The Ospreys team to play Connacht at the Sportground on Saturday 28th September, KO 5.00pm, is as follows:
15 Richard Fussell
14 Jeff Hassler
13 Ben John
12 Ashley Beck
11 Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9 Tito Tebaldi
1 Duncan Jones
2 Scott Baldwin
3 Adam Jones
4 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt)
5 Ian Evans
6 James King
7 Justin Tipuric
8 Morgan Allen
REPLACEMENTS
16 Richard Hibbard
17 Ryan Bevington
18 Aaron Jarvis
19 Tyler Ardron
20 Joe Bearman
21 Tom Habberfield
22 Matthew Morgan
23 Jonathan Spratt
Head Coach Steve Tandy said:
“After going to Treviso and Leinster in the first two weeks, this is another tough away game that will really test us. It’s always a difficult place to go. It’s as recently as February that we’ve come off second best there, so we’ll travel knowing that we have to go to go up a few notches from where we were last weekend if we want to take anything from this game.
“We know what to expect in terms of conditions, it’ll be wet and windy as it always is, and we realise that going to Galway you have to play the conditions as well as the opposition. We’ll have to be up for it from the first whistle or they’ll make us pay.
“We are obviously pleased to be where we are in the table at the moment, up at the right end, but we won’t be getting ahead of ourselves. Everybody in the group is well aware that we need to continue working hard, continue improving, and that there’s a lot of rugby to come over the next eight months. We’re heading in the right direction though and that’s positive.
“The attitude in the group is good. We’ve seen some excellent performances from the core group here, the boys who have another year’s experience after last season, and they’ll be the ones who will be central to anything we achieve in the PRO12 this season.
“The Lions boys have been welcomed back in and have done a great job, while it’s good to see the likes of Tom Habberfield and Aaron Jarvis also involved again. It makes for some very tough selections in the coming weeks, but that competition for places is exactly what we need, and will help drive standards within the group as we look forward to coming home to the Liberty for games against Ulster and Leinster on the next two weekends.”
The following players were unavailable for selection through injury:
Dmitri Arhip – Achilles
Hanno Dirksen – Knee
Dafydd Howells – Shoulder
Tom Smith - Knee
Rhys Webb - Knee
Forthcoming Fixtures
Fri 04 Oct 19:05 KO – Ospreys v Ulster– RaboDirect PRO12
Sat 12 Oct 18.00 KO – Ospreys v Leinster – Heineken Cup
Sun 20 Oct 12.45 KO – Northampton Saints v Ospreys – Heineken Cup
Fri 25 Oct 19.05 KO – Ospreys v Newport Gwent Dragons – RaboDirect PRO12
Sat 02 Nov 19.15 KO – Munster v Ospreys – RaboDirect PRO12
Fri 08 Nov 19.45 KO – Leicester Tigers v Ospreys – LV= Cup