R
RC
Guest
So a last minute conversion from - i have to admit - a good try, saved us from an absolutley humiliating defeat.
Instead we walked away, heads held high with our humiliating victory.
How can a team so full of 1st class internationals fail to perform even the most basic of skills on the rugby field?
Time and time again Ospreys have done this, however, call me naive but i thought this season was going to be different. I thought maybe my club had actually stepped into the professional era. 13 Ospreys are starting internationals, they've taken a grand slam (allbeit against poor times but still...) and performed consistently at home to give them the confidence.
I'm starting to think the confidence encouraged a sense of complacency and when they found that they hadn't scored 2 tries within the space of 10 minutes against Harlequins on Sunday (like they did in the previous game against a poor Ulster) then they instantly became eratic school boys. They started playing akin to the way Wales played prior to 2008's grand slam.
Very poor basics, the ball was going laterally all over the place and instead of understanding that they couldn't score from their own 22 and maybe playing a territory game would be a sensible thing to do, they instead decided to continue running into brick walls, not passing the gain line and kicking the ball straight down the throat of Harlequins 5th team.
This just reinforced my worries that Hook doesn't know how to command the field. When he has a commanding scrum half next to him (justin marshall, mike phillips...hell, even dwayne peel!) he is confident in his game because if things go wrong he doesn't have to be the one to make the hard decision and slow everything down. He always wants to make that try scoring pass/break. Granted he pulled off 2 great inside passes which resulted in 2 great tries, but he also failed to do what was needed from him and take control of the game. Because of this Harlequins put on lots of pressure (scored a few tries) and panicked a very amateurish-looking ospreys side into being ill-disciplined. In result we conceded lots of penalties, points, a yellow card and our image of professionalism.
I have to ask, and i hate to state the obvious, but does anyone else feel we're missing a quality coach who can do the horrible task whipping these boys into the tournament-winning team that they have the potential to be?
Sit down if you're a tired Ospreys fan, we already see you leaving the Liberty Stadium...i mean, it can't stay this bad can it? Even if the rugby is awful we have at least got a half decent orchestra seated in the Stadium of Deathly Silence.
Allegedly, Mike Cuddy was on tv saying he was worried/not happy about low attendance numbers. Can you blame them? I'm not sure how many of us were there on sunday (7,000 approx?) but i can bet each and every one of us wished we'd watched that game on tv in the comfort of our own homes once the match had ended.
/RANT.
Instead we walked away, heads held high with our humiliating victory.
How can a team so full of 1st class internationals fail to perform even the most basic of skills on the rugby field?
Time and time again Ospreys have done this, however, call me naive but i thought this season was going to be different. I thought maybe my club had actually stepped into the professional era. 13 Ospreys are starting internationals, they've taken a grand slam (allbeit against poor times but still...) and performed consistently at home to give them the confidence.
I'm starting to think the confidence encouraged a sense of complacency and when they found that they hadn't scored 2 tries within the space of 10 minutes against Harlequins on Sunday (like they did in the previous game against a poor Ulster) then they instantly became eratic school boys. They started playing akin to the way Wales played prior to 2008's grand slam.
Very poor basics, the ball was going laterally all over the place and instead of understanding that they couldn't score from their own 22 and maybe playing a territory game would be a sensible thing to do, they instead decided to continue running into brick walls, not passing the gain line and kicking the ball straight down the throat of Harlequins 5th team.
This just reinforced my worries that Hook doesn't know how to command the field. When he has a commanding scrum half next to him (justin marshall, mike phillips...hell, even dwayne peel!) he is confident in his game because if things go wrong he doesn't have to be the one to make the hard decision and slow everything down. He always wants to make that try scoring pass/break. Granted he pulled off 2 great inside passes which resulted in 2 great tries, but he also failed to do what was needed from him and take control of the game. Because of this Harlequins put on lots of pressure (scored a few tries) and panicked a very amateurish-looking ospreys side into being ill-disciplined. In result we conceded lots of penalties, points, a yellow card and our image of professionalism.
I have to ask, and i hate to state the obvious, but does anyone else feel we're missing a quality coach who can do the horrible task whipping these boys into the tournament-winning team that they have the potential to be?
Sit down if you're a tired Ospreys fan, we already see you leaving the Liberty Stadium...i mean, it can't stay this bad can it? Even if the rugby is awful we have at least got a half decent orchestra seated in the Stadium of Deathly Silence.
Allegedly, Mike Cuddy was on tv saying he was worried/not happy about low attendance numbers. Can you blame them? I'm not sure how many of us were there on sunday (7,000 approx?) but i can bet each and every one of us wished we'd watched that game on tv in the comfort of our own homes once the match had ended.
/RANT.
