Ospreys Away, 21st of Feb

[mildlyinterested]

Assuming Deegan and Doris are unavailable due to Irish commitments it will be interesting to see who plays 8..

[cormac]

Ruddock is probably the choice although it's a few seasons since he played there.

[cormac]

This game is being played at The Gnoll in Neath rather than Liberty Stadium in Swansea. Given recent weather in Wales and the forecast for the week this could be an old-school game of winter rugby on a heavy pitch.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

This game is being played at The Gnoll in Neath rather than Liberty Stadium in Swansea. Given recent weather in Wales and the forecast for the week this could be an old-school game of winter rugby on a heavy pitch.

Could be a good chance for our props to improve on the Cheetahs game so.

The Ospreys were much improved against Ulster, Mike Ruddock must be having an impact. It wasn't a high quality game but they were well organised and had more grit about them.

[mildlyinterested]

Ruddock make sense.. I thought Josh Murphy at 8 maybe?

Played there recently for Leinster A.

[paddyor]

What's the word on Conan?

[LeRouxIsPHat]

What's the word on Conan?

Lancaster said he'd probably be back for our trip to SA.

[mildlyinterested]

Conan pictured back in training today.

[johng]

Conan pictured back in training today.

Might take him a while to get up to speed as a foot injury makes it hard to do aerobic exercise. (Although they probably have some mad scientist way round that nowadays)

[FLIP]

Conan pictured back in training today.

Might take him a while to get up to speed as a foot injury makes it hard to do aerobic exercise. (Although they probably have some mad scientist way round that nowadays)

Moonboot, crossed with non impact work for the legs (pool work etc)

[LeRouxIsPHat]

The 42 mentioned last week that it was his ankle that was injured. I'm guessing that was just an error but I did wonder if there was more to the injury than we heard at the time, hence there being a longer recovery period than they said initially.

[wixfjord]

Assuming we get a few back who aren't in Irish plans, I'd go for something like:

Dooley, Tracy, Bent, Fardy, Molony, Murphy, Connors, Ruddock, JGP, Frawley, Lowe, Tomane, JOB, DK, RK
Milne, Cronin, Aungier/Salanoa, Baird, Penny, McGrath, HB, Ferg

[outcast eddie]

This game is being played at The Gnoll in Neath rather than Liberty Stadium in Swansea. Given recent weather in Wales and the forecast for the week this could be an old-school game of winter rugby on a heavy pitch.

I'd be interested to know the reason for this location, Ruddock directive, cost of turning on the lights in the Liberty, bringing the Ospreys to the masses?

I've never been there but I suspect it will rival Rodney Parade as a bleak outpost in the Pro 14 fixture list; combine that with a weak scrum, abusive, lubed up valley commandos on a wet Friday night and our standing in the league, this may well be our first loss of the season.

[D4surfer]

This game is being played at The Gnoll in Neath rather than Liberty Stadium in Swansea. Given recent weather in Wales and the forecast for the week this could be an old-school game of winter rugby on a heavy pitch.

I'd be interested to know the reason for this location, Ruddock directive, cost of turning on the lights in the Liberty, bringing the Ospreys to the masses?

I've never been there but I suspect it will rival Rodney Parade as a bleak outpost in the Pro 14 fixture list; combine that with a weak scrum, abusive, lubed up valley commandos on a wet Friday night and our standing in the league, this may well be our first loss of the season.

No conspiracy, it's just that Swansea City are at the Liberty the following day with not enough time to prepare the pitch.

It looks delightful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gnoll

[cormac]

We've played there once before. On the 29th November 2003 the following team recorded a 36-25 win away against the Ospreys.

Dempsey; McWeeney, O'Driscoll, Quinlan, D'Arcy; Contepomi, O'Meara; Corrigan, Byrne, Coyle; O'Kelly, Gissing; Dillon, Gleeson, Costello.

Bench: Hickie, Molloy, Kearney, Breslin, O'Riordan, Warner, Brown

Tries: O'Driscoll x2, D'Arcy x2, McWeeney, Warner
Convs: O'Meara x3

[mildlyinterested]

Assuming we get a few back who aren't in Irish plans, I'd go for something like:

Dooley, Tracy, Bent, Fardy, Molony, Murphy, Connors, Ruddock, JGP, Frawley, Lowe, Tomane, JOB, DK, RK
Milne, Cronin, Aungier/Salanoa, Baird, Penny, McGrath, HB, Ferg

There will be more rotation than that.

[joooooe]

This game is being played at The Gnoll in Neath rather than Liberty Stadium in Swansea. Given recent weather in Wales and the forecast for the week this could be an old-school game of winter rugby on a heavy pitch.

I'd be interested to know the reason for this location, Ruddock directive, cost of turning on the lights in the Liberty, bringing the Ospreys to the masses?

I've never been there but I suspect it will rival Rodney Parade as a bleak outpost in the Pro 14 fixture list; combine that with a weak scrum, abusive, lubed up valley commandos on a wet Friday night and our standing in the league, this may well be our first loss of the season.

I've been to the Liberty Stadium (for this fixture in 2007) and it is already a "bleak outpost" of Swansea, which is hardly a sprawling metropolis...the idea that there is a bleaker, further outpost is at the same time amusing and depressing.

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. The Welsh made such a mess of creating their regions; a quick look at a map shows that about 90% of the country (land, not population) doesn't fall into one of the "regions".

[hugonaut]

Assuming we get a few back who aren't in Irish plans, I'd go for something like:

Dooley, Tracy, Bent, Fardy, Molony, Murphy, Connors, Ruddock, JGP, Frawley, Lowe, Tomane, JOB, DK, RK
Milne, Cronin, Aungier/Salanoa, Baird, Penny, McGrath, HB, Ferg

There will be more rotation than that.

This is going to be a tough game. Nobody wants to, or has ever wanted to, play at the Gnoll.

[Dave Cahill]

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

[mildlyinterested]

Assuming we get a few back who aren't in Irish plans, I'd go for something like:

Dooley, Tracy, Bent, Fardy, Molony, Murphy, Connors, Ruddock, JGP, Frawley, Lowe, Tomane, JOB, DK, RK
Milne, Cronin, Aungier/Salanoa, Baird, Penny, McGrath, HB, Ferg

There will be more rotation than that.

This is going to be a tough game. Nobody wants to, or has ever wanted to, play at the Gnoll.

I don't doubt it but still think there'll be more rotation than that.