LV=Cup 2012/13

[psychic duck]

Joe Rees out with a neck injury, probably requiring surgery. Rumours that Dirksen is out for the season. AWJ out until February, Adam out for another six weeks.

Bye bye any chance of reaching the Heineken Cup quarter finals ...

The Ospreys seriously need to sign another winger now if Dirksen is injured for that long. Eli Walker seems to be a different player since coming back into the side, but Isaacs and Grabham on the other wing for the rest of the season isn't much for other teams to worry about, especially not Toulouse and Leicester.

Tandy needs to get in touch with Kingsley Jones. Denis Simplikevich or Vladimir Ostroushko would be perfect additions ...

On another note, I know I have said this numerous times, but who the hell thought Isaacs would be a better winger than Prydie for this season?

 

[Draggs]

Bye bye any chance of reaching the Heineken Cup quarter finals ...

The Ospreys seriously need to sign another winger now if Dirksen is injured for that long. Eli Walker seems to be a different player since coming back into the side, but Isaacs and Grabham on the other wing for the rest of the season isn't much for other teams to worry about, especially not Toulouse and Leicester.

Tandy needs to get in touch with Kingsley Jones. Denis Simplikevich or Vladimir Ostroushko would be perfect additions ...

On another note, I know I have said this numerous times, but who the hell thought Isaacs would be a better winger than Prydie for this season?

I won't add anything, nothing more needs to be said there.

They really could do with another back three player. I happen to know of a former Ospreys back excelling in outer Gwentistan. Ross Jones to fullback, Fussell to wing. Luke Morgan needs some match time, quite a lively wing.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Sale are playing saracens or something later, I dunno.
Jordan Davies starting at 12, Cameron Shepard at 15, Amesbury finally starts two games in a row without injuring himself - was on great form last week from what I've heard.
Nothing else of interest I think - hopefully get the win to take some momentum into the premiership starting back up.

Sent from my HTC Incredible S using Tapatalk 2

 

[Draggs]

Odd accent on Pretorius. Turks v Blues K/O in a few minutes.

 

[Draggs]

This is a surprisingly decent match. Blues up 13-3 and down to 14. Nice try from Hamilton after Gareth Davies made a break and was supported by Gavin Evans.

 

[psychic duck]

The biggest celebration for a scrum penalty I've seen ...

Reminded me of NFL where they celebrate everything from a sack to a 20 yard charge.

 

[psychic duck]

Even for the LV Cup, this is still probably the weakest Ospreys side ever seen. Most of I've never heard of, and the ones I have heard of aren't great. Rhys Webb as captain? Also there is a hooker rejected by the Dragons playing as flanker. I know it's only LV Cup, but the Ospreys were actually still in the running in this competition, not anymore though, the Dragons should beat this side by about 50 points.

15 Jamie Murphy
14 Tom Grabham
13 Jonathan Spratt
12 Ben John
11 Dafydd Howells
10 Matthew Morgan
9 Rhys Webb (captain)
1 Marc Thomas
2 Matthew Dwyer
3 Daniel Suter
4 Sam Williams
5 Rhodri Hughes
6 Jonathan Thomas
7 Arthur Ellis
8 Morgan Allen

REPLACEMENTS
16 Dmitri Arhip
17 Nicky Smith
18 Campbell Johnstone
19 Dan Baker
20 Rob Dudley-Jones
21 Tom Habberfield
22 Sam Davies
23 Nathan Edwards

 

[Draggs]

Ospreys taking Dragons rejects, again.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Ospreys got some bright youngsters on display there. Good to see Arthur Ellis position change has seen him been rewarded.

 

[Teh Mite]

And once again Mallender decides to play Lamb with Roberts. For dinner I expect he has mint sauce with roast beef. #shitcombinations

Ranty me and I was right, he'd keep doing it... http://offsidetackle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/saints-are-up-****-creak-simple-as-that.html

 

[Draggs]

Ospreys got some bright youngsters on display there. Good to see Arthur Ellis position change has seen him been rewarded.

Evans, Jones, Dixon, Amos... The Draggs yoof team out en masse.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Sale vs Scarlets game is still on this afternoon despite a ton of snow oop north last night.
Though I expect kickoff will be delayed as a combination of snow and emergency gasline work has messed traffic up - apparently queues of up to an hour wait on the main road there.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Anybody watching this?

Ref's missing things left right and centre.

Sale have been good at the breakdown even without Seymour who went off injured. Sale are bloody lucky to have a player of Daniel Braid's Calibre, he's quality. Richie Vernon has gone well, Holmes has made lots of mistakes. Good carrying from Buckley.

When Sale stopped making mistakes they came straight back into the game. But Sale's backs are not looking good enough in defence... Amesbury, Miller, Cipriani, Shepherd, too many missed tackles. Agree with the commentator, Cipriani is not attacking the gain-line enough, he's fading too much with his passes. Some excellent lines from Tuitupou though.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Amesbury's been great.

Shepard's been dire! Would bring on Ingall to the wing and put Miller back at 15 where he belongs. His "tackle" for the 2nd scarlets try would've been made by any 15 from age grade rugby upwards!
Braid has been class - especially after losing Seymour so early on.
Don't think Holmes has done too badly, he just tends to carry the ball in one hand which means he knocks on/gets ripped more often than others - needs to sort that out.
Myall has been outstanding at the lineout as well.

Biggest surprise for me is that we've only conceded two penalties! Normally we've conceded more than that in the first 5mins!



Edit: BP win will do. Considering how poor we were the first 20mins I was expecting the worst!
Need to use this to build momentum going back into the prem.

 

[Draggs]

Rhys Webb must be the worst international scrum half I have ever seen.
He makes Charl McLeod look like Joost.

Not a great match skills-wise, but both sides fought hard and I am pleased we were able to take a win at the end for once.

 

[psychic duck]

The WRU needs to hurry up and make Dragons the Welsh Connacht as a development region. This match was embarrassing for them, they had 2/3 a first choice lineup, whilst the Ospreys had 2/3 a third choice lineup and they could only win at home by 4 points.

Also this match proves how stupid those who think there should be a return to 9 team club rugby are. Some of these reserve players who are clearly crap, would be first choice starters for one of those 9 teams. And then those people think that is the answer to help teams compete in Europe and keep players in Wales. Non competitiveness in Europe and players leaving would just accelerate if they went back to clubs.

Also when does Webb's contract run out? I've been saying this a while, but he is a truly dire and proved it again tonight, he mucked up a try dropping an offload in the first minutes and then what an earth was that "tackle"? Only ever got capped after making a couple of breaks behind an Ospreys pack which was particularly immense last season. I'd take Jonathan Evans over him.

Matthew Pewtner lost me my Dragons -5 handicap bet with that stupid piece of play gifting the Ospreys a 5 metre scrum which they scored from as well.

On the positive note, Ieuan Jones looks a prospect considering the death of Welsh 8's. Better than Morgan Allen (who made no impact whatsoever) or Tom Brown. Hopefully the WRU move Faletau to the Ospreys and then Jones can be Dragons first choice at development region.

 

[Draggs]

We are developing the only 8 (Jones), scrumhalf (Evans), and fullbacks (Prydie, Amos) right now. Dixon at centre as well, a much better prospect than Warren, Owen, etc at the Turks.
Yeah we look scrappy, but we are holding on much better than we have done over the last two seasons. Amlin could have been a different story with a few goals here and there. Certainly more positivity coming from us than the Turks, for example.
Also, we seem to be on target to breaking even this season, what other Welsh club can say that?

 

[dullonien]

Plenty of players struggled tonight. Matthew Morgan was pretty dire as well. He doesn't seem to do much well atm. He really doesn't give an easy ride to his centres, because Morgan rarely ties in the defence before shipping the ball on. I'd hate to think how the O's centred would have fared tonight against a hard hitting south sea islander centre opposite them, they would have been hammered! Some of Morgan's passing is very sloppy as well, not to mention the missed touch finders from penalties. He was lucky that Pewtner messed that up on his try-line, as that was from an O's penalty that should have found touch. I don't remember the last time I saw Morgan make a searing break either!

His defence is much improved though, whilst his goal kicking is actually pretty good. Bring back the spark though, he seems afraid to attack the line. I know tonight weren't exactly the conditions for running rugby, but it's been a long time since we've seen Morgan carve it up. Really not developing as most hoped, or at least he's improved the areas that needed improving, but at the same time has lost what made him special to begin with.

 

[irelandfan123]

Heard peter stringer was superb tonight, shame he didn't get much time for munster coulda got two caps to give him the big 1 double 0

 

[psychic duck]

Plenty of players struggled tonight. Matthew Morgan was pretty dire as well. He doesn't seem to do much well atm. He really doesn't give an easy ride to his centres, because Morgan rarely ties in the defence before shipping the ball on. I'd hate to think how the O's centred would have fared tonight against a hard hitting south sea islander centre opposite them, they would have been hammered! Some of Morgan's passing is very sloppy as well, not to mention the missed touch finders from penalties. He was lucky that Pewtner messed that up on his try-line, as that was from an O's penalty that should have found touch. I don't remember the last time I saw Morgan make a searing break either!

His defence is much improved though, whilst his goal kicking is actually pretty good. Bring back the spark though, he seems afraid to attack the line. I know tonight weren't exactly the conditions for running rugby, but it's been a long time since we've seen Morgan carve it up. Really not developing as most hoped, or at least he's improved the areas that needed improving, but at the same time has lost what made him special to begin with.

I like Matthew Morgan, but he does seem to be going through a sticky patch right now, and also from his Ospreys performances perhaps seems to be a player who only really thrives on warmer conditions, he does seem to have lost a bit of spark. Saying that though, didn't he guide Wales to victory against New Zealand U20 in an atrocious mudpath pitch?

Some Ospreys fans want Sam Davies promoted ahead of him, but personally I still think Morgan should get some more time. Keeps getting paired with Webb all the time which doesn't help, he looked more comfortable alongside Fotuali'i in the Cardiff Blues match late last year.

Heard peter stringer was superb tonight, shame he didn't get much time for munster coulda got two caps to give him the big 1 double 0

Don't know why Penney has not given him a chance whilst Duncan Williams (who has never too impressive tbh) keeps getting them. I presume it's age, but then O'Gara gets kept in the side when he's past it at Munster and is nearing the international record for most caps, Stringer never got anything near the loyalty shown to ROG and was dropped for O'Leary a few years back and soon became third choice and was cut short by 2 caps of reaching 100 for Ireland.

Rhys Webb must be the worst international scrum half I have ever seen.
He makes Charl McLeod look like Joost.

Not a great match skills-wise, but both sides fought hard and I am pleased we were able to take a win at the end for once.

Contract is running out end of season ... Dragons or anybody else interested in a fully capped scrum half?