The Ospreys team to play Aironi on Saturday 5th May 2012 at Stadio Luigi Zaffanella, kick off at 7.30pm (UK), will be as follows:
15 Richard Fussell
14 Hanno Dirksen
13 Andrew Bishop
12 Ashley Beck
11 Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9 Kahn Fotuali’i
1 Paul James
2 Richard Hibbard
3 Adam Jones
4 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt)
5 Ian Evans
6 Tom Smith
7 Sam Lewis
8 Joe Bearman
Replacements:
16 Scott Baldwin
17 Ryan Bevington
18 Joe Rees
19 James King
20 George Stowers
21 Rhys Webb
22 Matthew Morgan
23 Tom Isaacs
The following players were not considered because of injury:
Justin Tipuric – Back spasm
Aaron Jarvis - Hamstring
Tommy Bowe – Haematoma
Kristian Phillips - Abdomen
Huw Bennett - Achilles
Will Price - ACL
Cai Griffiths - Arm
Ben John - Groin
Gareth Owen – ACL
Nikki Walker – ACL
Head Coach, Steve Tandy, commented:
“It’s important that we keep the momentum of the last couple of months going and we’ll expect the team to maintain the standards that they’ve set in the last few games. It’s easy for players to get distracted with a semi-final on the horizon, but the group has worked very hard this week and we’ve ensured that the focus has been firmly on Aironi and what will be a very difficult evening for us.
“The attitude of the team has been spot on over the last couple of months and they’ve got their reward for that with a home semi-final. It’s important moving on from here that we make sure that hard work isn’t wasted, and we kick on over the closing weeks of the season. What we’ve done before now won’t matter, what we’ll be judged on is how we perform in these do or die games at the end of the season and we want to ensure that we give our supporters something to be proud of.
“We’ll have a short turnaround given that we are traveling back on Sunday then at home in the semi-final on Friday night, but there is a real buzz about the place ahead of that game and we’ll all be looking forward to getting back to the Liberty. After the atmosphere at the last home game it’ll be good to be back in front of our fans who’ll be getting behind us in the push for the final.”
Forthcoming fixtures
Fri 11 May – RaboDirect PRO12 Play-Off Semi-Final – Liberty Stadium – 7.35pm