Tuesday, 15 January 2013

ABC: More thoughts from the Osprets match

A.  A right ear full
Ospreys’ stadium manager has obviously been taking tips from Saracens.  Playing music very loudly literally until kick off is no way to build an atmosphere in an half empty ground; even worse whenever the Tigers faithful were in full voice a full brass band placed just behind us would roar into life playing something like Bread of Heaven if we were lucky and just a random dirge if we weren’t.  I think there was only one or two “Ole, Ole Ole Ole, Ospreys” the whole match too, I don’t know which came first the collapse in a previously good atmosphere or that bloody band but I’d wager it was the band.  Drowning out their own fans, drowning out the opposition’s, drowning the atmosphere completely.

B.  A wonderful welcome to Wales
On the way to the Liberty I received a traditional Welsh welcome.  No not the Croeso i Cymru from the adverts for “Proper Holidays”, complete with rolling hills, flowing rivers and lush green countryside.  Instead I got the welcome most English people usually get in Wales; a flick of the V sign and being called an “English Bastard” all of this in the wonderful surrounds of Port Talbert and its slag heaps.  And I’m not talking about the industrial waste.

C.  ATTACK!
Tigers need to sort out their attack.  Our average across all 20 competitive games this season is only 21.3 points and we are barely scoring more than 2 tries a match, last year we averaged well over 3 tries a match.   Our top scorer is the penalty try.  Whilst I’m a firm believer in they all count the same relying on the referee to go under the posts for almost a quarter of your tries isn’t a long term solution and can’t be trusted in the big games where refs are more cautious of the big call.  Last year even in our poor performances early on we were still cutting sides to ribbons, so the question is: are we saving our ideas for the big games or have we been figured out?

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