After grabbing his first Osprey try in last Friday night's exhilarating win over Leinster in Dublin, George Stowers is targeting second place and a home tie in the end of season play-offs.
His try kick-started the Ospreys revival in a game where they trailed by 13 points, and the former London Irish man, who moved to the Liberty Stadium this season, says that the discipline shown by the team was integral to the win.
“It was a good win” said Stowers.
“Leinster is a very hard place to go and play rugby so to get that win is something special. When you look at the table right now you can see it’s really tight for the play-offs so to come back from Dublin with a win is a big bonus that will hopefully allow us to kick on now.
“You know it’s going to be tough before you even kick-off, but the way the game went meant we had to answer a lot of questions and really stay disciplined. Our good discipline is probably what got us through in the end.
“With some of the real leaders in the squad back with us from the Six Nations now, it means we have more experience on the pitch in crucial areas and if things go wrong we can fix it. If we’re honest, the last couple of games before that we probably didn’t have that, and our discipline probably let us down so we ended up losing by close margins.”
As for his touchdown, Stowers started and finished the move, feeding Ashley Beck and then keeping up with him and Hanno Dirksen as they raced forward, before taking the return pass off the centre to score. The final flourish came with a sidestep that any fly-half would have taken great pride in, leaving Leinster wing Dave Kearney clutching at thin-air as most observers had expected the number eight to try and crash his way over the line.
“The sidestep?" Stowers asked mischievously.
“Ahh, that’s just natural. I’ve still got it. I was delighted to get my first try for the Ospreys.
“I didn’t go looking for it, I was just there at the end of the play to finish off Ashley and Hanno’s good work to score and get us back in the game. I was just happy to win the match, so the try is a bonus.
“I tell you what though, Ashley was lucky he gave that ball back” laughed the big Samoan.
“Seriously though, it’s nothing special, that’s what the loose forwards are supposed to do, just pass and support, so I was just doing my job really and was there to take the last pass.”
The Ospreys currently sit in third position, well placed for the play-offs, but Stowers says the target remains second place and a home tie:
“Very much, yes, we are still targeting second place. To me personally, I just want the boys to have the mentality of going out there and just playing every game as though it’s the most crucial one of the season. If we do that, if we can win these remaining games, then we will be in the play-offs. To get a home semi will be a massive bonus, but it’s definitely still there for us to target.”