The Ospreys suffered the narrowest of defeats at the hands of the Dragons on Friday night, leaving Head Coach Sean Holley to curse his teams misfortune after seeing a drop goal attempt from Dan Biggar come back off the post at the death.
Speaking to the press minutes after the final whistle at Rodney Parade he commented:
“At the end of the day we are the width of the post away from winning here tonight, an interception pass away from winning. There were a couple of yellow cards that cost us territory, field position, and some points as well.
“It’s a tough place. We got close tonight but the Dragons defended really well. Their defensive structure was good, and I think the crowd is really good for them, it gives them a boost. It’s a tough place to come. They haven’t been playing that badly and perhaps tonight there was that little bit of luck they needed.
“We used our squad well and it nearly worked. We’ve had three games in twelve days and the boys have played a lot of rugby. We have a squad, and players who need to play. There’s a lot of games over the course of a season. We’ve given great exposure tonight to the likes Eli Walker, Hanno Dirksen, Tom Isaacs, Matthew Morgan and Aaron Jarvis.
“The boys stuck in, the boys who came on made a bit of an impact, particularly at the scrum, and with Dan there at the end we nearly did it didn’t we? I watched Daniel and I could see him looking at it, it must have been bending round a bit, but not enough in the end. It’s tough, but there we are.
“We picked up our first bonus point tonight, they all help in the end because teams beat each other in this league. Treviso are having more of a say this year, Edinburgh have picked up and Glasgow are going really well, there are lots of things happening. It’s a great league, every week it’s a tough, tough game. There are no easy games.
“It’s important that we target a top two place in the PRO12. We saw that two years ago when we played Glasgow at home. It was a tough game but the home advantage paid off. Then last year, we ended up fourth and had to go to Thomond. Looking forward we’ve got four more home games to go and it’s in our hands I think.”