After helping the Ospreys secure a derby win on his first start for the region, Dan Lydiate is eager to get straight back into action in the return fixture against the Scarlets on Saturday.
The flanker made a big impact in the black shirt, seeing out the entire game after making his debut off the bench against Ulster a week earlier, and he admitted that as he shakes off the inevitable rustiness given a lack of recent game time the team will get the benefit.
“I really enjoyed the experience” said Lydiate.
“Getting 80 minutes under my belt was something, I’m really happy with that and hopefully it’s something I can build on. 80 minutes isn’t something I’ve done that often recently so I was certainly feeling it towards the end but it’s in the bank now and will do me good. Hopefully I can go from strength to strength.
“We’ll see how selection goes this weekend now but hopefully I can build on the last couple of weeks and contribute more to the team. I’m looking forward to training over the next few days and getting stuck into it.”
With a poor second-half showing on Saturday allowing the Scarlets back in to a contest where the Ospreys had looked comfortable at the break, Lydiate says that it’ll be a case of back to basics for the region this week as they work towards the trip west across the Loughor Bridge:
“It was a typical derby match, like so many I’ve played in over the years, it was scrappy, but we were relieved in the end to get the win.
“We didn’t play well in the second half and we weren’t happy with how it went. We knew it was going to be a hard game, it was scrappy and that was as much down to us not doing the basics right as it was anything else. They made it messy in the contact area, slowed things down, but we went away from our game and nearly paid the price.
“There’s plenty to work on this week going into the return game, we’ve got to put things right and get a better team performance. Rugby is a simple game, you’ve got to do the basics well before looking to do anything else. That’s what we didn’t do in the second half on Saturday and where we have to start from this time. If you don’t do the basics well and don’t look after the ball then you are always going to struggle and that’s what happened at the Liberty.”
Lydiate marked his first start for the region with the rarest of things, a try, and even after seeing it almost taken away from him first by the TMO and then Sky Sports, he was in no doubt about the score.
“I’d like to say it was a 30-yard gallop but I’ll take it for what it was” he laughed.
“It doesn’t happen that often so it’s nice to score one. I dabbed it down but I think the TV thought Dmitri scored the try. I didn’t mind him claiming it but they gave it to me in the end! I know there was a delay in giving the try but we knew we’d scored.”