The Ospreys team to play Munster at Thomond Park, on Saturday 20th May 2017, KO 6.15pm, in the Guinness PRO12 semi-final, is as follows:
15 Dan Evans
14 Keelan Giles
13 Kieron Fonotia
12 Ashley Beck
11 Tom Habberfield
10 Dan Biggar
9 Rhys Webb
1 Nicky Smith
2 Scott Baldwin
3 Rhodri Jones
4 Bradley Davies
5 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt)
6 Sam Underhill
7 Justin Tipuric
8 James King
REPLACEMENTS
16 Scott Otten
17 Paul James
18 Dan Suter
19 Lloyd Ashley
20 Olly Cracknell
21 Brendon Leonard
22 Sam Davies
23 Josh Matavesi
The following players were unavailable for selection due to injury:
Dmitri Arhip – Shoulder
Dan Baker – Broken nose
Hanno Dirksen – Knee
Ma’afu Fia - Knee
Jeff Hassler – Achilles
Dafydd Howells - Shoulder
Ben John – HIA
Dan Lydiate – Knee
Rob McCusker – Ankle
Brian Mujati - Shoulder
Sam Parry - Neck
James Ratti – Shoulder
Eli Walker – Back
Owen Watkin – Knee
Head Coach, Steve Tandy, commented:
“After 22 weeks we’ve got to the stage now where there are four teams left in contention and it’s all about what happens on the day, nothing else.
“We’ve had a good two weeks to prepare for this but we know the size of the challenged we’re up against. Munster have been one of the standout teams in Europe this season and Thomond Park is an imposing venue, but we’ll travel to Limerick with belief in our ability to go out there and do what we have to on Saturday.
“Our record there is pretty decent, we’ve got boys in the team who know what it takes to win there, and we can draw on that experience, but it’s like I said, what happened last week, last month, last year, whatever, it won’t mean a thing at quarter past six on Saturday night. All that will count is what happens over the next hour and a half.
“It’s good that we can welcome back one or two senior players who can provide different kinds of leadership in the build-up and once the whistle goes, but we aren’t getting ahead of ourselves. If we are going to deliver a winning performance on Saturday it will have to be a huge team effort, from everyone in the squad, not just the ones with 1-23 on their backs.
“It’ll be tough, no doubt about it, but these are the games we want to be involved in. They are the ones that matter and it’s what we’ve been working towards since day one of pre-season 11 months ago. We want to make that effort, all that hard work, count for something and we can’t wait to get started.”
