Smith hails Ospreys effort

Tom Smith picked up the man-of-the-match award for a battling display at blindside flanker in Sunday evening's 23-22 win over Ulster at the Liberty Stadium.

Speaking to the media straight after the game, the 25 year old back-rower said that the victory had been a hard fought one, which would stand the youthful Ospreys team in good stead in the weeks to come.

As always it was a tough match against Ulster he said.

They bring a big pack but I thought the boys worked hard today. We had a good platform up front, the scrum went well again and it allowed us to play a bit of rugby and get a hard fought victory.

They worked very hard when down to 14 men and we were unable to convert that advantage into points. We managed to stick in there and fight to the death, and we managed to hold on.

Looking at the game, we gave away too many penalties and it kept them in the game. They fed off that, fair play to them. Well have a look at the game, see where we went wrong, and try not to do it in future games.

Its a great time for us as a group. Weve had a great two weeks in the LV= Cup, its given a lot of the boys who havent had much game time a good run. Its an important time for us during the Six Nations, and that victory puts us on a good footing for the games to come.