Ospreys 13-16 Saracens - Post Match Discussion...

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Ospreys (6) 13
Try: Gough Con: Biggar Pens: Biggar 2

Saracens (16) 16
Try: Joubert Con: Farrell Pens: Farrell 3

A couple of errors cost us. To concede a try from a charge down was very frustrating. We dominated territory and possession and some errors at crucial moments cost us. But full credit to Saracens, they have an outstanding defence and we couldn't break it down.

I can't fault the effort and attitude of the players, they went for it and didn't leave anything on the field. We couldn't ask much more than to tidy up some bits of accuracy."

Argh! Beck just shoved into touch - almost got in again there. Ospreys need to attack again like that whilst Sarries are missing a man. Very frustrating!!!

Wonder if Beck can sneak into the Wales squad?

That's nearly 4 tries in 2 games against Sarries.

Oh FFS. The front rowers having a nother shot at handbags....apparently Gough's had a "cauliflower beanbag" whatever that is!?

Whatever else you say about Borthwick (and lets face it there is A LOT you could say) he is an excellent line out forward.

Cari wrote:Oh FFS. The front rowers having a nother shot at handbags....apparently gough's had a "cauliflower beanbag" whatever that is!?

This commentator from Ulster is a bit of a giggle - earlier he said something along the lines of....

"The narcotic fix of victory"

Paul James effing up the scrum again

Dirksen on for Fussell.

Ha! The forwards really laying into each other. O's flattening the Sarries there.

Stringer on making his debut for Sarries...well, he's in a red shirt...

Cari wrote:Stringer on making his debut for Sarries

Stringer came on in the last game, didn't he?

SafeAsMilk - I stand corrected. He did make his debut last week.

Kelly Brown off for tripping up Biggar. Ian Gough is over!!!

13 - 16 after a super conversion. O's have 15 minutes to nail this...

Cari wrote:SafeAsMilk - I stand corrected. He did make his debut last week.

Either that or another little bald chap invaded the pitch!

Barritts defence is superb, must be close to 20 tackles!

Ref keeps the play in play despite a knock forward by the Sarries...and yet he's so strict about other things...

Borthwicks taken a rather nasty one to the eye - looks painful that.

Think he might have a bust cheekbone there, Artful.

Come on O's!!!!

Beerman on for Ianto - think he's got a bust nose.

Breadvan was right - the attendance is apparently 7'900 and something.

Danger for the O's now....Sarries about ten metres from the try line.

Bit of controversy - Farrell going to take a penalty and he wanted another ball. Think he got it too, not sure. Looks like O's might have to do with a LBP. He's taking ages to kick it as well. Oh! He missed it! Ha!

Morgan on for Biggar.

Christ, something needs to be done about the scrums. So much game time is lost because of it.

Cari wrote:Breadvan was right - the attendance is apparently 7'900 and something.

Danger for the O's now....Sarries about ten metres from the try line.

Apathy Cari. Until we start winning HC's or playing Toulouse style champagne rugby, ppl are going to stay away..

The O's already look dejected

Morgan kicks for territory...could've done with being a bit further along, but the O's have possession. If they score here, it'd be a fecking miracle.

The dream is over again.

Great physical game that.

They have to be worried about more than half empty stadiums for such big games. The game is going slowly bankrupt in a lot of areas I fear. There just isn't any money around.

Cari wrote:Breadvan was right - the attendance is apparently 7'900 and something.

Danger for the O's now....Sarries about ten metres from the try line.

Apathy Cari. Until we start winning HC's or playing Toulouse style champagne rugby, ppl are going to stay away..

Breadvan wrote:

Cari wrote:Breadvan was right - the attendance is apparently 7'900 and something.

Danger for the O's now....Sarries about ten metres from the try line.

Apathy Cari. Until we start winning HC's or playing Toulouse style champagne rugby, ppl are going to stay away..

It has to come from both sides. People aren't going to want to come and see the O's the way they're playing atm and the O's are going to find it hard to motivate themselves into winning shape when playing in front of a ghost crowd.

how can they maintain such an expensive side and stadium without a crowd?

dark times ahead.

Shame they can't be like France where they allow local councils to fund them.. but them, would you want your council tax raised to pay for a rugby team?

Saracens defence was superb. 14 tackles by Barritt, 16 from Borthwick. Seems to even be having an effect on Hodgson, 2nd most tackles in the backs, 9, none missed.

How long can Holley and co be allowed to churn out such substandard crap?

Even as a Scarlets fan i will admit the Ospreys have the best squad in Wales but the coaching level of Rhyl reserves

trebellbobaggins - you wouldnt exactly want the local council running things either

The ref is rubbish he was the same with the Bath match last week the only thing he has going for him is that he is not biased in making poor decisions.

Well done Saracens a good win but DB missing a couple of sitters did not help the Ospreys cause.

Blah ha aha hahahah . This is funny

Well played Sarries

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:Blah ha aha hahahah . This is funny

What's funny?

That is very true lostinwales.

They have a great organisation and a great team but they need money. It's an awful situation for them and must be a shadow over them really.

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:Blah ha aha hahahah . This is funny

Says Ivan miseryguts from the old 606. er...

trebellbobaggins wrote:That is very true lostinwales.

They have a great organisation and a great team but they need money. It's an awful situation for them and must be a shadow over them really.

Have to disagree, the O's have more money than any other region so hardly need more of it to fix their shortcomings.

O's have some great players, that doesn't make them a great team. They've never really managed to function consistently and effectively enough as a unit to be called a great team.

They look as much now as they have for years like they lack the heart, opportunism, recklessness and mental steel to progress, so maybe all of that is what they need.

Where does it come from them?

Sponsors and wealthy backers I'd guess.

Bit like our Cornish Pirates then.. if it came down to the small crowd the Mennaye can hold they'd have been bankrupt years ago sadly.

Well done Saracens.

What a cold night in Swansea.

Not a great game by any measure.

I am not sue what the game was like on TV but what a negative game, so much time wastering through out the game from Sarries a poor advert for the game and so obvious but the ref did not have a clue what was going on and the touch judges were no help. The first kick off, J Thomas has his foot in touch in front of the touch judge and I don't know how many knock on's ignored by the ref.. I have not seen the tape of the game but what was happening is the scrum's? The back 5 for the Ospreys had good games but could have been better if R Jones had played 8, he made so many yards for a 6 where as JT runs sideways and and gets knocked back constantly by mid field players. JT is a good hard working back row player but should be a 6 not an 8.

The Ospreys should have kept the ball in the forwards as the backs were poor along with the coaching team. Dan Biggar should have been taken off at half time, no cutting edge runs sideways and ships the ball ending up going backwards . Why give Morgan 5 minutes to change the game it was far too late in any game! at any standard, this coaching team only success is drive the best players away and putting average players into the team. In fairness Beck is showing signs of being a good centre but Bishop is going backwards fast and Biggar is so over rated.

Holly can be frustrated by the mistakes during the game but who picks the team, in the first half the backs could not catch a cold?

That's it for another year, the crowds are getting smaller and I suspect more of the decent players will be off if they are smart.

The directors must act and get shot of Johnson and Holley, last week's team selection was a joke that back fired。

Alun you certainly summed up the mood in the stands. I dont disagree at all.

Such a disappointing evening. I feel very deflated at the inability to take simple good opportunities.

Saracens are a good team, no disrespect to them.

I really enjoyed that game. I wanted the O's to win, but Saracens were well worth their victory. Sarries are employing a great rush defence which is snuffing out attacking options from first phase. I think they'll go far this season. But don't underestimate Treviso in Italy! They're better than you think (although I think you'll beat theylm there).

I think the O's are noticeably lacking a bit of cutting edge, which is understandable having lost Phillips, Hook and Byrne. The haters will say that they were rubbish anyway, but in reality they were 3 quality players who could break down very well organised defences. Replacing them and rebuilding will be the Osprey's biggest challenge and one which I don't think will come to fruition for a couple of seasons (after players like Webb, Dirkson, Morgan, Eli Walker, Beck, et al. gain experience.

Also, I'll sound like a bitter Dragons fan, but I don't think Fussell is up to the standard you need for HC rugby. He looked a bit lost yesterday at full back, and as the commentators said he hasn't got the gas for wing. Fine in the Rabo but the HC is perhaps a bridge too far for him.

As i missed the game lastnight (thanks Cari and artful for the updates) can someone explain how Brits gets binned for the front row engaging early(going by match reports)?

glad about the result but still a lot of work to do to make the group safe
O's fans two TBP wins and your still in with a shout so dont give up the dream

i'm not sure why it was Brits who got binned, but it was a ridiculously early engagement by the Saracens.
Saracens had an incredible defence.

I cannot remember the last time Ryan Jones played that well, he was absolutely immense, if he keeps that form up then bye bye lydiate or faletau from the welsh back row (pd. i would say faletau).
Also paul james had a shocker, i know duncan jones gave away a penalty too but I don't understand why he didnt start.. he offers so much in the loose, gatland is stupid to keep on ignoring him, backup for gethin imo. i guess its beacuse paul james covers th too..

anyway, fussell showed why he can't play for wales, he is too erratic, he has lots of excellent games but also many average/poor games and you need to be relatively consistent to make an internatilonal squad

beck is coming on a lot actually and as someone pointed out bishop isn't playing too great, i am a big fan of bishop but i think he is suffere¡ing from losing hook as IC

and it actually angered me when they took webb off, it seems that because they signed Kahn Fotuali (i know its wrong) that they have to play him , its good to have competition for the 9 jersey but there the O's needed to win the match, and taking one of the better players.. beats me

Generally I would agree with you Shane, as I'm a big fan of Webb. But last night the Ospreys looked a lot better, sharper, quicker when Kahn came on...

I also thought that Fotuali'i looked far superior to Rhys Webb - who is still a great prospect but not the finished article.

I have no problem with Kahn coming on, he played well, it's just that for me Webb was one of the O's better players yesterday but maybe, as you said, they needed to bring Kahn on to change the team dynamics sllightly so fair point.

Got to agree mostly with the last 2 posts, great to see people keeping things in perspective. This is an Ospreys team in transition against a first class Saracens side. So we won't win the HC this year ...should we really be expecting to?!! We should try our best ....and I think we did that.
Ryan Jones was fantastic, a real powerful, physical performance.
Paul James was disappointing.
JT is doing a job, not spectacular but safe under the restarts and recycles well.
Bishop is not his usual impressive self this year but I thought was solid last night.
I thought Biggar was solid too, defends OK, carries OK, unusually missed a few kickable kicks and made a great floated pass for Gough's try.
I like Rhys Webb and was as mystified as anyone as to why he was straight out of the side when Kahn arrived but I've got to say, Kahn looked sheer class when he came on last night.
Fussell ....what can I say? I've got absolutely no faith in him at all and my heart is in my mouth every time he gets the ball.
Biggest improvements can come from a replacing Fussell at full back and getting a centre with a cutting edge (maybe Watermayer will help this?).
Cheer up O's fans, it's not all doom and gloom, let's give the guys a chance.

Pretty cheesed off to lose last night. Saracens are a quality team though, in the first half they did nothing at all, yet any mistake the Ospreys had they scored points.
I went for the traditional half time pee and all the O's fans were wondering how on earth we were losing.
Though the real difference was quality, the Ospreys have made mistakes all season and some teams (Edinburgh, Connacht) have had a real go at us at home but eventually lost to our extra quality, not Saracens though their defense was awesome and full blooded.

There was a lot of off the ball stuff going on, but from my view point, it was Adam Jones who started it all from the second scrumage of the game when he gave a sly dig at Rhys Gill (the Saracens loosehead and former Cardiff Blues prop). It pretty much kicked off from that point on wards and when you have 2 guys like Ian Evans and Borthwick throwing their weight around then things will go bad quickly, though from what I could see Ian Evans was taking care of business and certainly put Borthwick in his place at the bottom of a few pile ups!

The Ospreys are out of Europe, but to be honest we were out the day we drew in Treviso, you need 4 wins, and a bit of luck to qualify second, and it was hard to see us winning in France or in Wembley.

I don't really think Saracens are superiour, I just think they made less mistakes on the day, and squeezed out a close game, though clearly the Ospreys are badly lacking something in mid field and Dan Biggar made some poor decisions, especially considering it was apparent the referee was not interested in applying the off side rule to Saracens.