Ospreys v Dragons Thread

[mrzimmerman]

First topic message reminder :

A tad early i know but looking forward to this so thought i'd start a thread to see if i'm not alone. Ospreys start as favourites for the second east - west Welsh derby in the space of 7 days BUT i believe the Dragons will prove to be a much sterner test for the title chasing Swansea based region. Historically the Dragons have a good record against the Ospreys and i think it would mean as much to the Dragons if they win on Friday as it did for Ospreys when they won away to Leinster a couple of weeks back. The Ospreys will look to continue their strength in the strum and up front in general. Hopefully Mr Owens will police the scrum area a lot better than Clancy did last week.

I, for one, am looking forward to a good game and hoping for a home win. Saying that i don't have the confidence i did last week. The Dragons will pour men into the breakdown to slow the Ospreys and frustrate them. If they succeed and get enough posession to their dangerous backs then we could have a real game on our hands.

It looks like the biggest rugby attendance of the season so far at the Liberty which is great news. That could finally mean the Ospreys fans can do to the Dragons as the Dragons fans have so brilliantly done to the Ospreys players and that is to make it a real hostile environement where every mistake is magnified and every postive attacking home play is welcomed with deafening noise.

It's clear who i support and i'm sorry for the clear bias in my post. Please please can Dragons fans place their perspective on the thread. If a dragons fan wants to post a lenthy message on the thread i'll post it here in the openning post. The teams will be posted here when they become available.

Further info found on match preview on pro12 website;

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/13817.php

The teams

Ospreys Dragons

15 Ross Jones 15 Hallam Amos
14 Hanno Dirksen 14 Tonderai Chavhanga
13 Tom Isaacs 13 Adam Hughes
12 Andrew Bishop 12 Ashley Smith
11 Shane Williams 11 Aled Brew
10 Dan Biggar 10 Lewis Robling
9 Rhys Webb 9 Wayne Evans
1 Ryan Bevington 1 Nathan Williams
2 Richard Hibbard 2 Steve Jones
3 Adam Jones 3 Nathan Buck
4 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt) 4 Luke Charteris (c)
5 Ian Evans 5 Jevon Groves
6 Ryan Jones 6 Danny Lydiate
7 Justin Tipuric 7 Lewis Evans
8 Joe Bearman 8 Toby Faletau

Replacements:

16 Scott Baldwin 16 Sam Parry
17 Paul James 17 Phil Price
18 Joe Rees 18 Dan Way
19 James King 19 Rob Sidoli
20 Tom Smith 20 Tom Brown
21 Kahn Fotuali'I 21 Joe Bedford
22 Matthew Morgan 22 Martyn Thomas
23 Ashley Beck 23 Pat Leach

[sheephead]

Alyn I understand, just don't ...how do I put it....enjoy being under the blues region. Its like having a memeber of the family you hate. Prefer having to empty my wallet trekking to swansea

[Stone Motif]

Stone - Caerphilly does come under the Blaenau Gwent area in terms of local councils though. However, I'm not sure how that translates into rugby regions.

No it doesn't, it's in Caerphilly County Borough. Separate Council amalgamated from bits of the old Glamorgan and Gwent. Fourth biggest in Wales, if I'm not mistaken. Caerphilly town is miles away from Blaenau Gwent.

[Guest]

Stone is right Cari: when the county of Gwent broke up, it was into the county borough councils of Newport, Torfaen, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthsire.

[Cari]

Fair enough I stand corrected.

[Morgannwg]

Of course you're corrected, what does a women know about rugby and geography? Apart from my future wife Rugbydreamer of course. She's perfection defined.

[Breadvan]

Gonna retract a line from post about Brews tackle of Dirksen. From the stands and in real time, it looked a try saving classic, but when viewing it on the iplayer...what a disgrace. Brew basically shoulder charged his knees. No attempt to use his arms at all. I guess brew realised he's the past while Dirks is the future...

[munkian]

He clattered the blonde bombshell twice.

[TBJ9625]

clattered, being the operative word!!!!! He's supposed to tackle!!! Don't get me wrong I like Brew, shame he left the O's to begin with, but he does the non arms thing quite alot

[Cari]

I said earlier on in this thread that Brew was very lucky he didn't do himself a serious injury nevermind Dirksen. It was a huge hit on his shoulder. I should think he was a bit sore after it. Dirksen was going off I thought after it had happened, but thankfully he was OK. It's an irresponsible thing for any player to do because they could really damage themselves more than anyone else.

[munkian]

Could say the same for Halfpenny's try saving tackle in the England match. He could of fractured his skull.

[Stone Motif]

This will no doubt be dismissed as sour grapes but I thought Brewy showed up Dirksen for the flat track bully boy he is. Both players have similar styles but Aled had him in his pocket all game.

[Breadvan]

This will no doubt be dismissed as sour grapes but I thought Brewy showed up Dirksen for the flat track bully boy he is. Both players have similar styles but Aled had him in his pocket all game.

Say whhaaaaat! Brew did feck all while Dirksen carved thru the Dragons defence at will. Dirks tackled brew out of touch in the first half got up, went to offer a hand of mutaul respect and brew didn't want to know. Ft track bully by f k!

[Stone Motif]

Sorry, I didn't realise he was your 'hetero life partner' Breadvan. If Brew did nothing how come Dirksen didn't finish any of these scintilating breaks that had you wetting your knickers?

[Breadvan]

Sorry, I didn't realise he was your 'hetero life partner' Breadvan. If Brew did nothing how come Dirksen didn't finish any of these scintilating breaks that had you wetting your knickers?

Well Hanno ( Mr Dirksen to you) does set the pulses racing...

[Cari]

Could say the same for Halfpenny's try saving tackle in the England match. He could of fractured his skull.

Exactly. I'm not having a go at Brew, I don't like it from any player, it's just careless.

[munkian]

I'll forgive Halfpenny for that one

Brew also chased a kick which Blondie caught and smashed him then too, I'm sure Shane was glad he was playing on the other wing

[theskippingpig]

Just want to pick up on an earlier comment regarding Nigel Owens and some of his decisions when the Ospreys are playing.

The scrum on Friday night became a farce and Nigel Owens was to blame for this, His one sided penalising of the Dragons stopped this area being competitive. I appreciate that the Dragons do not have the greatest front 5, but the first few scrums were pretty equal, but when the ospreys get into the the opposition red zone and get a scrum, refs and owens in particular always wants to penalise the opposition. Surely if the ref is unsure then it should be a penalty each way until all the nonsene is stopped. If you watch lower leagues rugby the scrum never goes down as often as it does in "first Class" games.

In addition he just did not seem consistent with his penalty decision, Dragons get one against them for in from the side, yet the Ospreys allowed to do so, and the same goes for off the feet at the breakdown, it is very frustrating.

I am not saying this beacuse the Dragons were beaten but owens played into their hands with the scrum decisions, and I am sorry but he should not be that pally and friendly with players he is refereeing, this surely influences his decisions.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

What annoyed me most was that he was penalising the Dragons for their (supposed) offences in the scrum but not penalising the Ospreys for theirs, i.e. pushing before the ball's in. Just because one team's pack is stronger than the other doesn't mean they don't have to obey the laws of the game.

[Guest]

If the scrum doesn't go down so often in the lower leagues, then it does in the firt class games, then I would be looking at the players in the first class games to be honest. What on earth are they doing that isn't correct, that leads to so much disruption in the scrums?

[theskippingpig]

I have recently finished playing in the front row and have played Div 3 and 4 rugby and I don't know why this is the case, but i can assure you it is.

I agree with Luckless it does appear that once a team seems to be the stronger in the scrum all the penalties go their way. Watching replays of the scrum going down it seems that both sets of props were going down on the hit so how the Dragons can consistently be penalised is baffling.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

It's as if the referees know which pack is stronger and go with them when it comes to decisions. That's disgraceful, really. It's not enough for them to be stronger, they have to prove it by winning a fair scrummage for the ball. If they infringe, they should be penalised. You could argue that the stronger team's offences in the scrum are more worthy of penalising because, if they're stronger, they shouldn't need to infringe.

[gowales]

If the scrum doesn't go down so often in the lower leagues, then it does in the firt class games, then I would be looking at the players in the first class games to be honest. What on earth are they doing that isn't correct, that leads to so much disruption in the scrums?

It's pretty much the attitude of coaches, nature of professionalism and nous of experienced props Dreamer.

[Guest]

To be honest I probably should have left this, as it's been a few days (but posting while drunk over the weekend wouldn't do me favours.) Anyway, I am not a fan of the megaphone the one guy has, but then it's no more annoying than the drums that were by us. I was stood in the main lot of Dragons fans and I think calling us football fans is a bit of a tired cliché, just because we tend to back our team a bit more vocally and boisterously. As for the baiting by the Dragons fans, I would say people were turning around a bit shocked that there was little reaction for any of the Ospreys points, other than Shane's at the end and trying to encourage them to support their team. It was pretty funny turning round and seeing people sitting down and politely clapping tries. Otherwise there was back and forth banter between both sets of support in that corner.

The "whole sit down as we were blocking a sign" was a bit pointless, as the sign was in Welsh and probably lost on the majority of viewers and I think it's fair to be a bit perplexed that an Ospreys supporter complains when his team are on our tryline at the other end. Surely the natural reaction is to stand up then, particularly for a team on the attack?

The point about the supporters baiting us was made because I was annoyed about how one of our supporters got made to leave, yet the guys who came running back in were ok to stand in an aisle and do that. Pity they didn't care enough about the game to stay right till the end anyway and then they might have seen Shane's try live.

The point about one song is very ironic, given that we sang at least six different ones. Still I'd sooner one than none.

I went with my dad who is an Ospreys supporter and he felt compelled enough to write a letter to the Ospreys complaining. Considering he is usually the first to try winding me up about our support or anything to do with the "Dragqueens", I think I'm pretty satisfied with our behaviour.

Anyway, I don't think it was sour grapes or being a bad loser mentioning what happened. Why would I be annoyed with a defeat when I predicted Ospreys by 40 before kick off? Even when the Dragons somehow weaselled a 6-3 lead, it was so against the run of play that it was obvious we would not get anything.

[munkian]

To be honest I probably should have left this, as it's been a few days (but posting while drunk over the weekend wouldn't do me favours.) Anyway, I am not a fan of the megaphone the one guy has, but then it's no more annoying than the drums that were by us. I was stood in the main lot of Dragons fans and I think calling us football fans is a bit of a tired cliché, just because we tend to back our team a bit more vocally and boisterously. As for the baiting by the Dragons fans, I would say people were turning around a bit shocked that there was little reaction for any of the Ospreys points, other than Shane's at the end and trying to encourage them to support their team. It was pretty funny turning round and seeing people sitting down and politely clapping tries. Otherwise there was back and forth banter between both sets of support in that corner.

The "whole sit down as we were blocking a sign" was a bit pointless, as the sign was in Welsh and probably lost on the majority of viewers and I think it's fair to be a bit perplexed that an Ospreys supporter complains when his team are on our tryline at the other end. Surely the natural reaction is to stand up then, particularly for a team on the attack?

The point about the supporters baiting us was made because I was annoyed about how one of our supporters got made to leave, yet the guys who came running back in were ok to stand in an aisle and do that. Pity they didn't care enough about the game to stay right till the end anyway and then they might have seen Shane's try live.

The point about one song is very ironic, given that we sang at least six different ones. Still I'd sooner one than none.

I went with my dad who is an Ospreys supporter and he felt compelled enough to write a letter to the Ospreys complaining. Considering he is usually the first to try winding me up about our support or anything to do with the "Dragqueens", I think I'm pretty satisfied with our behaviour.

Anyway, I don't think it was sour grapes or being a bad loser mentioning what happened. Why would I be annoyed with a defeat when I predicted Ospreys by 40 before kick off? Even when the Dragons somehow weaselled a 6-3 lead, it was so against the run of play that it was obvious we would not get anything.

[Sponsored content]