Sexy boys get job done ugly

Jan 13 2008 by Simon Roberts, Wales On Sunday

THE OSPREYS may represent everything that is new and sexy about regional rugby, but they proved they aren’t above getting down and dirty and winning ugly if they have to.

The great Welsh hope for the Heineken Cup proved they can do it the old-fashioned way, in old-fashioned rugby conditions, against the best English rugby can offer.

And they kept their Heineken Cup hopes alive with this emphatic win over Gloucester.

Now they need to do exactly what they did to the leading side in England, to Bourgoin in France next weekend, and they will reach their first Heineken Cup quarter-final.

On this performance they are more than capable of doing that.

While we all fret about the ‘Galacticos’ of Shane Williams, James Hook, Gavin Henson and Justin Marshall, this victory was built on some really old-fashioned principles – a good pack of forwards.

The Ospreys eight proved they have the dark heart needed for success in this tournament, and they did it against one of the best packs in European rugby.

This victory was all about the Ospreys front five, especially the front row and Adam Jones, in particular, rediscovering his appetite for the scrummaging battle.

The home side didn’t just take the Gloucester pack on, they ripped the heart out of it with a display of controlled brutality and fury. When was the last time you saw a Welsh side do that?

Warren Gatland, the Wales coach, would have been so heartened by this display by a pack of Welsh forwards and Lyn Jones, the Ospreys coach, has kept his job until next week, at least.

But the Ospreys played the conditions superbly and dumped any notion of fantasy rugby, showing a hard edge we haven’t seen from them before this season.

Now Wales has two regions – the Ospreys and the Blues – still in with a shout of a Heineken Cup quarter-final place as we head into the last round of the Pool games.

That hasn’t happened before.

This was what Heineken Cup rugby is all about.

Two genuine heavyweights of European rugby packed with international players, locking horns in front of a 18,000 crowd at the Liberty Stadium.

The torrential rain probably wouldn’t have had an impact on a game which was always going to be a tight affair.

It certainly wasn’t going to be pretty and the opening exchanges proved that it was going to be all about winning the arm-wrestle.

Gloucester were missing wing Lesley ‘The Volcano’ Vainokolo, the Tongan who had played for New Zealand rugby league and was named in England’s Six Nations squad earlier this week, but the Ospreys did welcome their own big name back to action.

Gavin Henson was back for the Ospreys after his bout of trainspotting and, after being told he wouldn’t be needed in court, must have welcomed the sanctuary of a rugby pitch and a chance to remind everybody what he can do.

Henson, of course, did exactly that.

He launched a speculative up-and-under and Mike Tindall, Gloucester’s World Cup winner, inexplicably, let the wet ball bounce and Henson regathered and was hauled down just short of the line.

The Ospreys, with the Gloucester defence in sixes and sevens, managed to get a quick ball and wing Shane Williams aquaplaned in for the game’s first try and the home side were 10-0 ahead after 10 minutes. It was the perfect start.

James Hook and Ryan Lamb swapped penalties before the Cherry Whites set up camp in the shadow of the Ospreys posts.

Only a desperate scramble defence from the home side kept the West country giants at bay.

Then Justin Marshall, who had one of those rare games when he proved why the Ospreys signed him, launched a thrilling counter-attack only for Peter Buxton to be yellow carded after he cynically killed the move.

Hook slotted over his fourth penalty and added the three points, but the visitors were now down to 14 men and 19-3 adrift at the break and the Ospreys were very much in the driving seat.

Hook kept banging over the penalties and replacement scrum-half Rory Lawson crossed for a try for Gloucester, but it was only a blip.

The visitors, who ended up having three players sin-binned, had imploded by then.