Sam Parry wrote his name in the Ospreys history books on Friday as the first forward to register a hat-trick, but he wasn’t getting carried away as he declared it would probably be his last as well.
- Became first forward to score a hat-trick for the Ospreys during Friday night's win over Zebre
- Had previously scored just two tries in 97 games with the Dragons and the Ospreys
- Is now focused on preparing for Saturday night's trip to PRO12 champions Connacht
Never known as a prolific try-scorer, the 24-year old hooker has previously only touched down twice in a 97 game professional career, first at the Dragons and, for the last two years, the Ospreys.
Both of them came last season, the first also against Zebre, being driven over from close range, and then the second seeing him running in a dramatic score to set-up a grandstand finish away to Clermont Auvergne in the Champions Cup.
Friday night saw him ripping up the record book as he found himself touching down for three close range tries from rolling mauls and when he spoke to the press after the game he was still pinching himself at joining Tommy Bowe, Gavin Henson, Aisea Natoga, Johnny Vaughton, Nikki Walker and Shane Williams on the list of hat-trick heroes.
“I don’t think it’s really sunk in, to be honest” laughed Parry.
“I was just at the back of it. It was a cracking forward effort, we’ve worked hard on it this summer and it’s good to see it come off in the game.
“They boys are giving me a bit of stick already, for hogging the ball and stuff, but it’s all good.
“I’ve not scored three tries in a game for a long time, I did it in school a couple of times but it’s my first senior hat-trick and probably my last one as well.”
Next up for the Ospreys is the difficult trip to Galway on Saturday night to face defending champions Connacht, who lost their opening game last weekend, at home to Glasgow, and will be looking to kick-start their season.
Parry says that the players are looking forward to what promises to be a tough evening, the competition for places in the squad helping to power the team on to what they hope will be another good performance:
“It’s going to be a challenge, to be fair. They are the champions, we are going over there, it’s going to be one of the toughest games we’ll have this season so it’ll be a big week of preparation. We’re looking forward to going over and getting stuck in.
“We’ve had a big summer and we’ve worked extremely hard. With a full squad back in training you can see that competition is really strong, everybody is pushing.
“Competition is everything. In the week, when you are preparing, if there are boys chomping at the bit, boys who aren’t selected, if they want to prove a point, then it helps raise standards. That helps match preparation so that when we take the field the boys are the best prepared we can be.”
