Ospreys bring slapdash Lions down to earth
● The Ospreys brought the Lions back to terra firma with a bang when they condemned them to a 36-21 United Rugby Championship (URC) defeat in Swansea last night.
The clash, which matched two of the most capricious teams in the competition, was also one in which fortunes fluctuated, but it was the home team that proved more ruthless when it mattered.
The Lions, who won away at Connacht last week, were error-ridden, and the defeat drops them from eighth down to 11th. Last week’s win got them into a play-off position but the defeat in Wales will come as a significant blow to their aspirations of playing in the URC’s knockout rounds for the first time.
While they were incisive and self-assured in the second-half last week, the Lions were the exact opposite against the Ospreys.
Handling errors served to blight their effort, with support runners at times over-shooting. By the 27th minute they had made six handling errors.
Proficient in possession at the ruck, the Ospreys displayed greater continuity, while the visitors were prone to spillage in contact. Moreover, their defence was passive and they were frantic and frazzled in attack.
The Ospreys were also more eagle-eyed to opportunity and shot into a 12-0 lead by the 18th minute.
The Lions were handed a shift in momentum when the Ospreys lost a man to the sin bin with half-time looming. Lions hooker PJ Botha scored from the back of a driving maul in the 37th minute to get them back into the game.
The hosts, however, added a penalty to lead 15-7 at the break. A yellow card to replacement prop Morgan Naude after the restart, and an Ospreys try soon after, proved a severe body blow to the visitors.
They added another try to shoot out to a 29-7 lead in the 57th minute but the Lions — on the back of a raft of changes that saw captain Marius Louw leave the field and Jordan Hendrikse moving to inside-centre, allowing Morne van den Berg and Sanele Nohamba to combine at half-back — found more cohesion and attacking shape.
Flank Emmanuel Tshituka got through an enormous workload for the Lions before he was substituted with less than 10 minutes to go.
A try by fullback Quan Horn threw them a lifeline in the 66th minute and when right wing Richard Kriel’s try in the corner was converted by Hendrikse the Lions still had an outside chance of bagging a win.
However, in throwing caution to the wind, the Lions fluffed their lines and the Ospreys stretched their lead at the death.
The Lions now travel to Italy where they will meet Benetton Treviso in the round of 16 in the Challenge Cup next weekend. They are likely to field a much changed team as they rotate their squad, and they will be desperate not to deliver a similar performance to the one they dished up in Swansea.
Meanwhile, on Friday night, the Bulls too failed to make inroads on the points table in their clash against log leaders Leinster in Dublin. In fact, the Bulls looked well off the pace as the hosts, laden with Ireland internationals, scored 35 unanswered points in the second-half to romp home 47-14.
The defeat now leaves the Bulls nine points adrift from the Irish blue blood team as the URC goes into a mini break to make way for Champions Cup and Challenge Cup clashes next weekend.
Bulls director of rugby Jake White will have much to ponder ahead of their Champions Cup round of 16 clash against Lyon at Loftus Versfeld next weekend.