Failure To Launch

A few weeks ago, I opined that the Ospreys didn't look rusty. Sadly, it appears they've been left out in the Swansea rain ever since.

Saturday's game at Liberty Stadium was excruciating. Some of the rugby played was of amateur quality... but such highlights were scarce. Ulster won't and shouldn't care; they leave with a valuable scalp, entirely merited simply by virtue of their status as visitors. It wasn't their job to provide entertainment, and it's not their fault that the home side were so abject. A tiny handful of loyal travelling fans sang deliriously at the death, and it was impossible not to smile.

The Ospreys were epically clueless. At the breakdown, they flopped and floundered; behind it, they formed line abreast along the gain-line like bemused cattle, inevitably catching man-and-ball repeatedly, as they denied themselves the time and space to craft openings. When the painfully slow ball that resulted wasn't being shipped on to another statuesque "option runner", it was being shanked heavenward without even the pretense of a tactical context. Forward and backs alike seemed to treat the ball as if getting rid of the thing was an end in itself.

Ulster brought precious little to the party; but they brought enough. Ian Humphries' bald competence at fly-half easily eclipsed the ragged torpor of his counterpart James Hook, managing to ensure that what few moments of creativity appeared, favoured the men in white. A try count of 2-3 is all that need be said to illustrate their worthiness.

But as a spectacle, the game was unwatchable. It's a tragedy that around 7000 of us had nowhere else to look...