The Ospreys have made their team to take on Italian new boys (and conquerors of the Scarlets) Benetton Treviso known. It is starting to take on a bit more shape than that which took on Ulster – with Lee Byrne and Shane amongst those brought into the side.
Of particular interest will be Gareth Owen at 12. Whilst he is a talent going forward a number of people (myself amongst them) expressed concerns about his positional play at 15 and his defensive ability. I missed last weeks game so have no comment on if he improved there or not – but it will be interesting to see if he has the ability to do a Henson/Hook as a play making 12 – especially as both could be off at the end of the season.
Other than that I am interested to see how JT does at 8, if Lee Byrne can get some form early in the season, how Shane does after a summer off and how Nutbrown can do – surely not worse than he has done in an Ospreys shirt.
Ospreys Team vs Benetton Treviso
Ospreys: Lee Byrne; Nikki Walker, Andrew Bishop, Gareth Owen, Shane Williams; Dan Biggar, Jamie Nutbrown; Ryan Bevington, Mefin Davies, Cai Griffiths, Ian Gough, Ian Evans, Jerry Collins (capt), Marty Holah, Jonathan Thomas.
Replacements: Huw Bennett, Duncan Jones, Paul James, James Goode, Ben Lewis, Rhys Webb, Tommy Bowe, Richard Fussell.
The following players were not considered because of injury:
Ryan Jones – Bone bruise
Richard Hibbard – Ribs
Morgan Allen – Back
Tom Smith – Shoulder
Rory Pitman – Knee
Tom Isaacs – Knee
Richard Kelly – Knee
James Hook – Shoulder
Barry Davies – Groin
Scott Baldwin – Foot
Jonathan Spratt – ACL
Craig Mitchell – Back
Director of Coaching, Scott Johnson, commented:
“It’s a little bit of history on Friday night, the first time that an Italian team comes to the Liberty Stadium for a Magners League game. It’s not a completely new experience for us, we’ve played Italian sides including Treviso in Europe before, but I think it’s going to be a different kind of challenge now.
“The Italian sides have recruited well over the summer, there’s been some good Italian players returning home and that’s been backed by some intelligent foreign signings. I think it’s excellent news for the Magners League and is a real step forward. Bringing the Italian sides into the competition has added another dimension to the competition, a different flavour, and it’s exciting.“The result against the Scarlets sent out a clear message, but one thing’s for certain, we were well aware of the threat before that game, and we will be approaching the game in exactly the same way we would any other, don’t worry about that one.
“I wasn’t surprised by the result, it was good for the tournament and good for Treviso. It’s also a great credit to the Magners that we’ve got a new team in and they’ve done well first up.
“I think Italian rugby’s really on the up. I’ve watched improvement over the last few years, subtly, and the results probably haven’t gone their way. But there’s genuine talent across the board, they’ve got more players to pick from and we expect a very physical encounter.
“As for ourselves, we were disappointed with the end result last week, it was a game we should have won and could have won. We let ourselves down in some ways, I don’t need to tell you where, we could have played better and we are a little disappointed.
“That result means we’re a little behind where we wanted be, but I’ll say what I’ve said before, the Melbourne Cup isn’t won at the Watchtower and we’re not there yet.
“We’ve been able to make some alterations to the 23 but we are where we are with the squad, there’s not a lot of difference from last week. We’ve got a duty of care to our players, our internationals, we want them right at certain times of the year.
They need their preparations, this is their time, and we’ve got to acknowledge where we are as a group.
“It’s a really important time for us, for some of our kids. We’ve got an eye on next year, when we need some mileage on the clock for some of the players that will be used. I don’t need a brand new car next season I need some good mileage going into next year, so it’s important that the clock starts ticking.”
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