In truth, the féted Aviva Premiership leaders brought precious little to the party, beyond a laudable attacking mindset. The home defence has withstood far more robust challenges, and - the irritatingly familiar interception try excepted - never looked like being breached. In attack, though, the Ospreys were again lethargic and laboured, all the more frustrating when thrown into relief by moments of brilliance. Shane Williams' roof-raising solo score was actually only his second most impressive break of the night, while James Hook's release of an angled Tommy Bowe in the opening minutes carried the whiff of sorcery.
Brief moments of inspiration perhaps, but they were more than enough to see off an oddly out-of-sorts opposition. Irish fly-half Ryan Lamb missed a succession of routine kicks at goal which could have kept his side in the hunt, and despite their relief, home fans saw a chilling echo of the failure of Dan Biggar at Toulon the previous week. For his part, Biggar had gone a long way to repairing his damaged reputation in the first half, before being forced off early in the second. Some hearteningly broad shoulders in evidence, there.
(PLUG ALERT!!! All of this was documented by the Twitter feed @ospreyslive , active for all Ospreys home games this season.)
Due to the annoyance of the bonus point system (I'll spare you that rant) the Ospreys are already behind Munster in the group table. With a parsimonious defence but a profligate attack, it's difficult to see where subsequent bonus points are going to come from. But, with the English Top Guns ably spiked, confidence shouldn't be a problem now.
No comments:
Post a Comment