Ospreys set to pick over parts of striken Cheetahs
THE Ospreys are looking to take advantage of the Cheetahs’ plight by adding some South African beef to their pack.
Toby Booth wants to strengthen his squad for next season and has identified the back row as an area in need of improvement.
Executives at the Liberty Stadium have been on the lookout for high-quality additions to their pack for some time and are currently running the rule over Cheetahs trio Oupa Mohoje, Sintu Manjezi, and Junior Pokomela, right.
Only one of those three would make their way to Wales, but the trio are a few of the options being seriously considered.
The Cheetahs and Kings were kicked out of the PRO14 to make way for high-profile South Africa sides Bulls, Sharks, Stormers and Lions.
As a result, a fire-sale has started in Bloemfontein with a large proportion of the Cheetahs players moving on. It has put the Ospreys, among others, on alert.
Ospreys are also interested in recruiting Cardiff Blues’ Wales U20 loosehead prop Ben Warren. The 20year-old from Llantrisant is finding game time hard to come by at the capital region and is attracting the interest of the Swanseabased side.
All four professional sides in Wales are unaware of what their playing budgets will be for next season due to the financial damage of the Covid-19 pandemic which has seen the Professional Rugby Board pot drop from £26m to a mere £3m.
“There’ll definitely be change for sure,” said Booth when asked about retention and recruitment for next season. “It’s a bit of a minefield but we’ve made some commitments from an inside point of view that will come out in January.
“We want to get things tied up by the end of January or February at the latest so we know where we are moving forward.
“Everyone is hopefully aware by now of how much I cherish developing our own players. It’s important to get as much quality into the bottom of your talent pyramid to allow them to grow into becoming the squad players and the household names in the Ospreys camp.
“Also, we want to make sure we support the top as well to drive the ambition of the fans. We aren’t here as a development side we are here as a performance side.
“There is a balancing act around that and if you add the financial element on top you can see how complex that can be, but there’ll be some difference and we’ll be looking to put stuff in at the top and the bottom.”