Jonathan Humphreys says the Ospreys are heading in the right direction despite the frustration of missed opportunities in win over Aironi.
Speaking to the media after the game on Saturday night, Humphreys said:
“It was a little frustrating to watch at times, but we know that we’ve got a lot of boys to reintegrate and that can be a frustrating process. We got the bonus point win and we played some decent stuff in patches, but again, some of the execution needs a lot of work.
“It is difficult, but we understand what we have to do, it’s a pretty similar story for us every year. When you integrate people who are at different stages it is difficult. We know where we need to get to, we know when we need to peak.
“Winning with a bonus point when only playing well in patches is a positive thing. We were pretty fractured in a lot of things tonight, and I can see why people get frustrated with us because I do as well, along with everybody else. But that’s the way we are, we understand the circumstances, I’ve seen us do this before and hopefully we’ll see it come together over the next couple of weeks.
“I thought our set piece was good tonight and we looked strong. It’s something we’ve worked on, the delivery of ball that we get from it, and I thought there was good understanding between 8, 9 and 10, which we didn’t have last week.
“We had Mike and Ryan back in the second half, the pair of them have been very diligent in their rehab and it’s great to have them on the field. They both need some time to get back to the top of their game and hopefully we’ll see that over the next couple of weeks.
“I think Justin Tipuric is an outstanding talent, I really do. He’s been outstanding all pre-season and he’s everything you want in a seven. Having said that, you have to spare a thought for Ben Lewis who had done very, very well to get a start tonight. He’s been playing exceptionally well and I feel for the kid. He’s had a couple of major injuries and to have this neck injury tonight, hopefully it’s not as serious as it looked and he’ll be back soon.
“I thought Richard Fussell was outstanding as well, he looks dangerous when he gets the ball, and he is another threat in our backline. With Shane, we had two very lively wingers out there tonight.
“All the stats show that we were by far the most dominant team, we just didn’t score as many tries as we should have. You’ve got boys who are trying to get back to the top of their game and it’s not quite there at the moment, they are a couple of weeks off it so their thought process isn’t where it should be and mistakes happen. It’s a bonus point win so we’ve got to be happy with that, although we know there are large things we have to work on.
"The fact is, we are creating opportunities to score tries, but take away the 27 turnovers in our game and you’ll see where the problem lies. It’s frustrating, but we won’t get bogged down with it, it’s part and parcel of the process. We as a region are judged at the end of the season, not at the start.”