Dan Biggar paid tribute to the valiant effort of his pack after a late try from Ian Evans helped the Ospreys to a derby win at Parc y Scarlets on Boxing Day.
The fly-half kicked five of his team’s 10 points in a low scoring, nailbiting, Domino’s Derby encounter, and having had the perfect view of Evans’ pushover try, Biggar was quick to acknowledge their efforts while admitting it was a far from perfect performance all-round.
“First things first, we didn’t play overly well, we know that” said Biggar.
“We know it’s tough coming down here. It’s never easy, they always play with an intensity that we know they will bring to the game, but we struggled to adapt early on. We didn’t start well but it’s credit to the boys for managing to hang on in there and fair play, it was a great effort to get the try.
“It was a three point game going into the last 10 minutes and that’s what you expect playing against the Scarlets here. It’s always going to be tight. We kept going and when we needed to be accurate we were. We managed to kick to the corner, our lineout was effective. When it mattered the forwards were outstanding and that try at the end was perfect.
With the team having eventually turned possession into points six minutes from the final whistle a blood soaked Biggar, with a cut to the left side of his face, was part of a last gasp defensive effort to keep out wave after wave of Scarlets and secure the win.
Reflecting on the contest, the Gorseinon RFC product said post-match that it was important everybody at the region savours the win before getting back down to hard work for the return fixture.:
“We defended well after that at the end and, like I said, when we needed to be accurate we were.
“It wasn’t free flowing rugby at times out there but that’s what you expect from a derby game. Coming away from home in a game like this it’s about trying to sneak a win and we are happy that we managed to do that.
“It was a bruising encounter. There were big ball carriers out there, big lumps, and it was just put your body on the line stuff. This little scratch will heal itself, and we can enjoy our Christmas, our Boxing Night, a bit more now that we’ve picked up the win.
“It’ll be nice to have a couple of days off now, you get enough lows in your career so it's important you enjoy the highs and getting a big derby win is a high so why not enjoy it? It was a tough win but we deserved it, it’s been a tough day.”