Soaring Ospreys Down Young Guns
The Gnoll, 17 October 2003 - Neath-Swansea Ospreys: 42 Edinburgh Rugby: 18
The Neath-Swansea "Ospreys" must win the prize for the most original club nickname of recent years. While generations of Scottish youngsters have been dragged kicking and screaming to the RSPB reserve at Loch Garten to see the famous fish eagle, it is not to be found in Wales. But the rugby Ospreys are flying high today, sitting at the top of the Celtic League, after a 42-18 victory over a gutsy Edinburgh.
The margin of defeat was hard on a Gunners side that had led for most of the second quarter, albeit they were under severe pressure from an Ospreys team that was up for this top-of-the-table clash. With the score tied at 13-13 at half-time, there was a feeling that Edinburgh may have weathered the Osprey storm. But their own indiscipline allowed man of the match Gavin Henson to pull the Ospreys 15 points clear with five successful penalties in the 15 minutes after the interval.
Although the coaching team will be unhappy that so many kickable penalties were conceded, they will be pleased that their young charges didn't buckle under the pressure of a fired-up Ospreys side and a sizeable crowd at the Gnoll. They refused to be intimidated, although Tom Philip, singled out by the local press before the game as a key player, was yellow-carded for what one might euphemistically describe as an over-enthusiastic tackle. The Gunners' fitness held up very well in the final quarter, and before two late Ospreys scores put the result beyond doubt, a repeat of the Great Escape at Donnybrook was not impossible to imagine.
Ospreys coach Lyn Jones has said this season that his ambition is to play Super 12 rugby. And there was more than a passing resemblance to that in the way Neath-Swansea played throughout the match. Both teams played adventurous, expansive rugby from the off. Until retiring with an injury early in the second half, Scott Gibbs was at the centre of much of the home side's powerful running, and the former Lion plainly still has a few seasons left in him yet.
After Ally Hogg had showed his pace to catch home wing Seveali'i on the tryline, home full-back Henson opened his account with an easy penalty on seven minutes. Soon after, Ali Warnock replied in kind with a penalty from inside the Gunners' half. The Gunners were under sustained Swansea pressure, but defended well before they took the lead with an excellent try by Lee, his fourth of the season. A lovely reverse pass from Warnock put Southwell away, who drew Henson before giving to Lee for the score.
The Gunners again defended solidly during Philip's sin-binning, but couldn't keep Gibbs out from close range on 22 minutes. A rare Henson miss left the Gunners still ahead 10-8, and Warnock extended the lead on the half hour with a penalty for offside. Disappointingly, just on half time, a useful Garryowen from Connor eluded the Gunners defence, and the Ospreys' stand-off crossed for their first try. Again, Henson missed the conversion.
It was a different story for Henson in the second half. The Ospreys had been making a number of useful breaks throughout the game, and the pressure on the Edinburgh defence began to tell in penalty chances, which the former world young player of the year converted with monotonous regularity. By the start of the fourth quarter, the Ospreys were 28-13 ahead, and Edinburgh were playing catch-up rugby. Captain Blackadder scorned several kickable penalties in favour of close-range lineouts, but although the Gunners' mauling became more effective the longer the game went on, they couldn't break through a stout Ospreys defence.
A number of promising Edinburgh attacks came to nothing as errors crept into their play. Both Warnock and Sharman knocked-on in try-scoring positions within a minute of each other. But the Gunners didn't give up, and Hugo Southwell scored a peach of a try on 70 minutes. From an unpromising position on the Ospreys' 22, facing three defenders, he floated a delicate chip over them and beat the cover for an excellent individual effort in the left corner. That took the score to 28-18, but was as close as it got. Two late tries by Newman and Storey took the score to 42-18, and though the Gunners kept up the pressure until the final whistle, they couldn't secure the consolation try.
So the Gunners' brief reign at the top of the Celtic League is over for the moment. But they remain way ahead of their rivals in the number of tries scored. The Ospreys, with 14, are still four touchdowns behind the freewheeling Gunners side. Tonight's scoreline masks the progress that Edinburgh have made so far this season. They did not play badly; the Ospreys were just very good. Next Friday night's game against second-placed Ulster offers the Young Guns a chance to put last night's disappointment behind them and get the show back on the road.
To add insult to injury, the squad's flight back to Edinburgh this morning was delayed by over three hours. While not in the same league as last year's journey from Hell to Toulouse, it set the seal on a weekend that Edinburgh will want to forget.
MAN OF THE MATCH:
GAVIN HENSON won the sponsors' award. ALLY HOGG wins your correspondent's award for a solid performance in defence and attack. It's not every day that you see a No 8 give a winger a start and still haul him down before the try line.
Read Bill Lothian's verdict in the Evening News: http://www.sport.scotsman.com/rugby_superteams.cfm
For an Ospreys reaction visit: http://www.ospreysrugby.com/
Scorers: Edinburgh: Warnock 2P, 1C, Southwell 1T, Lee 1T
Ospreys: Henson 6P 2C, Gibbs 1T, Connor, 1T, Newman 1T, Storey 1T
Edinburgh team: Lee; Sharman, Joiner, Philip, Southwell; Warnock, Burns; Smith, Kelly, Brannigan, Perrett, Strokosch, Blackadder (capt), Cross, A Hogg. Replacements: Di Ciacca, Jacobsen, Callam, A Dall, Lawson, Di Rollo, Webster.
Ospreys team: Henson; Seveali'l, Tiueti, Gibbs (capt), Morris; Connor, A Williams; James, B Williams, Millward, Newman, Tait, Bater, Pugh, Bonner-Evans. Replacements: Storey, Clatworthy, R Wells, C Wells, Griffiths, Bateman, Thomas.
Referee: D Keane (Ireland)