Makeshift Ospreys find winning end game

OSPREYS completed a smash-and-grab raid in the final minute to keep alive their chances of reaching the Champions Cup next season.

It was a victory secured with a 79th minute try from replacement hooker Ifan Phillips that Sam Davies converted to secure the one point win. For the Cheetahs there was the small consolation of two bonus points that keep them in the play-off hunt.

Ospreys interim head coach Allen Clarke said: “The resilience of these players is brilliant.

“We were missing around 30 players, but we didn’t want that as an excuse. The players wanted to give something back to the fans. I was so proud in the second half after we hadn’t been in the races in the collisions to begin with.”

Hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld gave Cheetahs the early lead with a try and it became 12-0 after 15 minutes when giant lock Reniel Hugo hit a huge hole in the home defensive line to romp over.

The only points the Ospreys could muster in the first-half came from a Davies penalty on the stroke of half-time. The gap was reduced on 43 minutes when Ashley Beck ran in a try that Davies improved.

That made it a twopoint game, but the Cheetahs were in no mood to lose their lead. They broke brilliantly from their own 22 and worked centre Nico Lee clear to race over from 60 metres for a score that Niel Marais converted.

Sam Cross crashed over for a second home try that Davies converted to cut the gap to two points with 26 minutes to go. The game was back in the melting pot, although it was the Cheetahs who scored next.

This time it was a gift as Jeff Hassler ballooned a midfield pass that was picked off by speedy wing Craig Barry, who raced to the posts for Marais to convert. That left the home side with a mountain to climb again, but they did not give in.

Davies kicked a 25 metre penalty and that left his side with 10 minutes to claim a match winning try. It took them almost all of that time to engineer Phillips’ try, goalled by Davies.

For the Cheetahs it was a sorry end to a solid night’s work – and a third successive away defeat.