Brilliant Ospreys lift under-fire Lyn

Apr 14 2008 Western Mail

Leicester 6 - 23 Ospreys

SO much for Twickenham being a graveyard for Welsh rugby. After 20 years of hurt, we’ve now seen two Welsh wins at HQ in the space of three months, with the Ospreys mirroring the Six Nations success of Warren Gatland’s men.

For 12 players, it’s the completion of a unique double, with them having shared in both wins, while their regional mates have joined them in tasting victory at the home of English rugby.

But the man for whom Saturday’s triumph was most significant was not a player but a coach, in the shape of under-fire Ospreys’ boss Lyn Jones.

Had his team lost, then Welsh rugby’s traditional graveyard could well have seen another burial, with the death-knell being sounded for his five-year reign.

Jones had been under huge pressure going into the game following his star-studded outfit’s shock Heineken Cup exit at the hands of Saracens.

By his own admission, he didn’t sleep for four nights after that quarter-final defeat at Vicarage Road, which had seen the region’s European dream turn into a nightmare.

The consensus of opinion was that if the Heineken horror show was followed by an EDF Cup final loss to Leicester, then Jones’ position could well become untenable, with a trophyless season unacceptable for such a stellar squad.

So it was D-Day for the former Wales flanker at Twickers – the most important game of his coaching career – and, to his credit, he emerged triumphant.

Of course, there’s no absolute guarantee that it will save his job, with newly installed elite performance director Andrew Hore carrying out a review into the whole structure of the region.

But it will have gone a long way to ensuring that he will still be at the helm come the start of next season. The oft-maligned Anglo-Welsh tournament clearly wasn’t the No 1 target for the Ospreys this season, with Heineken glory being their Holy Grail.

But lifting the EDF trophy is not an achievement to be belittled.

It’s the first time a Welsh team has won it and the first time any Welsh side has won a major cross-border cup competition.

Moreover, it was achieved by beating English giants Leicester and beating them comprehensively at that.

Tigers skipper Martin Corry was honest enough to admit that his team had been outplayed in every facet of the game, while the margin of victory could easily have been far greater.

So Jones was understandably pumped up when he addressed the press after the match, with the pressures of the past week coming out as he spoke with real passion and emotion.

He clearly has major issues with the way the Liberty Stadium outfit are perceived in terms of the international-packed squad they have put together over the past year or so.

Making a barbed reference to the jealousy he believes exists in certain quarters, he went on to launch a strident defence of what the region are attempting to do and their ambition to be the best in Europe.

They clearly still have some way to go on that front, as demonstrated by their brittle, error-laden defeat at Watford, but the way they disposed of two-times Heineken winners Leicester shows the potential is certainly there.

It was a hugely professional, virtually mistake-free performance, with the forwards dominating the much-vaunted Tigers pack, enabling James Hook to pull the strings behind, while the defence was impregnable on the occasions it was tested.

In fairness to Jones, he got it right on the selection front, with all his changes paying off.

The slimmed-down yet still mightily powerful Richard Hibbard – who came in for Grand Slammer Huw Bennett – had an immense ball-carrying game, while he also hit his targets efficiently at the lineout.

He has to be in with a big shout of going on Wales’ summer tour of South Africa, with some of the English press even talking about him as a Lions hooker after the game, so impressed were they.

His front-row colleague Paul James – in for Duncan Jones – stood up manfully to the monstrous Martin Castrogiovanni at the scrum, while Filo Tiatia’s addition to the back row was literally a big hit, with the teak-hard Kiwi showing no ill effects from having travelled up on the morning of the match after attending the birth of his twin daughters the night before.

Along with the rampaging Hibbard, inspirational skipper Ryan Jones and fellow All Black Marty Holah – who also dominated the breakdown – Tiatia gave the Ospreys the crucial go-forward they needed to put Hook on the front foot, where he is so dangerous with his silky running. Then alongside Hook in midfield was Andrew Bishop, who replaced the crocked Gavin Henson in another change from last week and gave a sound-as-a-pound performance.

Bishop may not have Henson’s passing skills, but he is one of the best tackling centres in Welsh rugby, while he also takes the ball up with real purpose and strength.

He proved as much with his 22nd-minute try when he took an inside pass from Hook and smashed his way between Andy Goode and George Chuter, before carrying Aaron Mauger with him over the line.

There was also a sterling effort from Alun Wyn Jones, who produced another non-stop performance, which he capped with the touchdown seven minutes after the break that saw the Ospreys extend their 7-6 interval lead.

Lee Byrne, back to his Six Nations form, made the vital incision, handing off Chuter on a surging run and, when the ball was recycled, Hook delayed his pass for that crucial split second to put Jones over.

After Hook’s boot had increased the cushion further, the Ospreys then fell back on their defiant defence, holding a five-minute assault from the Tigers at bay, with both Byrne and Tiatia pulling off try-saving tackles.

With Bread of Heaven and Hymns and Arias echoing round the ground, Hook made the game safe with a fifth successful kick and there could easily have been a couple more tries at the end.

It was a consummate display from the Welsh region, which makes the wretched one against Saracens in Europe the week before all the more frustrating.

It was all there for the Ospreys, with a Millennium Stadium semi-final and final beckoning, but on that fateful Sunday at the Vicarage the players just didn’t perform and the opportunity went begging.

It will take some time to get that disappointment fully out of the system, but the players went some way to making amends on Saturday, as they came up trumps for their coach when he really needed it at Welsh rugby’s new favourite stamping ground.

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