‘DEVASTATED’
Coach Booth says Challenge Cup defeat is tough to take for Ospreys
TOBY Booth admitted the Ospreys were ‘devastated’ after their 28-24 European Challenge Cup loss to Newcastle Falcons in Swansea yesterday. The Welsh side had made the perfect start, steaming into a 14-0 lead, only to be knocked off course by yellow cards for Justin Tipuric and Adam Beard.
While competing against depleted numbers, Newcastle piled up 21 unanswered points.
A score from Tom Botha nine minutes from time gave the Ospreys a sniff of victory, but their English opponents were able to hold out without alarms.
It was a tough defeat for the Welsh region to take as they had designs on doing something special in the second-tier European competition.
And head coach Booth made no attempt to disguise how disappointed the region’s players and coaches were.
“We need to dust ourselves down from this,” he said.
“This was quite emotional for us and the changing room is absolutely devastated because this was an important competition.
“We started the game really well, but we relinquished control and pressure pretty convincingly. Discipline was the basis of that and we allowed Newcastle back into the game and Premiership sides will not go away.
“We are not the team we want to be and that has just proved it. We have a lot of work to do.”
Newcastle had control at half-back, with their scrum-half Michael Young bossing the match, while George
McGuigan, Callum Chick and Mark Wilson caught the eye up front.
Tipuric was carded for a no-arms tackle, while Beard – a shade harshly, some might have said – saw yellow after supposedly dropping a maul when he had no obvious means of stopping himself from hitting the deck.
But the Ospreys also paid the price for not scoring more points early on, with a couple of key line-outs going astray and kicks out of hand either falling too short or too long.
Skipper Tipuric added: Tipuric: “We kind of lost it ourselves with poor discipline and our own errors. We stopped doing the basics well. It’s a bitter pill to swallow.”
Falcons’ director of rugby Dean Richards said: “We gave the Ospreys a bit too much respect in that opening 20 minutes and Justin Tipuric had an absolute field day in that time.
“They had six Welsh internationals coming back and we are not blessed with that sort of experience.
“Either side of half-time we were totally dominant and scored three tries and they had two yellow cards. I was pleased we understood how to play when they were down to 13 men and exploited it.
“We want to go as far as we can and we always value this competition.”