Ospreys Away, 21st of Feb

[johng]

We've got 5 2nd rows Ospreys have a huge back 5. We are all going for the heavy horse. For what will be a heavy (and narrow) pitch

[wixfjord]

We've got 5 2nd rows Ospreys have a huge back 5. We are all going for the heavy horse. For what will be a heavy (and narrow) pitch

I don't know whether that's by choice though, what other options do we have?

[arsebiscuits1]

I'm not sure about Ryan Baird covering the backrow. We look very thin there, and it's an area where Ospreys are especially strong

He doesn't, He's there to cover Fardy, who covers back-row.

Baird has also played 6 at a high level. A lot of people have made the argument that it could be his best position going forward.

Did quite well there towards the end of the JWC

[joooooe]

O'Brien might come off the bench to join O'Brien and O'Brien in the back line. And that's without either of our Sean O'Briens.

Never go full O'Brien.

[Pilotman123]

Will Connors is a serious prospect. Playing Phenomenal this season

Who would you rate higher - Connors or Penny?

Both are very good players but Connors isn’t near Penny’s level yet but he has good potential

[wixfjord]

Will Connors is a serious prospect. Playing Phenomenal this season

Who would you rate higher - Connors or Penny?

Both are very good players but Connors isn’t near Penny’s level yet but he has good potential

I think you got the two players mixed up there.

[Oldschool]

Leinster 14 point favourites for this one.

Pretty accurate I reckon

Can't see Leinster winning by 14.
Am I write in saying that one should bet on Ospreys to win on the spread.
However should one be a Leinster fan, one should not make such a bet.

[hugonaut]

Team may have been selected with one eye on the mini-tour to SA in a month's time. The coaching staff will want to keep enough players in Ireland to prepare for the Saracens game - matchday 23+7, I'd imagine, two full teams.

LH: Healy Dooley
H: Cronin Kelleher
TH: Furlong, Porter
L: Toner, Fardy
L: Ryan, Molony
BS: Ruddock, Deegan
OS: van der Flier, Connors
No8: Doris, Conan
SH: McGrath, JGP
OH: Sexton, R. Byrne
LW: Lowe, C. Kelleher
IC: Henshaw, Tomane
OC: Ringrose, [Locko?]
RW: D.K., McFadden
FB: Larmour, R.K.

The guys in green are with Ireland, the guys in bold are in the Ospreys team – Dooley, Fardy, Molony, Ruddock, JGP, C. Kelleher. I'd say the latter crew will be swapped out of the starting team for the mini-tour with the guys on the bench: Milne, Baird, Dunne etc. Conor Maguine [the Irish clubs prop] will also come into the mix for that tour.

Rhys is really only there because we are down 3no. No8s – maybe he's there because he has some familiarity with the Gnoll, but I think it's because we're stuck.

This could be a real banana peel for us. I think it's going to be a bad pitch, ordinary facilities and a horrible night. Hopefully we get out alive!

[Ruckedtobits]

Team may have been selected with one eye on the mini-tour to SA in a month's time. The coaching staff will want to keep enough players in Ireland to prepare for the Saracens game - matchday 23+7, I'd imagine, two full teams.

LH: Healy Dooley
H: Cronin Kelleher
TH: Furlong, Porter
L: Toner, Fardy
L: Ryan, Molony
BS: Ruddock, Deegan
OS: van der Flier, Connors
No8: Doris, Conan
SH: McGrath, JGP
OH: Sexton, R. Byrne
LW: Lowe, C. Kelleher
IC: Henshaw, Tomane
OC: Ringrose, [Locko?]
RW: D.K., McFadden
FB: Larmour, R.K.

The guys in green are with Ireland, the guys in bold are in the Ospreys team – Dooley, Fardy, Molony, Ruddock, JGP, C. Kelleher. I'd say the latter crew will be swapped out of the starting team for the mini-tour with the guys on the bench: Milne, Baird, Dunne etc. Conor Maguine [the Irish clubs prop] will also come into the mix for that tour.

Rhys is really only there because we are down 3no. No8s – maybe he's there because he has some familiarity with the Gnoll, but I think it's because we're stuck.

This could be a real banana peel for us. I think it's going to be a bad pitch, ordinary facilities and a horrible night. Hopefully we get out alive!

In normal circumstances I'd agree with you (the Mole is rarely wrong) but this is almost the team that travelled to Glasgow and did a number on the Warriors who never saw them coming. Rhys and Scott F are there to remind this Squad of what they're carrying on their shoulders (a long unbeaten run) and to remind them of how they achieved that win in Glasgow - "trust in your teammates, and your skills".

A win, but only in the last quarter, by more than 7 pts.

[mildlyinterested]

Des Berry predicting a Ospreys win in the indo.

[riocard911]

Fascinating weekend of rugby ahead of us with not just one but two father/coach vs son/player contests to look forward to: Mike Ruddock vs Rhys in Neath and Faz mór vs Faz óg in HQ.

[Dwarf]

Will Connors is a serious prospect. Playing Phenomenal this season

Who would you rate higher - Connors or Penny?

Both are very good players but Connors isn’t near Penny’s level yet but he has good potential

I think your schools bias is showing you up here a bit. Impartiality has to be key.

Connors is preferred by both provincial and national coaches and while I don't think that is necessarily reason to say Connors is better it is enough to say he has certainly surpassed Penny in the pecking order.

Do you think Penny will leave or fight it out?

[JB1973]

We've got 5 2nd rows Ospreys have a huge back 5. We are all going for the heavy horse. For what will be a heavy (and narrow) pitch

Weather is dry here at the moment but the clouds are gathering!

We have been absolute muck all season (bar last week) and your are flying so there can be only one result a home win


In all honesty I would expect us to compete for an hour and then for you guys to kick on and win by 15 to 20 points, our bench is useless

Yours maybe young but ours is dreadful parry and wheeler aside the others are either semi pro standard (cross Thomas and gajon or just well past their best Ashley and hook

The starting xv is not that bad given it's a test weekend, dan evans and scott Williams will be big misses in the backs and botha and fia at tight head are also missing

Cai evans is a v promising 10 but is not a 15 and it's not really fair on him to be playing there, our centres were excellent last and week. K Williams is very small (5ft 8 and under 13 stone) but is a real handful and if he gets ball will cause you problems

Smith beard and b davies all good proven players and otten at hooker is mobile and a good carrier (again like Williams lacks size though) gardiner the tight head is on loan from the scarlets and is their 5th choice so that says a lot, he can scrimmage but will be knackered by the 50 mins mark

The back row is ok but lacks pace or there is no natural 7 there , so if you do have one he will clean up at the breakdown

I'm looking forward to the game though, the gnoll maybe a bit of a dump but it's a proper rugby ground with a good atmosphere and the neath crowd will be more vocal than a liberty crowd

I'd take a losing bp now but most of all I want to see us continue to play like we did last week, look organised and show some fight after what has frankly been as bad a season as we could have possibly had

[JB1973]

Interestingly, on the train from Bristol to that game I got talking to a man from Neath who is rugby-mad but said he would never go to an Ospreys match as the "region" was formed by merging the professional parts of the Swansea and Neath rugby clubs, who were - up to that point - sworn rivals.

There is an apocyrphal tale/joke about the Neath father who would bring his children up into the hills so they could watch the Germans bomb Swansea

Phil Bennett tells a similar story about his dad doing to him as a child in Llanelli

Neath and Swansea would not traditionally have been enemies, our main rivals have always been Llanelli first and then Cardiff, Theirs have tended to be Aberavon and Llanelli

I can tell you why there is some ill feeling between the two and our mutual pal mr Ruddock is a big part of it

A potted version is that neath were always a strong club in welsh rugby but never really part of the big 4 (Cardiff Llanelli Newport and Swansea always the big 4)

In the late 80''s brian Thomas took over the running of neath and Waldron became coach, they then became the best and most brutal side in wales, winning everything and kicking and stamping all over the opposition in process

Waldron became wales coach and basically selected the neath team en masse , (even though Swansea had better individual players rob jones better than bridges at 9, Webster better than morris at 7) wales results were awful as neaths bully tactics didn't cut much mustard at the higher level

In the meantime Ruddock became head coach at Swansea , and set about recruiting players who would not get pushed ardoun (garin Jenkins miner, shaw steel worker and Reynolds (barownder/doorman) and to really upset neath he also signed their star player scott gibbs

Things really came to a head in a cup quarter final at the gnoll, Swansea turned up in our change kit of navy blue so neath being the home team had to change from their traditional all black kit to a jade green one , to add insult to injury we scored a last minute try to win the game

So after that the die was well and truly cast and the sides hated each other for a few years.

Natural order was reassumed a few years later when ponty became the new "bother boys" of welsh rugby and everyone decided to start hating them, while both still hating Llanelli.

Sorry if that is a bit rambling , enjoy the game

[OTT]

Enjoyed reading those posts JB. Good to see you back posting on here, your outside contribution was always insightful and interesting.

[backrower8]

Des Berry predicting a Ospreys win in the indo.

Do you know Des Berry?

[joooooe]

Interestingly, on the train from Bristol to that game I got talking to a man from Neath who is rugby-mad but said he would never go to an Ospreys match as the "region" was formed by merging the professional parts of the Swansea and Neath rugby clubs, who were - up to that point - sworn rivals.

There is an apocyrphal tale/joke about the Neath father who would bring his children up into the hills so they could watch the Germans bomb Swansea

Phil Bennett tells a similar story about his dad doing to him as a child in Llanelli

Neath and Swansea would not traditionally have been enemies, our main rivals have always been Llanelli first and then Cardiff, Theirs have tended to be Aberavon and Llanelli

I can tell you why there is some ill feeling between the two and our mutual pal mr Ruddock is a big part of it

A potted version is that neath were always a strong club in welsh rugby but never really part of the big 4 (Cardiff Llanelli Newport and Swansea always the big 4)

In the late 80''s brian Thomas took over the running of neath and Waldron became coach, they then became the best and most brutal side in wales, winning everything and kicking and stamping all over the opposition in process

Waldron became wales coach and basically selected the neath team en masse , (even though Swansea had better individual players rob jones better than bridges at 9, Webster better than morris at 7) wales results were awful as neaths bully tactics didn't cut much mustard at the higher level

In the meantime Ruddock became head coach at Swansea , and set about recruiting players who would not get pushed ardoun (garin Jenkins miner, shaw steel worker and Reynolds (barownder/doorman) and to really upset neath he also signed their star player scott gibbs

Things really came to a head in a cup quarter final at the gnoll, Swansea turned up in our change kit of navy blue so neath being the home team had to change from their traditional all black kit to a jade green one , to add insult to injury we scored a last minute try to win the game

So after that the die was well and truly cast and the sides hated each other for a few years.

Natural order was reassumed a few years later when ponty became the new "bother boys" of welsh rugby and everyone decided to start hating them, while both still hating Llanelli.

Sorry if that is a bit rambling , enjoy the game

Ha, brilliant. A potted history of Welsh club rugby in 200 words! I found myself reading it in a Welsh accent too.

[leinsterforever]

Team may have been selected with one eye on the mini-tour to SA in a month's time. The coaching staff will want to keep enough players in Ireland to prepare for the Saracens game - matchday 23+7, I'd imagine, two full teams.

LH: Healy Dooley
H: Cronin Kelleher
TH: Furlong, Porter
L: Toner, Fardy
L: Ryan, Molony
BS: Ruddock, Deegan
OS: van der Flier, Connors
No8: Doris, Conan
SH: McGrath, JGP
OH: Sexton, R. Byrne
LW: Lowe, C. Kelleher
IC: Henshaw, Tomane
OC: Ringrose, [Locko?]
RW: D.K., McFadden
FB: Larmour, R.K.

The guys in green are with Ireland, the guys in bold are in the Ospreys team – Dooley, Fardy, Molony, Ruddock, JGP, C. Kelleher. I'd say the latter crew will be swapped out of the starting team for the mini-tour with the guys on the bench: Milne, Baird, Dunne etc. Conor Maguine [the Irish clubs prop] will also come into the mix for that tour.

Rhys is really only there because we are down 3no. No8s – maybe he's there because he has some familiarity with the Gnoll, but I think it's because we're stuck.

This could be a real banana peel for us. I think it's going to be a bad pitch, ordinary facilities and a horrible night. Hopefully we get out alive!

Could be a pretty callow corps of forwards going over to SA if the bolded players stay to prepare for Sarries.

1. Michael Milne
2. James Tracy
3. Michael Bent
4. Jack Dunne
5. Ryan Baird
6. Oisín Dowling
7. Scott Penny
8. Josh Murphy
9. Rowan Osborne
10. Ciaran Frawley
11. Barry Daly
12. Conor O'Brien
13. Jimmy O'Brien
14. Adam Byrne
15. Hugo Keenan

16. Dan Sheehan
17. Ed Byrne/Conor Maguire
18. Jack Aungier
19. Charlie Ryan
20. Martin Moloney/Ronan Watters
21. Hugh O'Sullivan
22. Harry Byrne
23. Tommy O'Brien

Extra players:
Prop: Roman Salanoa
Hooker: John McKee
Lock/backrow: Brian Deeny
Scrumhalf: Paddy Patterson
Back: Gavin Mullin

[JB1973]

Enjoyed reading those posts JB. Good to see you back posting on here, your outside contribution was always insightful and interesting.

Good to be back, glad to see the forum still going strong

Any of these leinster youngsters I should be keeping an eye on? , the back line is young but you still have lowes jgp fardy and Ruddock out there to guide them

[Dave Cahill]

Phil Bennett tells a similar story about his dad doing to him as a child in Llanelli

Neath and Swansea would not traditionally have been enemies, our main rivals have always been Llanelli first and then Cardiff, Theirs have tended to be Aberavon and Llanelli

I can tell you why there is some ill feeling between the two and our mutual pal mr Ruddock is a big part of it

A potted version is that neath were always a strong club in welsh rugby but never really part of the big 4 (Cardiff Llanelli Newport and Swansea always the big 4)

In the late 80''s brian Thomas took over the running of neath and Waldron became coach, they then became the best and most brutal side in wales, winning everything and kicking and stamping all over the opposition in process

Waldron became wales coach and basically selected the neath team en masse , (even though Swansea had better individual players rob jones better than bridges at 9, Webster better than morris at 7) wales results were awful as neaths bully tactics didn't cut much mustard at the higher level

In the meantime Ruddock became head coach at Swansea , and set about recruiting players who would not get pushed ardoun (garin Jenkins miner, shaw steel worker and Reynolds (barownder/doorman) and to really upset neath he also signed their star player scott gibbs

Things really came to a head in a cup quarter final at the gnoll, Swansea turned up in our change kit of navy blue so neath being the home team had to change from their traditional all black kit to a jade green one , to add insult to injury we scored a last minute try to win the game

So after that the die was well and truly cast and the sides hated each other for a few years.

Natural order was reassumed a few years later when ponty became the new "bother boys" of welsh rugby and everyone decided to start hating them, while both still hating Llanelli.

Sorry if that is a bit rambling , enjoy the game

Theres a great piece on walesonline about Chris Jones - banned for life twice!

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rug ... da-9464272