's part, at least the injury won't affect his playing ability any.

Baldwin requires an HIA methinks. Dopey sod.

RiscaGame wrote:Can't believe that. Must've been a baby lion though, but still.

Sure you and everyone has seen it by now, but it was no baby lion. It was an adult male lion....

Guess he’s lucky he won’t be available to play against the Scarlets next week as they have a few Lions that are likely to bite him also

... what a prat. But if you watch the video clip, he wasn’t the only one patting the Lions, he just picked the one looking straight at them...

Yeah I've seen it now. Such a lucky, dull boy. Bet the other boy was feeling relieved aye.

RiscaGame wrote:Yeah I've seen it now. Such a lucky, dull boy. Bet the other boy was feeling relieved aye.

Rev, in the past I've backed Scott to the hilt not only on here but on our own board as well, I've known Scott for a number of years through 2 different avenues, firstly through a mutual friend who were both into a particular form of training, and then towards the end of last season I spoke to his partners Father whom I've known from my teenage years, since his partner gave birth to their child his form has plummeted, don't forget the 2nd best lineout stats at the 2015 WC for any country was Wales's and he was an integral part of that, but as I said his form over the last few seasons has dropped, he was at best the 2nd best at the Ospreys behind Sam Parry last season, and is probably 3rd choice now with Scott Otten above him, who was probably our best player on Friday.

After this episode there is no justification for me to support Scott as this was an idiotic incident, there has been calls for Scott to not get paid until he is available for games, I've totally agreed with this stance on our forum, and when he is available to play he should be at best 3rd in the pecking order for the hooking berth in our squad.

RE Baldwin;
Right now I rate Parry and Otten over him too. For Wales honours it has to be Dee over him as he has been threatening for a while, and now is his best chance. As for Ospreys it just goes to show that I was right about Gibbes, he had the forwards playing like a kiwi super rugby team. All of them could kick, pass and play at international intensity. They buried teams in both competitions up until that SF game which I assume was the time Gibbes had started packing his bags. Ospreys need a new coaching panel fast, I hope they look overseas.

Tend to agree (from what I've seen) he should be third choice Wayne.

mikey_dragon wrote:RE Baldwin;
Right now I rate Parry and Otten over him too. For Wales honours it has to be Dee over him as he has been threatening for a while, and now is his best chance. As for Ospreys it just goes to show that I was right about Gibbes, he had the forwards playing like a kiwi super rugby team. All of them could kick, pass and play at international intensity. They buried teams in both competitions up until that SF game which I assume was the time Gibbes had started packing his bags. Ospreys need a new coaching panel fast, I hope they look overseas.

Mikey you need to go and have a look at the teams in our pool that were put out against us in last seasons RCC2, in every game not one team put out anywhere near a first choice selection, so it was a false scenario as to our strength, the only team that we met in that competition last season to be first choice or near it was our Q/F opponents. As for Gibbes, the only facet of play that has improved this season is our scrummage, even Rhodri hasn't been shoved all over the park, the only person to have been totally embarrassed in our front row as well as Baldwin was Paul James who was taken off at H/T in one of our games and has not even made the bench since.

As for Dee, I don't think his cause has been helped by the fact that your 2 Jones coaches hardly ever had him as first choice, it was either Buckley or Thomas first choice with Elliot on the bench if he was fit, have to say in the 2 games I've seen him this season he has been superb, it has to be Owens, Dacey and Elliot on form, to be entirely honest there should be very few Ospreys in the AI squad, it might be the kick up the harris that some of our players need.

wayne wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:Yeah I've seen it now. Such a lucky, dull boy. Bet the other boy was feeling relieved aye.

Rev, in the past I've backed Scott to the hilt not only on here but on our own board as well, I've known Scott for a number of years through 2 different avenues, firstly though a mutual friend who were both into a particular form of training , and then towards the end of last season I spoke to his partners Father whom I've known from my teenage years, since his partner gave birth to their child his form has plummeted, don't forget the 2nd best lineout stats at the 2015 WC for any country was Wales's and he was an integral part of that, but as I said his form over the last few seasons has dropped, he was at best the 2nd best at the Ospreys behind Sam Parry last season, and is probably 3rd choice now with Scott Otten above him, who was probably our best player on Friday.

After this episode there is no justification for me to support Scott as this was an idiotic incident, there has been calls for Scott to not get paid until he is available for games, I've totally agreed with this stance on our forum, and when he is available to play he should be at best 3rd in the pecking order for the hooking berth in our squad.  

Big cats?

wayne wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:RE Baldwin;
Right now I rate Parry and Otten over him too. For Wales honours it has to be Dee over him as he has been threatening for a while, and now is his best chance. As for Ospreys it just goes to show that I was right about Gibbes, he had the forwards playing like a kiwi super rugby team. All of them could kick, pass and play at international intensity. They buried teams in both competitions up until that SF game which I assume was the time Gibbes had started packing his bags. Ospreys need a new coaching panel fast, I hope they look overseas.

Mikey you need to go and have a look at the teams in our pool that were put out against us in last seasons RCC2, in every game not one team put out anywhere near a first choice selection, so it was a false scenario as to our strength, the only team that we met in that competition last season to be first choice or near it was our Q/F opponents. As for Gibbes, the only facet of play that has improved this season is our scrummage, even Rhodri hasn't been shoved all over the park, the only person to have been totally embarrassed in our front row as well as Baldwin was Paul James who was taken off at H/T in one of our games and has not even made the bench since.

As for Dee, I don't think his cause has been helped by the fact that your 2 Jones coaches hardly ever had him as first choice, it was either Buckley or Thomas first choice with Elliot on the bench if he was fit, have to say in the 2 games I've seen him this season he has been superb, it has to be Owens, Dacey and Elliot on form, to be entirely honest there should be very few Ospreys in the AI squad, it might be the kick up the harris that some of our players need.

That's right, we picked Buckles in front of Dee all the time. Especially when he was injured the whole of last season

Ospreys team selected for the Derby game against the Scarlets on 7/10/17 at the Liberty Stadium KO 19.35 is as follows
15 Dan Evans, 14 Cory Allen, 13 Kieron Fonotia, 12 James Hook, 11 Jeff Hassler, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Rhys Webb, 1 Nicky Smith, 2 Scott Otten
3 Ma'afu Fia, 4 BBBD, 5 AWJ, 6 Dan Lydiate, 7 Olly Cracknell and 8 James King with Sam Parry, Paul James, Dmitri Arhip, Lloyd Ashley, Dan Baker, Tom Habberfield, Sam Davies and Owen Watkin on the bench.
Really pleased that Dmitri and Owen are making tentative steps back towards first 15 selection which should happen in the next few weeks, really disappointed that Ashley makes the bench, Tandy deserves the sack for his continued selection of him besides all the other errors he's made. That back row selection also defies logic, Cracknell for all his attributes is probably the slowest 6 I've seen this season, so to pick him as a 7 is ridiculous, Mercer would have been far better, interesting selection of Allen on the wing, even though Giles is not named as injured there is talk that he has a slight niggle on our forum and this is precautionary.
Going on this seasons form we should have a 30 point beating, but I expect it to be a lot closer, even though I don't expect us to take anything out of this match.

Well, getting ready now to catch the 4.30 bus, hope I'm in a better frame of mind on the way home than at this moment, the loss of Tips will be crucial, that is a very slow back row we've selected, I bet Boyde is really licking his lips for this encounter, if he has a cracking game he could force his way into the Wales squad for the AIs.

Commiserations Wayne

The O's need help. They didn't look like scoring tries

Allty wrote:Commiserations Wayne

The O's need help.  They didn't look like scoring tries

Thanks for that Allty, yes we definitely need help, we were very fortunate that Halfpenny pulled out, otherwise it would have been no LBP, even though we didn't particularly deserve it, and as you said we didn't look like scoring tries, I think we could be still playing now and wouldn't have crossed the whitewash.
Martin Williams last week said about the passing skills of our forwards were non existent, I think the same could be said about some of the backs as well, as well as some of the retakes which were abysmal.
Something that really mystifies me, is every week we have a post match PC, and on the Monday or Tuesday a pre match PC, and through this period from the defeat in Treviso towards the end of last season, not one reporter has asked whether Tandy has considered his position. On the concourse in the West stand between the Higher and Lower levels, the reporters have a designated area, at least they have in the past, this season they've moved, yesterday I was going to question them on this topic, it would be nice to know why this question has not been asked or at least whether it has been asked and been edited out.

Wayne, I think you're wrong about 1/2p, if he had played then there would've been a fair chance you would have snuck the win IMO (we knew we couldn't rely on kicks so had to score tries, with him on we would've opted for the 3pts to put things closer).

The players have not turned into unskilled players over night, and there is plenty of talent in that squad. Maybe a break from the league will do them some good, and same goes for the boys who are off to the welsh squad for the AIs. We have seen it in the past when there have been players who have been looking out of sorts and then come back from the Welsh camp playing much better again (Think back end of Holleys reign) and kicked on in black.