It was very much a case of the one that got away at Meggetland on Friday night as a second half revival wasn’t enough to see the Ospreys overturn a 14 point deficit.
Jeff Hassler scored two tries for the region, but it wasn’t enough to secure a crucial win over Edinburgh, the Ospreys having to settle for a solitary losing bonus point.
Reflecting on the defeat, outside half Dan Biggar made it clear that the bonus point wasn’t enough. Speaking straight after the final whistle, he said:
“We conceded a couple of soft tries in the first half and were always chasing the game then. We started the game superbly well, a lovely try, so we’re hugely disappointed to come away with only one point, from a game we should have won.
“We aren’t happy with one point at all. We’ve got to look hard at ourselves in the mirror because there were some soft tries out there. We just lacked a little bit of cohesion and unfortunately that’s put us behind the races now for fourth place.
“It’s just disappointing that we couldn’t pull through in the end, you know? The lads showed great spirit but that’s not enough. We need to play with a bit more skill. It’s just disappointing.”
His thoughts were echoed by Justin Tipuric, who said that moving away from the game plan had proved costly.
“It was a tough game, we’re a bit disappointed with the result. Their a physical side, they play the South African way, and that’s how they won the game tonight.
“Silly errors,like dropped balls, and just not executing in their 22 in the first half, and in the end, it killed us. We never gave up. Half time we said, even though we’ve probably had the worst first half we’ve had all year, we were still in it to come back and win the game. We nearly did it.
“We went away from our structure a bit, we tried playing them at their game, trying to tackle them high and hold them up. That’s not us, we’ve got to get them to floor early and get over the ball. That’s where we didn’t help ourselves today.”