Ospreys 17/18 Season

First topic message reminder :

This is not an exact replica of what is on our website, and unlike last season cannot give exact years left on contract, as some that have been reviewed length of contract have not been given. Games in 2018 are given in order, but as there are 3 dates, will not put any, until exact dates are given.
Head Coach Steve Tandy
Backs Coach Gruff Rees
Forwards Coach Allen Clarke
Defence Coach Brad Davis

Players: Cory Allen, Dmitri Arhip, Lloyd Ashley, Dan Baker, Jay Baker*, Scott Baldwin, Adam Beard, Ashley Beck, Dan Biggar, Olly Cracknell, Bradley Davies, Sam Davies, Hanno Dirksen, Dan Evans, Ma'afu Fia, Kieron Fonotia, Keelan Giles, Hugh Gustafson, Tom Habberfield, Jeff Hassler, James Hook, Dafydd Howells, Paul James, Ben John, AW Jones, Rhodri Jones, James King, Brendon Leonard, Dan Lydiate, Rob McCusker, Brian Mujati, Scott Otten, Sam Parry, Luke Price*, Nicky Smith, Gareth Thomas, Joe Thomas*, Rory Thornton, Justin Tipuric, Eli Walker, Owen Watkin, Rhys Webb.
The players with asterisks are not in the squad according to the website
11/8 Leicester Tigers           H                           L                     14-21                  Friendly  
20/8 Bath                          A                           L                     14-28                  Friendly
25/8 Leicester Tigers           A                           L                     14-40                  Friendly
2/9   Zebre                        H                                                                           GL
9/9  Glasgow Warriors          A                                                                           GL
16/9 Munster                     H                                                                           GL
22/9 Treviso                      A                                                                           GL
29/9 Cheetahs                   A                                                                           GL
7/10 Scarlets                     H                                                                           GL
15/10 Clermont Auv             H                                                                           RCC
21/10 Saracens                  A                                                                           RCC
27/10 Dragons                   H                                                                            GL
4/11 Edinburgh                   A                                                                            GL
10/11 Wasps                      H                                                                            AWC
17/18/19-11 Cardiff B          A                                                                            AWC
24/25/26-11 Glasgow W       H                                                                            GL
2/12 Munster                     A                                                                             GL
9/12 Northampton S            A                                                                            RCC
17/12 Northampton S          H                                                                            RCC
26/12 Scarlets                   A                                                                            GL
31/12 Dragons                   H                                                                             GL
       Cardiff B                   H                                                                             GL
       Saracens                  A                                                                             RCC
       Clermont Auv            H                                                                             RCC
       Gloucester                A                                                                             AWC
        Bath                      H                                                                              AWC
        Connacht                A                                                                              GL
        Southern Kings         H                                                                              GL
        Cheetahs                H                                                                              GL
        Zebre                     A                                                                              GL
        Leinster                  H                                                                              GL
        Connacht                H                                                                              GL
        Ulster                     A                                                                              GL
        Cardiff BL                A                                                                              GL
That squad has been so injury hit over the past 5 years or so, if we have the same sort of injury this next season, we will be back in RCC2 next season and nowhere near the playoffs, our 3 NWQ tight heads are at the moment not 100% fit even though 1 could make it for the first game. There is even talk of having Paul James filling in there.

I feel the Ospreys have great potential if they can keep AWJ, Webb, Biggar, and change the rest of the coaching staff. None of that will happen sadly. If people can keep an eye on the starting locks and report back here that would be good - because Wales are running out of locks for the 6N.

Breaking news: Steve Tandy sacked!

Should've happened 3 years ago but I'm surprised nonetheless as Blyth said Tandy wasn't going anywhere. ST came in at the right time but was heavily reliant on the star players to get result's. Ok to beat the tomato can teams but were always found wanting in big games. Ospreys have been a shambles since last March and a run of 3 wins out of 13 this season he had to go.

I just hope they bring in a quality replacement, and not try to replace with an up'n'coming coach. I do get the desire to develop Welsh coaches, and you can't have experience without being given experience, but I feel that the 4 regional head coach/DoR jobs should be the pinnacle for a coach (bar international, which is a different beast). Therefore, the people getting these jobs should be top coaches who can bring a wealth of experience, bring their own structures and network, etc.

Just hope it's not Howley or McBride as a warm up for a future Wales gig!

The best decision your set-up could have made. Bring in an all kiwi coaching team and they'll get the best out of what is a good squad. Any chance of you convincing Webb and Biggar to stay? Davies and Davies will be the worst welsh halfback pairing in history.

Rob Howley is made for the Ospreys.

I see that the Ospreys have signed Tom Botha, what an excellent signing that is. I have had a good look at him since the start of the Pro 14 and had been wondering which team was going to get him. He has been worth at least a couple of penalty at the scrum anytime he has been on the field! There was a game against Treviso a couple of month ago, he had both Italian loosehead in his pocket and i'm pretty sure the rep LH mimicked and injury so it was the starting LH coming back on the field.. also to get owned.

His work in the loose isn't great admittedly but i have been amazed he hasn't started more for the Cheetahs, probably it was known a while ago he was leaving them.

I would say, probably your best signing since Arhip, which has been an incredibly shrewd signing.

VinceWLB wrote:I see that the Ospreys have signed Tom Botha, what an excellent signing that is. I have had a good look at him since the start of the Pro 14 and had been wondering which team was going to get him. He has been worth at least a couple of penalty at the scrum anytime he has been on the field! There was a game against Treviso a couple of month ago, he had both Italian loosehead in his pocket and i'm pretty sure the rep LH mimicked and injury so it was the starting LH coming back on the field.. also to get owned.

His work in the loose isn't great admittedly but i have been amazed he hasn't started more for the Cheetahs, probably it was known a while ago he was leaving them.

I would say, probably your best signing since Arhip, which has been an incredibly shrewd signing.

Shame Arhip is off. They could do with both of these guys in the squad in order to challenge for silverware next season.

The Oracle wrote:

VinceWLB wrote:I see that the Ospreys have signed Tom Botha, what an excellent signing that is. I have had a good look at him since the start of the Pro 14 and had been wondering which team was going to get him. He has been worth at least a couple of penalty at the scrum anytime he has been on the field! There was a game against Treviso a couple of month ago, he had both Italian loosehead in his pocket and i'm pretty sure the rep LH mimicked and injury so it was the starting LH coming back on the field.. also to get owned.

His work in the loose isn't great admittedly but i have been amazed he hasn't started more for the Cheetahs, probably it was known a while ago he was leaving them.

I would say, probably your best signing since Arhip, which has been an incredibly shrewd signing.

Shame Arhip is off. They could do with both of these guys in the squad in order to challenge for silverware next season.

I would say it's almost impossible to have 2 tightheads of this quality in the same squad.

Ma'afu is a more than capable backup i think but with Mujati retiring Ospreys probably need to get another tighthead.

I forgot about Mujati... Ospreys had a good squad this year, it's too bad Tandy was out of depth way more this season than all of his previous seasons. The next signing needs to be a coach and a good one at that. I get the feeling though, that the Ospreys will allow this current coaching team to stay on full time as they have 'put in a few good performances'... Deja vu man.

Pretty sure I said a few weeks ago that Clarke would get the top job at the Ospreys... and today that's been announced. The wrong type of signing at a pivotal moment in the team's development. I expect nothing but some more mediocrity from Welsh teams (bar Scarlets) over the next few years. It seems the people running the show can't learn from everything they've done wrong???

No ill will to Ospreys but they will be sorry re Clarke - the best thing that happened in the last 12 months for Ulster was getting rid

Geoff I had previously read that Ulster fans didn't rate the guy. Ospreys' previous coach (Gibbes) was pretty good. Like I said, it's Deja vu as we never seem to learn. They've even signed the worst scrum half in Wales as a replacement for the best scrum half in Wales. The person pulling the strings at Ospreys needs to be thrown off a cliff.

Because he didn't get on with them he lost us a good defensive coach (Bararak) and a Back coach who was better than Peel (Doak)
Neither could stomach working with Clarke