Men(Saints) v Boys(Ospreys)

First topic message reminder :

Now i'm an Ospreys fan before you think this is an anti O's thread but you'll understand the title when you see the teams for the game tomorrow;

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS TEAM TO PLAY OSPREYS

15 Ben FODEN
14 Chris ASHTON
13 Scott ARMSTRONG
12 James DOWNEY
11 Vasily ARTEMYEV
10 Ryan LAMB
9 Lee DICKSON

1 Soane TONGA'UIHA
2 Dylan HARTLEY (capt)
3 Paul DORAN JONES
4 Courtney LAWES
5 Mark SORENSON
6 Calum CLARK
7 Tom WOOD
8 Roger WILSON

Replacements
16 Mike HAYWOOD
17 Alex WALLER
18 Tom MERCEY
19 Samu MANOA
20 Phil DOWSON
21 Martin ROBERTS
22 Stephen MYLER
23 Jon CLARKE

The Ospreys team to play Northampton Saints at the Riverside Hardware Brewery Field on Saturday 22nd October 2011, kick off at 6.00pm will be as follows:

15 Ross Jones
14 Tom Prydie
13 Ben John
12 Sonny Parker
11 Eli Walker
10 Matthew Morgan
9 Tom Habberfield

1 Cai Griffiths
2 Scott Baldwin
3 Aaron Jarvis
4 Tom Smith (Capt)
5 Ian Evans
6 James King
7 Sam Lewis
8 Morgan Allen

Replacements:
16 Mefin Davies
17 Joe Rees
18 Duncan Jones
19 Richard Kelly
20 Chauncey O'Toole
21 Tom Grabham
22 Will Price
23 Barry Davies

Fear this could be the end of our campain in the Low Value Cup for another year. We'd need to play really well to beat a very strong looking saints team. Are the Saints taking this game really seriously or just blending their internationals back into the team? Bit of a David v Goliath isn't it? Mind you we all know who won that one! Best of luck O's!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really proud of that Ospreys performance, the lads were devastated not to get the win.

The Dragons doing the same to Wasps.

Great to see so many young players get an opportunity to shine against the big boys of Heineken Cup, Premiership and International rugby.

All bodes very very well for the future...

Who gained most from this development competition the Ospreys or Northampton, it was obviously the Ospreys, the only way that Northampton won tonight was on points, and their mainly first choice forwards are better than the Ospreys 3rd choice forwards, the Ospreys 2nd choices are at least equal if not better than the 1 and a half first choice or 2nd choice Northampton forwards, as for backs I would have any of the Ospreys half backs over anybody in the Northampton squad, we are so glad we got rid of Roberts many moons ago who are at best 2nd most 3rd and 4th choices, the only player in the LONG TERM to impress in the back division is the Russian wing, I'm afraid the Ashton Foden partnership has been exposed as ordinary.

wayne wrote:Who gained most from this development competition the Ospreys or Northampton, it was obviously the Ospreys, the only way that Northampton won tonight was on points, and their mainly first choice forwards are better than the Ospreys 3rd choice forwards, the Ospreys 2nd choices are at least equal if not better than the 1 and a half first choice or 2nd choice Northampton forwards, as for backs I would have any of the Ospreys half backs over anybody in the Northampton squad, we are so glad we got rid of Roberts many moons ago who are at best 2nd most 3rd and 4th choices, the only player in the LONG TERM to impress in the back division is the Russian wing, I'm afraid the Ashton Foden partnership has been exposed as ordinary.

lol, would this be one of those welsh moral victories! I should point out that Rugby is a game about winning....

nathan wrote:

wayne wrote:Who gained most from this development competition the Ospreys or Northampton, it was obviously the Ospreys, the only way that Northampton won tonight was on points, and their mainly first choice forwards are better than the Ospreys 3rd choice forwards, the Ospreys 2nd choices are at least equal if not better than the 1 and a half first choice or 2nd choice Northampton forwards, as for backs I would have any of the Ospreys half backs over anybody in the Northampton squad, we are so glad we got rid of Roberts many moons ago who are at best 2nd most 3rd and 4th choices, the only player in the LONG TERM to impress in the back division is the Russian wing, I'm afraid the Ashton Foden partnership has been exposed as ordinary.

lol, would this be one of those welsh moral victories! I should point out that Rugby is a game about winning....

LMAO This is a development competition who or what did you develop tonight, and how would your first choice pack do against our first choice pack , your first choice loosehead couldn't handle our 3rd choice tight head.

wayne wrote:

nathan wrote:

wayne wrote:Who gained most from this development competition the Ospreys or Northampton, it was obviously the Ospreys, the only way that Northampton won tonight was on points, and their mainly first choice forwards are better than the Ospreys 3rd choice forwards, the Ospreys 2nd choices are at least equal if not better than the 1 and a half first choice or 2nd choice Northampton forwards, as for backs I would have any of the Ospreys half backs over anybody in the Northampton squad, we are so glad we got rid of Roberts many moons ago who are at best 2nd most 3rd and 4th choices, the only player in the LONG TERM to impress in the back division is the Russian wing, I'm afraid the Ashton Foden partnership has been exposed as ordinary.

lol, would this be one of those welsh moral victories! I should point out that Rugby is a game about winning....

LMAO This is a development competition who or what did you develop tonight, and how would your first choice pack do against our first choice pack , your first choice loosehead couldn't handle our 3rd choice tight head.

lol, firstly i don't support NH, secondly do you expect a bunch of players to return from internationals and play brilliantly at the top level despite missing pre-season training.... No. NH were re-introducing there internationals, so even if there were first team players last year, they still have to get up to speed.

This isn't a development competition, it's whatever the team's make out of it. So i'm not sure where your coming from? Seriously, some of posters spoil the reputation of the welsh.

radelven wrote:

Cumbrian wrote:Ryan Lamb must be long sighted, it seems like he can only float long inviting passes!

It was the Russian winger popping up in midfield whose floated pass was intercepted.

Maybe so, but you surely can't have missed the number of floated passes that Lamb threw into the midfield???? At times they were asking to be picked off.

Saints had seven internationals in their starting line up Foden; Ashton, Tonga'uiha, Hartley, Doran-Jones, Lawes, Wood. Ospreys had three Prydie (3 Caps), Parker and Ian Evans (12 Caps), in their starting fifteen.

The Ospreys back row which outplayed the saints were all under 22. The Halfbacks were 19 and 18.

This was a great performance, Northampton played well, their usual big pack pushed the O's around the park, though were very regularly turned over and the Saints back line were ineffective.

This was a great performance, a win would have been better, close but no cigar.

I think "great performance" x2 is a little over the top. The forwards and Morgan played very well, but the Ospreys didn't really create any significant chances, their only try coming from intercepting a poor floated pass from the Russian new boy.

radelven wrote:I think "great performance" x2 is a little over the top. The forwards and Morgan played very well, but the Ospreys didn't really create any significant chances, their only try coming from intercepting a poor floated pass from the Russian new boy.

Yes you are right... The backline failed to conjure up a try other than the steel.

15. Ross Jones (18)
14. Eli Walker (19)
13. Parker (34)
12. John (20)
11. Prydie (19)
10. Morgan (19)
9. Habberfield (19)

maestegmafia wrote:Saints had seven internationals in their starting line up Foden; Ashton, Tonga'uiha, Hartley, Doran-Jones, Lawes, Wood. Ospreys had three Prydie (3 Caps), Parker and Ian Evans (12 Caps), in their starting fifteen.

The Ospreys back row which outplayed the saints were all under 22. The Halfbacks were 19 and 18.

This was a great performance, Northampton played well, their usual big pack pushed the O's around the park, though were very regularly turned over and the Saints back line were ineffective.

This was a great performance, a win would have been better, close but no cigar.

You think Northampton played well? I don't want to take anything away from the Ospreys young lads (they were fantastic) but Northampton really didn't play well at all. It they played like they did in the first half, in the Premiership, most teams would beat them.

Cumbrian wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:Saints had seven internationals in their starting line up Foden; Ashton, Tonga'uiha, Hartley, Doran-Jones, Lawes, Wood. Ospreys had three Prydie (3 Caps), Parker and Ian Evans (12 Caps), in their starting fifteen.

The Ospreys back row which outplayed the saints were all under 22. The Halfbacks were 19 and 18.

This was a great performance, Northampton played well, their usual big pack pushed the O's around the park, though were very regularly turned over and the Saints back line were ineffective.

This was a great performance, a win would have been better, close but no cigar.

You think Northampton played well? I don't want to take anything away from the Ospreys young lads (they were fantastic) but Northampton really didn't play well at all. It they played like they did in the first half, in the Premiership, most teams would beat them.

The way Saints were playing in the first half gives more credit to the Ospreys than you are giving them due. It was only when the Saints figured that they could win by scrummaging and mauling and little else that they started to get it together.

I thought that was exactly the way Saints played in the Premiership/HEC ? It has been whenever I have watched them play

Spurious argument, yes Saints play in a forward orientated manner in the Premiership, but they can/ do it a lot better than that normally. They weren't up to speed at the breakdown at all. I've a lot of respect for what the Osprey's lads achieved, but lets not over-egg it here.

Northampton used the game to help get their returnees back up to speed. They've not played together since May and they've only got two games until the HC kicks in. I doubt they are happy with the performance but it was just important for them to get playing together.

Saints used it as a pre-season match. Lots of credit to Ospreys for they young players, but I wouldn't draw too many conclusions from that game.

I really like the look of Eli Walker - I was impressed with his defence tonight although we didn't see much of him going forward I am told he has real pace. He needs a chance with the Ospreys 2nd 15 in the pro12

You can see the difference in importance of this cup between the welsh sides and the English.

For the English its a possible HC spot, for the Welsh its a chance to give the U18's some game time.

doctornickolas wrote:You can see the difference in importance of this cup between the welsh sides and the English.

For the English its a possible HC spot, for the Welsh its a chance to give the U18's some game time.

And when those youngster get the opportunity to play against fully fledged first choice Internationals they gain a massive amount of experience.

doctornickolas wrote:You can see the difference in importance of this cup between the welsh sides and the English.

For the English its a possible HC spot, for the Welsh its a chance to give the U18's some game time.

To be fair, in most seasons most of the English clubs see the competition as developmental one too; it’s only because of the World Cup that things are different this year. Teams like Leicester and Northampton really suffered with World Cup call ups for key players. Teams like Gloucester, London Irish, Sale and Saracens have been without between seven to nine first team squad players each too. What generally happens is, most teams play a mixture of experience/ kids until the knock-out stages when they become a little more serious about it.

Some clubs like Exeter, Newcastle and Sale will see this competition as a worthy chance at silverware; most are using it to get their players up to speed.

I know the commentators keep mentioning that player North/ Faletau have played in this competition in the couple of years. It is worth remembering that the there are plenty of English youngsters who have used the competition to break through to their club sides. Some have ultimately made it onto the international stage like Manu Tuilagi, Ben Youngs and Courtney Lawes .

The fact that young English players are getting a chance to show their clubs what they can do is about the only reason this competition is worthwhile to my mind.