Ospreys 'working hard to build momentum' says

As the Ospreys move into second place in the Magners League table at the halfway point of the season, Head Coach Sean Holley said it's important for the region to build momentum on and off the field over the coming weeks.

Speaking after watching his side record a 60-17 win over the Scarlets at the Liberty Stadium, Holley said that there is still some way for the Ospreys to go before they will be completely happy, but he agreed that they are heading in the right direction as they move into a crucial run of four games, three of which are on the road.

We brought a bit of physicality and intensity to the game today he told the press after the final whistle.

I think the two Munster games back to back, with the level of competition and intensity we saw in the game, probably aided us today.

We have a huge amount of respect for the Scarlets, they are a very dangerous team as they showed at times out there. Going into this game, we were the two top try scoring teams in the Magners so we were well aware of their threat. But, fair play to our players, they showed great endeavour, and we are pleased with the scoreline if not some areas of the performance. There are plenty of things to work on still.

Games turn on big moments and their yellow cards proved costly. I think the pressure and the way we imposed ourselves on the Scarlets caused them to infringe. We got some territory and some field position, Daniel kicked his points well and we were able to get away. At times, weve been unable to get away from teams, but we did that today and were able to relax and play some good stuff. We wont get carried away though, we are just four days off from another massive derby match and then looking ahead to Leinster, London Irish and Toulon, so weve got to use this momentum to our own advantage, but we have to keep our feet on the ground because there were areas of the game where it didnt quite happen and on another day we might have paid a bigger price. Theres a lot to work on still.

I dont like singling people out, there were good performances across the park. Our lineout didnt function very well today and thats an area to look at over the next few days clearly, but we have to be pretty pleased with how things went. Theres a nice balance there at the moment, but weve found that there are times of the season where we are able to build up momentum and there are other times, like off the back of international periods, where we have to expect it to be a bit more disjointed at times. At the moment, we are working hard to build some momentum moving into the next stage of the season, on and off the field.

If we are talking about off the field, it was nice to see so many people turn up today and we rewarded them for coming back. Obviously it was a sad day yesterday but everybody here on the stadium staff worked extremely hard to get it on and to see more than 18,000 people here today was fabulous. Its vitally important that the momentum we are talking about continues for the rest of the season, with our supporters continuing to back us in the same way.

"Were up into second place now at the halfway point of the season, which is pleasing. We took a hit at the start of the season not playing some of the internationals because of training reasons and we took a hit losing to the Dragons at home. We needed to pinch that back winning at Parc Y Scarlets, and winning at Connacht was a big moment in the season for us, and now its about keeping things ticking over. The test for us now is to get something out of the next two away games, the Blues and Leinster, and then back it up in the Six Nations when the onus will be back on the squad strength in depth.