Ospreys Forwards Coach, Jonathan Humphreys, was understandably a delighted man after watching the team record a stunning win over league leaders Ulster at Ravenhill on Friday night, only the Irish side's second defeat in the PRO12 all season.
Speaking post-match, Humphreys paid tribute to a massive team performance.
“It was an unbelievable effort from the whole group” enthused Humphreys.
“It was truly remarkable and I’m so, so proud of everybody involved here. The spirit, the effort and the determination was second to none and that was typified by the spell when we were down to 14 men after what was an incredibly harsh yellow card and we ended that period leading for the first time.
“When that ball reached Ryan Bevington I was never in any doubt that he was going to score, I knew that no-one would catch him. As well as being a good scrummager and good in the park, we know at the Ospreys that he’s got a turn of pace as well. The only frustrating thing about him is that sometimes when he is only average, we know that he has that kind of performance in him.
“There were so many boys out there today who’ve hardly had any game time at all and yet look at the shift they’ve put in. People like Jonathan Spratt have had to be patient, we’ve ended up with a young centre and a young scrum-half on the wings, both making their debuts, and they’ve tackled everything, chased everything. As a coach I can’t ask for anything more after what we’ve seen tonight.
“We came here missing 23 players and to lose our most experienced forward before we’d even kicked off was obviously a blow but we stuck at the job and got our rewards. Our defence at times was unbelievable and we thoroughly deserved what we got out of the game.
“It was a huge team effort and everyone can enjoy this tonight. Ulster are an outstanding team as we know and they had real quality on the pitch but we were deserved winners.
“We have to turn our attention to Connacht next weekend now, another tough ask on the road in Ireland but we’ll approach the game like we do every one, with the right attitude and intensity, and we’ll be expecting this level of performance from the boys again because this one win will mean nothing if we don’t back it up.”