Ospreys team to face “dangerous” Connacht

Posted on Oct 26, 2012

Ospreys forwards coach, Jon Humphreys is looking forward to meeting a well-prepared Connacht in their Saturday afternoon clash at the Liberty.

Humphreys says: “Connacht are a very dangerous team, Eric Elwood has taken what was already a tough, physical group and looked to expand their game. We know that we are going to have be well prepared, diligent and focused if we are going to get what we want out of this fixture, and it’ll need to be a real team effort on and off the field.

“It’s a traditional Saturday afternoon kick-off, allowing families to come out and support the cause, and we’re looking forward to it. This is the first game in a very important period of the season. We’ve got four PRO12 games over the next six weeks, three of them at home, plus a couple of LV games as well, and it’s where we’ll really see what depth we’ve got in the squad.

“I genuinely believe that it’s this time of the year where we’ve won some of our previous league titles, where boys have stepped in and stood up, many of them youngsters who’ve taken their chance and never looked back. You can list people like Hanno, Tips, Bevington, Beck, even go as far as people like Bishop, Alun Wyn and Ian Evans, they’ve all got their chance in the international break and never looked back. It’s an opportunity for players in the group and for supporters to see who is next on the block for us.

“With it being a half past two kick-off on Saturday we’ll hope for a healthy crowd and a good atmosphere that we can all enjoy.”

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Ospreys “far from perfect” team to play Zebre

Posted on Oct 4, 2012

Ospreys Head Coach, Steve Tandy believes the Ospreys’ win over Munster was a big moment for the region, built on attitude, desire and commitment. He does, however, realise there is still a lot of work to do and the Ospreys are far from perfect.

Tandy said: “This is a big game for us and it’s important that we keep the momentum that we’ve built up over the last couple of weeks going. The whole squad has worked hard and last Saturday you could see clear signs that we are heading in the right direction.

“The win over Munster was about attitude, desire and commitment, typified by the way the team defended in their 22 in the closing minutes, they weren’t content to just sit back with the game won. We can’t get carried away though, we realise that we aren’t perfect and we’ve still got a lot of work to do, there’s plenty to put right.

“It’s the first time for us to play Zebre but as a group we are all well aware of the threat they’ll pose. We’ve struggled in Italy before, not least the defeat to Treviso at the start of this season so we know that we will have to approach the game just like we did the Scarlets and Munster matches and be at our very best, before coming home to kick-off Europe against Treviso at the Liberty Stadium the following Friday, another very difficult game against a very good team where we’ll need the backing of a big, passionate crowd to help us.”

Forthcoming Fixtures

Fri 12 Oct – 20.00KO – Ospreys v Benetton Treviso – Heineken Cup

Sun 21 Oct – 15.00KO – Leicester Tigers v Ospreys – Heineken Cup

Sat 27 Oct – 14.30KO – Ospreys v Connacht – RaboDirect PRO12

Sun 4 Nov – 16.00KO – Ospreys v Leinster – RaboDirect PRO12

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Ospreys team to face the Scarlets

Posted on Sep 20, 2012

Osprey head coach, Steve Tandy says that despite the Scarlets going into the game as big favourites, he believes the Ospreys have learned a lot from the last few games and will be up for the match.

Tandy said: “This derby is always a big game, something special, and no doubt that will be the case on Friday. It’s great that local rivalries still mean so much, that despite the changes in the game we can still have these big derby matches.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that who will be going into the game as favourites given recent results. They have been playing good rugby, scoring tries, and their tails will be up, but we’ll be doing everything we can to ensure that our fans there on Friday night can head back this side of the bridge proud of their team.

“I’ve already spoken about how disappointed we were with the performance on Friday night. The overall performance wasn’t acceptable and the players are well aware of that. We have our own internal standards that we expect from any Ospreys team and on Friday night in particular we didn’t reach those standards.

“It’s been a tough few weeks but despite the disappointment we’ve still managed to learn a lot from three games, something that will stand us in stead throughout this season and beyond that. Through necessity we have to work with a smaller group of players this season and it’s been crucial that we have a look at our squad depth at this point of the season. It’s not been easy as we all know, but we have to start kicking on from where we are.”

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Ospreys team news: Tandy looking for improvement

Posted on Sep 13, 2012

Ospreys Head Coach, Steve Tandy is looking for a big improvement falling two successive defeats and sees Glasgow as a big threat, despite their poor start to the season.

He said: “This is an important game for us, against a very good, very powerful and very dangerous Glasgow team. Like us they’ll be disappointed at the start they’ve had, but we know they are a real threat. They were in the PRO12 semis last season, as they were two years ago, and just as we haven’t become a bad team on the back of two defeats neither have they.

“We are well aware that we need to improve from where we’ve been over the last two weeks but we also know where we are in terms of a long season and the need to balance things out for the squad and take a look at everybody. We’ve been able to change things about to give some more boys a chance, but we’ve selected a team good enough to do the job, just as was the case in the last two games.

“Obviously we’ve been hugely disappointed by how things have gone but the finger isn’t hovering over the panic button. We’ve reviewed Saturday’s game and what went right and wrong on the night. We aren’t that far away from where we want to be, but in reality we need big improvements in application, discipline and accuracy if we are going to turn possession and chances into wins. We need to get back to what we were doing at the end of last season, playing mature, intelligent rugby that allowed us to go through the phases and really make it count.

“Hopefully there’ll be another big crowd there. The support last Saturday was great and we need the same again to lift the boys and really help them across the line. The difference the supporters can make is huge.”

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Ospreys team to face Leinster

Posted on May 25, 2012

The Ospreys team to play Leinster on Sunday 27th May 2012 in the RaboDirect PRO12 Final at the RDS Showground, kick off at 4.00pm, will be as follows:

15 Richard Fussell

14 Hanno Dirksen

13 Andrew Bishop

12 Ashley Beck

11 Shane Williams

10 Dan Biggar

9 Rhys Webb

1 Paul James

2 Richard Hibbard

3 Adam Jones

4 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt)

5 Ian Evans

6 Ryan Jones

7 Justin Tipuric

8 Joe Bearman

Replacements:

16 Scott Baldwin

17 Ryan Bevington

18 Aaron Jarvis

19 James King

20 Tom Smith

21 Kahn Fotuali’i

22 Matthew Morgan

23 Tom Isaacs

The following players were not considered because of injury:

Tommy Bowe – Haematoma

Huw Bennett – Achilles

Will Price – ACL

Cai Griffiths – Arm

Ben John – Groin

Gareth Owen – ACL

Nikki Walker – ACL

Head Coach, Steve Tandy, commented:

“It’s a huge game, a massive occasion for Ospreys Rugby, and everybody is really excited about Sunday.

“Leinster are a great team. What they’ve achieved in Europe over the last four years speaks for itself, and the nature of their win against Ulster last weekend means that they’ll be full of confidence. Playing at home in front of their own fans is another bonus for them and will make the task even more difficult for us.

“Previous games won’t count for a thing on Sunday, it’s all about the day and who handles the pressure the best. We know that we have to improve in certain areas, we were guilty of putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure in the Munster match and that meant we had to rely too heavily on our defence. We don’t want to have to do that on Sunday, we want to try and be more composed and look to dictate territory better.

“We will obviously do our homework and analysis on them but the key thing for us is about our own performance. We need to prepare properly, be thorough, and make sure we are accurate in everything we do. We have to be clinical. If we focus on our own game and the areas that we can control, then we’ll be able to compete and we’ll be in the game.

“It’s going to be a great day, there’s a big Osprey support traveling out to back the cause and we want to put on the kind of performance that will make them proud of their team.”