Ospreys v Scarlets

Venue: Liberty Stadium
Date: Wednesday, 26 December
Kick-off: 17:30 GMT

Coverage: Live on S4C, BBC Radio Wales, online & Radio Cymru

TEAMS

Ospreys:
15 Richard Fussell
14 Ross Jones
13 Andrew Bishop
12 Ashley Beck
11 Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9 Kahn Fotuali'i (Capt)
1 Ryan Bevington
2 Richard Hibbard
3 Adam Jones
4 Ian Gough
5 James King
6 Ryan Jones
7 Justin Tipuric
8 Joe Bearman

REPLACEMENTS
16 Scott Baldwin
17 Duncan Jones
18 Cai Griffiths
19 Lloyd Peers
20 Morgan Allen
21 Rhys Webb
22 Matthew Morgan
23 Tom Isaacs

Scarlets:
15 Liam Williams
14 George North
13 Jonathan Davies (capt)
12 Scott Williams
11 Kristian Phillips
10 Aled Thomas
9 Aled Davies
1 Phil John
2 Matthew Rees
3 Samson Lee
4 Jake Ball
5 George Earle
6 Josh Turnbull
7 Aaron Shingler
8 Kieran Murphy

Replacements:
16 Emyr Phillips
17 Shaun Hopkins
18 Jacobie Adriaanse
19 Sione Timani
20 Rob McCusker
21 Tavis Knoyle
22 Gareth Owen
23 Gareth Maule

Referee: Nigel Owens (WRU)
Assistant referees: Gwyn Morris, Jon Mason (WRU)
Citing commissioner: Ray Wilton (WRU)
TMO: Derek Bevan (WRU)

Here's the place for all the pre match, during match and post match chat. Will update thread with teams and relevant info. Going to be the biggest derby attendance for 2 years, fair to say the the home side will start as favourites but if the conditions are better good then the explosive Scarlets backline may have something to say about that! How does everyone see it going?

December perhaps?

I see it going the way of last night's derby. Fecking shoite.

Last time I trust the BBC. I had to edit the time, assumed they'd get the date right. Can I ask the reason for your negativity griff?

This will be fantastic. Cant wait to get down there. Taking the whole family.

I hear tickets are selling out fast

Where are these supporters every other week?.When will people realise that big crowds means top draw squads,come on wake up and smell the coffee welsh so called rugby supporters.

thespreys wrote:Where are these supporters every other week?.When will people realise that big crowds means top draw squads,come on wake up and smell the coffee welsh so called rugby supporters.

I dont think its possible for many people to go every home game, and certainly even less for every away. I live 150 miles away now so I can rarely get to see them play.

How do Leicester,Munster,Leinester,etc get the support then?.Leinester have already sold 15,000 season tickets for 2013/2014.As i say we are a nation of armchair rugby supporters.

Because Dublin is a big city with recent European success it is no surprise they sell tickets so well.

Can we stick to talking about this game please? Though the lack of 5 figure consistent attendances is an issue, it may require its own thread.

Reading the Ospreys fans forum they seem confident of a win. How do the scarlets fans view their chances?

thespreys wrote:How do Leicester,Munster,Leinester,etc get the support then?.Leinester have already sold 15,000 season tickets for 2013/2014.As i say we are a nation of armchair rugby supporters.

You pulled that one out of the fork of your trousers. They won't even go on sale until March.

LLannelli for example is a small town and has 45000 people or so. Even with the surrounding area I don't think there are too many. Neath and Swansea, I'm not sure how big they are.
The province of Leinster has more than 2 million people in it with about 1.2 M of that in the Dublin area. Even as the 4th most popular team sport Rugby has a massive population to get people from. Gaelic football & Hurling are amateur. Soccer is only semi pro. So Leinster are the only truly pro sports team in the nation's capital.

As a Scarlets fan i don't see us winning but it will close, Ospreys are to strong upfront.

georgestowersbiceps wrote:Last time I trust the BBC. I had to edit the time, assumed they'd get the date right. Can I ask the reason for your negativity griff?

Apologies for the negativity. I genuinely hope it will be a good spectacle. My negativity is based on the state of our club/regional game at the moment. So often I've looked forward to these derbies, only to be let down. The Blues v Scarlets was just painful to watch. But it wasn't a one off unfortunately. All of our derbies seem to be going this way lately. Part of it is down to the fact that they're played in winter which means they're often wet and wind swept so the mistakes are multiplied. But these derbies just seem to be getting worse and worse in terms of skill levels. It becomes a slug fest, knock on competition, played out in a mud bath. The only shining light has been the Ospreys playing some decent stuff in the HC (not amazing stuff, but not awful either).

So, best of luck to both teams. Let's try to have some positive, open, flowing rugby, full of skill, without unforced errors, full of passion, etc. etc. That's all I ask!

Griff wrote:

georgestowersbiceps wrote:Last time I trust the BBC. I had to edit the time, assumed they'd get the date right. Can I ask the reason for your negativity griff?

Apologies for the negativity. I genuinely hope it will be a good spectacle. My negativity is based on the state of our club/regional game at the moment. So often I've looked forward to these derbies, only to be let down. The Blues v Scarlets was just painful to watch. But it wasn't a one off unfortunately. All of our derbies seem to be going this way lately. Part of it is down to the fact that they're played in winter which means they're often wet and wind swept so the mistakes are multiplied. But these derbies just seem to be getting worse and worse in terms of skill levels. It becomes a slug fest, knock on competition, played out in a mud bath. The only shining light has been the Ospreys playing some decent stuff in the HC (not amazing stuff, but not awful either).

So, best of luck to both teams. Let's try to have some positive, open, flowing rugby, full of skill, without unforced errors, full of passion, etc. etc. That's all I ask!

Thanks for the clarification Griff. Welsh rugby needs an excellent game, I agree. I have a good feeling that this game will be just that.

Griff wrote:

georgestowersbiceps wrote:Last time I trust the BBC. I had to edit the time, assumed they'd get the date right. Can I ask the reason for your negativity griff?

Apologies for the negativity. I genuinely hope it will be a good spectacle. My negativity is based on the state of our club/regional game at the moment. So often I've looked forward to these derbies, only to be let down. The Blues v Scarlets was just painful to watch. But it wasn't a one off unfortunately. All of our derbies seem to be going this way lately. Part of it is down to the fact that they're played in winter which means they're often wet and wind swept so the mistakes are multiplied. But these derbies just seem to be getting worse and worse in terms of skill levels. It becomes a slug fest, knock on competition, played out in a mud bath. The only shining light has been the Ospreys playing some decent stuff in the HC (not amazing stuff, but not awful either).

So, best of luck to both teams. Let's try to have some positive, open, flowing rugby, full of skill, without unforced errors, full of passion, etc. etc. That's all I ask!

The ref was shocking in fridays game, not the players, they tried to play rugby, he stopped the game

We need better refs in the RP12, it is a joke.

Ospreys at a canter.

viewtothegym wrote:As a Scarlets fan i don't see us winning but it will close, Ospreys are to strong upfront.

I think that we have a pretty good tight five now. However I wonder I am not confident that the Scarlets are going to do too well, especially after our last four matches where we have been very poor indeed.

That said last time we played the Ospreys they had been poor for three or four matches and then managed to batter a win out of us, so who knows role reversal this time maybe?

I just want to see a good game, a classic, filled with endeavour by the players and empathy by the referee.

Why is Nigel the one eyed turk reffing?.whatever happened to neutral refs/.

If the Ospreys play anything like they did last week the Scarlets could be in for a hard time even with their injuries. Ospreys 32 to 12, hope it is much closer.

Nigel will be arriving on the Scarlets team bus

I doubt the Scarlets fans will be relishing Nigel as Ref. He tries so hard not to favour the Scarlets he is usually quite biased against them.

Hopefully the refereeing will be better than the game at PYS earlier this season!

The Scarlets have been woeful over the last month and the Ospreys were superb last week.....................so anybodies game!

viewtothegym wrote:Nigel will be arriving on the Scarlets team bus

Yes. And then he'll spend the entire game penalising the Scarlets off the park to prove that he's not biased!
Honestly hate it when Nige refs the Scarlets, even though he's one of the best refs about.

Scarlets backline is better than the O's but the O's pack should win the game for them. If the Scarlets can get some ball it should be close. Travelling more in hope than expectation.

Raining. Bad.

Forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday, more rain. Very bad.

Aled Thomas better have his kicking out of hand boots on. Play the corners.

Two strong teams, really looking forward to the game, I will be watching on the box. I still think the Ospreys may be too strong at home but you never know if the Scarlets can get ball.

Will the Osprey/Scarlets game today decide key 6N selections or will form be ignored again and J Roberts/Warburton/B Davies/Phillips/Jenkins/Faletau just walk back into the Wales team?

Look, Wales have wrecked so many Scarlets in the past few years I honestly don't care!

Great start for the O's and Biggar puts the points on.

3-0 at five minutes.

Woop! What a tackle on North by Bevington!

Bit of handbags off the ball...ah it's all panto!

Drooooop Gooooooal!

6-0 at ten minutes.

Ha! Tippy missed a tackle on North earlier, but he's just got his revenge...

Penalty try under the sticks for the O's.

13-0 at 24 minutes.

Thomas boots a penalty for the Scarlets.

13-3 at 27 minutes.

Well, I haven't seen Nigel bin someone for ages. Scarlets have a forward in the bin...didn't see his number...

I'd like to see that properly again, as initially I thought Kahn F went from in front of the mark.

O's boss the scrum and get a penalty.

16-3 at 33 minutes.

Adam Jones absolutely destroying Phil John....

Fussell! You're running the wrong way, mun!

Thomas boots for another Scarlets penalty, but it just goes wide.

16-3 at 35 minutes.

Nigel telling off both sides for taking their time to form scrums. He has a point - there's a bit of dawdling. Phil John being told to change his shirt though which has ripped.

Biggar kicks a penalty and at HT it's 19-3.

Os doing well I see!

The other week Nigel was reffing Ulster (I think it was the HEC game against the Saints). He was giving out about the time the players were taking to form the lineout and Rory Best must have said something about them getting the call right. Nige came back with,

"Were you not practising in the week?"

Stand-ups gain is....

He can be amusing at times can Nige.

I hope the O's can keep doing well too!

Try for the O's from King - but he's hurt and I think Liam Williams trying to hold him up copped it as well.

Conversion (from an awkward angle) goes in front of the posts.

24-3 at 48 minutes.

Biggar kicks a penalty 27-3 at 52 minutes.

Scarlets being pasted now, its a shame given how good their start to the season was. But that tight 5 just isn't strong enough to compete against teams with a strong scrum. Good news for Ulster though, we are way, way out in front now.

In saying the above Adriaanse is a serious scrummager and has just come on for the Scarlets, he should've started.

Tommy's old team still looking after him then...

O's bossing the scrum again. Scarlets under pressure...what a take by the 14...shame he couldn't get that over.

TMO...Nigel's checking if it was lost just short of the line.