Williams touches down as Ospreys see off Cardiff
OSPREYS head coach Allen Clarke is praying Adam Beard’s neck injury is not as bad as first feared after his side edged their way to a tense victory over Cardiff Blues.
The Wales lock left the action inside two minutes and went straight to hospital while his side bounced back from their defeat to the Dragons thanks to first half tries from Scott Williams and George North and the boot of Sam Davies.
Blues fly-half Gareth Anscombe orchestrated a try for Garyn Smith during a lacklustre affair, but his opposite number landed a late drop-goal to keep the Ospreys in the hunt for a PRO14 playoff place.
Clarke said: “Adam’s gone to hospital to have an X-ray and it’s looking more promising than it did at first.
“It was derby football, they’re always cagey games, we had good dominance early on and scored a good try. We managed to build some pressure on the scoreboard and we led all the way through.
“We’re really satisfied with the win, we weren’t happy with some elements of our game last week and we will try and build on this, but we felt quite dominant out there today.”
Warren Gatland would have been settling down to watch his players fight it out for World Cup places when dealt the early injury blow as Beard appeared to sustain a serious neck injury taking a blow in the action of entering a ruck.
The 22-year-old, who looked to have already booked his place on the plane for Japan, was stretchered off in a neck brace after a lengthy delay to throw his involvement in Wales’ Six Nations campaign into series doubt.
Josh Navidi was another out to stake his claim to the Wales coach, but Scott Williams laid his defensive frailties bare two minutes after play resumed when he received the ball from Sam Davies and swatted away a weak tackle attempt to score near the posts.
Davies converted, but the Blues responded in style two minutes later.
It looked as if Alun-Wyn Jones had denied Blaine Scully a try with an incredible tackle, but the Blues recycled possession for Anscombe, who sent an inch-perfect kick over the heads of the defence and into the hands of Smith for the score.
It was a case of anything you can do, I can do better for Davies, who has had to watch Anscombe nail down the Wales No.10 jersey. But he showed his class to send a delicate chip over the defence for North to collect and score before landing the touchline conversion to make it 14-5.
Anscombe hit a penalty to cut the deficit to 14-8 at
half-time, before the kickers swapped penalties again during a nervy second-half showing from both sides.
The on-field tension was clear as Clarke’s side looked to edge their way to an important victory in the race for the end of season play-offs in Conference A.
But nearly all of the Liberty Stadium let out a collective sigh of relief when Davies dropped back into the pocket and sent a long-range drop-goal between the uprights to not only secure victory, but to rob the Blues of a losing bonus-point.
The last minute kick moved the Ospreys five points clear of the Blues in the table before both sides return to European action.
“The game got away from us in the first 20 minutes,” said Blues head coach John Mulvihill. “We allowed them 14 points and we gave away too many penalties early on which gave them a lot of confidence so that was really disappointed considering how we’ve played in recent weeks.”