Ospreys v Dragons 27th October 2017

Ospreys v Dragons

Friday 27th October 2017

Liberty Stadium, Swansea

Kick off: 7.35pm

Referee: Ian Davies (Wales)


OSPREYS

15 Sam Davies, 14 Keelan Giles, 13 Ashley Beck, 12 Owen Watkin, 11 Dan Evans, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Tom Habberfield; 1 Nicky Smith, 2 Sam Parry, 3 Dmitri Arhip, 4 Bradley Davies, 5 Alun Wyn Jones (c), 6 Olly Cracknell, 7 Sam Cross, 8 James King.

Replacements: Scott Baldwin, Paul James, Ma’afu Fia, Adam Beard, Rob McCusker, Brendon Leonard, James Hook, Cory Allen.


DRAGONS

15 Hallam Amos, 14 Ashton Hewitt, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Jared Rosser, 10 Gavin Henson, 9 Sarel Pretorius; 1 Brok Harris, 2 Elliot Dee, 3 Leon Brown, 4 Joe Davies, 5 Cory Hill (c), 6 James Thomas, 7 James Benjamin, 8 Lewis Evans.

Replacements: Gerard Ellis, Thomas Davies, Lloyd Fairbrother, Rynard Landman, Aaron Wainwright, Charlie Davies, Angus O’Brien, Pat Howard.

Looks weak

Who, Ian Davies?

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Who, Ian Davies?

Devalued Ospreys win

munkian wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Who, Ian Davies?

Devalued Ospreys win

I'd take that now. Wins a win, especially this season Hopefully this'll be a more competitive game than in previous years.

Well, Dragons, you will have to get used to this, as you improve, you will eventually lose more players to team Wales.

We have all spoken until the cows come home, but now you can start joining in with others, with how team Wales buggers your season up by taking all your players.

It will be nice to see you finally joining in.

Breadvan wrote:

munkian wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Who, Ian Davies?

Devalued Ospreys win

I'd take that now. Wins a win, especially this season  Hopefully this'll be a more competitive game than in previous years.

Actually, apart from a 35-17 win to the Ospreys at the Liberty last season, there hasn't been more than 11 points separating the sides since 2013.

LordDowlais wrote:Well, Dragons, you will have to get used to this, as you improve, you will eventually lose more players to team Wales.

We have all spoken until the cows come home, but now you can start joining in with others, with how team Wales buggers your season up by taking all your players.

It will be nice to see you finally joining in.

Have you even looked at the teamsheets?

Just a bit of fun LP.

Just saying, now that you are on an upward curve an all that, expect to be like the other regions bereft of players around international time.

You can also join in on how the 4th AI ruins your chances in Europe now as well.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

Breadvan wrote:

munkian wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Who, Ian Davies?

Devalued Ospreys win

I'd take that now. Wins a win, especially this season  Hopefully this'll be a more competitive game than in previous years.

Actually, apart from a 35-17 win to the Ospreys at the Liberty last season, there hasn't been more than 11 points separating the sides since 2013.

Actually when you look at results between us and all the other Welsh Regions even though the Dragons have been the lowest finishers in whichever League, there is not much difference between us and all 3
Blues P 32 W 22 D 1 L 9
Dragons P 32 W 20 L12
Scarlets P 30 W 18 D 1 L 11
Don't know if that is just Celtic League matches and whatever they were called after, or every game played like B&I Cup etc

Tell me boys, do you know the name of the Dragon fan, that wears a hat with a Dragon on it?

wayne wrote:Tell me boys, do you know the name of the Dragon fan, that wears a hat with a Dragon on it?

One is Pete who used to wear the hard hat, but I think he has handed it over to a gent called Ray.

RiscaGame wrote:

wayne wrote:Tell me boys, do you know the name of the Dragon fan, that wears a hat with a Dragon on it?

One is Pete who used to wear the hard hat, but I think he has handed it over to a gent called Ray.

Met him at the first Judgement Day and definitely twice more down at the Liberty, really nice bloke, hope to see him tomorrow.

Hi wayne wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:

wayne wrote:Tell me boys, do you know the name of the Dragon fan, that wears a hat with a Dragon on it?

One is Pete who used to wear the hard hat, but I think he has handed it over to a gent called Ray.

Met him at the first Judgement Day and definitely twice more down at the Liberty, really nice bloke, hope to see him tomorrow.

We're all nice generally Wayne, if you give us a chance

Looking forward to this later. Not sure why really, given our Derby results recently and our away league form but I still am. Hopefully manage to find a stream, unless the Kenyans are big into their Scrum V.

RiscaGame wrote:Looking forward to this later. Not sure why really, given our Derby results recently and our away league form but I still am. Hopefully manage to find a stream, unless the Kenyans are big into their Scrum V.

May be able to fiddle with Iplayer's settings ?

'other' sites are available if not.

The problem is that after the Blues game, even if we've got a healthy half-time lead, I'll have no confidence that we can hold on to it. But one difference now is that after the performances against Newcastle and Enisei, Jackman should be able to trust his bench more.

Griff wrote:

Hi wayne wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:

wayne wrote:Tell me boys, do you know the name of the Dragon fan, that wears a hat with a Dragon on it?

One is Pete who used to wear the hard hat, but I think he has handed it over to a gent called Ray.

Met him at the first Judgement Day and definitely twice more down at the Liberty, really nice bloke, hope to see him tomorrow.

We're all nice generally Wayne, if you give us a chance

I dunno, I've met a few and they're out and out ba*tards if you ask me. Having a few beers and a good laugh and all. Wrong uns..

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:The problem is that after the Blues game, even if we've got a healthy half-time lead, I'll have no confidence that we can hold on to it. But one difference now is that after the performances against Newcastle and Enisei, Jackman should be able to trust his bench more.

Indeed.

munkian wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:Looking forward to this later. Not sure why really, given our Derby results recently and our away league form but I still am. Hopefully manage to find a stream, unless the Kenyans are big into their Scrum V.

May be able to fiddle with Iplayer's settings ?

'other' sites are available if not.

Yeah, I'm going to try proxy to the UK or I know a few other sites to try ta

Breadvan wrote:

Griff wrote:

Hi wayne wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:

wayne wrote:Tell me boys, do you know the name of the Dragon fan, that wears a hat with a Dragon on it?

One is Pete who used to wear the hard hat, but I think he has handed it over to a gent called Ray.

Met him at the first Judgement Day and definitely twice more down at the Liberty, really nice bloke, hope to see him tomorrow.

We're all nice generally Wayne, if you give us a chance

I dunno, I've met a few and they're out and out ba*tards if you ask me. Having a few beers and a good laugh and all. Wrong uns..

Hooligans, the lot of 'em.

Griff wrote:

Hi wayne wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:

wayne wrote:Tell me boys, do you know the name of the Dragon fan, that wears a hat with a Dragon on it?

One is Pete who used to wear the hard hat, but I think he has handed it over to a gent called Ray.

Met him at the first Judgement Day and definitely twice more down at the Liberty, really nice bloke, hope to see him tomorrow.

We're all nice generally Wayne, if you give us a chance

Nice, but dim.
Anyway come on the Drags. Give the Jacks a bashing and keep 'em rooted to the bottom of our league.

Cardiff Dave wrote:

Griff wrote:

Hi wayne wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:

wayne wrote:Tell me boys, do you know the name of the Dragon fan, that wears a hat with a Dragon on it?

One is Pete who used to wear the hard hat, but I think he has handed it over to a gent called Ray.

Met him at the first Judgement Day and definitely twice more down at the Liberty, really nice bloke, hope to see him tomorrow.

We're all nice generally Wayne, if you give us a chance

Nice, but dim.
Anyway come on the Drags. Give the Jacks a bashing and keep 'em rooted to the bottom of our league.

I've got more degrees than a cooker!

Well done Ospreys No complaints about that. Played better than us in pretty much all facets. I think on balance we tried to run it a bit more but Ospreys showed that playing like that doesn't win you games!

I still think Dragons are improving, even though that final score was a pretty sound defeat. We need to do more than just defend and make a lot of tackles in the first half though. As alluded to in commentary and in previous games, making 100+ tackles by half time means you'll be out on your feet later on. While we didn't look too knackered late on it must be a factor. Giving the ball back to them cheaply doesn't help. Not a great game from Gav. Kicking was poor quite often and put us under pressure at least 3 times.

Anyway, onwards and upwards hopefully. Congrats O's.

Thought the Dragons defensive effort was excellent, although our attacking made it very easy for them especially in the first 20 or so minutes, very little inventiveness on our part. The person that should have had more influence in that first 20 minutes, and he did later on was Sam Davies, when he stood back and picked his lines, things started to happen for us. I queried the selection of Sam at F/B before the game with Dan Evans on the wing, I think Dan would have had more influence at 15, the number of crunching tackles they had to make in the first half took it's toll on them later on.
It was good to get that monkey of so many consecutive losses off our back, but if we play like that and we wont have our stars available we will get comprehensively beaten next week against Edinburgh. Hope Tyler in particular makes a good recovery and can take his place up with TW next week, and really hope Keelan's injury is not too serious although signs are that it is, in that terrible accident.
One player who showed his class IMO was Ashley Beck, very good footwork with power.

Griff wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

Griff wrote:

Hi wayne wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:

wayne wrote:Tell me boys, do you know the name of the Dragon fan, that wears a hat with a Dragon on it?

One is Pete who used to wear the hard hat, but I think he has handed it over to a gent called Ray.

Met him at the first Judgement Day and definitely twice more down at the Liberty, really nice bloke, hope to see him tomorrow.

We're all nice generally Wayne, if you give us a chance

Nice, but dim.
Anyway come on the Drags. Give the Jacks a bashing and keep 'em rooted to the bottom of our league.

I've got more degrees than a cooker!

You must be Mr Kelvin then.
Does dim mun, does dim.

Well played Ospreys, out powered us in the end despite our defensive efforts. If we actually get some ball we can do some damage. Beck had a great game on his return, Henson fluffed a few basic kicks which put us under pressure.

Have to say though, the penalty for 'collapsing the maul' when we were actually in possession was BS.

Looking at the replays Biggar looked like he knocked the ball on for his try ?

Ref didn't want to give Dee the try did he?

/rant over

Not one for the rugby purists but a bp win is all I can take away from this game. Not the first time I've asked this season but What does the Ospreys backs coach Gruf Rees actually do on the training pitch? All the ball we had on the Dragons 5m line and it was back and forth across the pitch, each player getting rid the ball asap. No speed, lines, angles, loops or anything. Zero invention or idea. When NGD's did have the ball at least they seem to try something a bit different. In the end, the Ospreys forward power won the game. Papering over the cracks..

Sad to hear Tyler got injured from this, ever since his debut season he's had terrible luck with injuries and it's hampered his playing ability. I was surprised to see him called up ahead of some others but also happy for him. If he doesn't make the AI series then Beck should be in to take his place. AB was deserving of a place in the Wales squad last year but didn't make it over a poor-performing Roberts.