Natoga, Jarvis, Evans and Tipuric come in for Friday night's Domino's Derby at the Liberty Stadium
The Ospreys team to play the Scarlets at Liberty Stadium on Friday 3rd January, KO 7.15pm, is as follows:
15 Sam Davies
14 Aisea Natoga
13 Ben John
12 Ashley Beck
11 Jeff Hassler
10 Dan Biggar
9 Rhys Webb
1 Duncan Jones
2 Richard Hibbard
3 Aaron Javis
4 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt)
5 Ian Evans
6 Justin Tipuric
7 Sam Lewis
8 Joe Bearman
REPLACEMENTS
16 Scott Baldwin
17 Ryan Bevington
18 Adam Jones
19 James King
20 Morgan Allen
21 Tyler Ardron
22 Tom Habberfield
23 Richard Fussell
Duncan Jones will make his 200th appearance for the Ospreys, the first player ever to reach that landmark figure
Head Coach Steve Tandy said:
“While we got the win at Parc y Scarlets last week, in many ways it was a frustrating afternoon. The spirit, effort and commitment from the team was faultless, but we made too many basic errors, coughed up possession cheaply and that meant we found ourselves under pressure.
“The message this week is about raising that performance level so that it meets the standard we expect as Ospreys. We’ve got some big games over the next few weeks, with the Heineken Cup looming after Scarlets on Friday, and we know that we need to be performing at our very best if we are going to achieve what we want in these games.
“Friday night will be a special occasion with a big crowd there to see in 2014 and it’s important that we start the year as we mean to continue. After that it’s Northampton at home, and results in the last round of European fixtures mean that we can still have a big say in what happens in the pool so we know that we have to perform in such a way on Friday that makes supporters want to come back to support the cause the following weekend.”
The following players were unavailable for selection through injury:
Dmitri Arhip – Achilles
Dan Baker – Shoulder
Andrew Bishop – Back
Hanno Dirksen - Thigh
Ryan Jones - Hamstring
Lloyd Peers - Ankle
Tom Smith – Knee
Eli Walker - Hamstring
Forthcoming Fixtures
Sun 12 Jan 12.45KO – Ospreys v Northampton Saints – Heineken Cup
Fri 17 Jan 8.00pm KO – Leinster v Ospreys – Heineken Cup