Mefin Davies said there were "no excuses" after the Ospreys were defeated by Newport Gwent Dragons at the Liberty Stadium.
An unfamiliar looking Ospreys team, shorn of 15 players away on international duty, went down 21-16 to the Dragons, the first time that the Gwent side have won in Ospreylia after seven defeats on the bounce.
However, veteran hooker Davies insists that the players coming into the side should be desperate to prove a point, and speaking after the game, he said that it’s right to expect more from the Ospreys.
“There are no excuses here. We do lose a lot of players and the Dragons don’t really, not to the extent that we do, and there’s continuity as a team. When you play a lot of games together you get better from week to week. Unfortunately, we started from scratch today with a totally different team to what we had last week and this is what we’ve got to deal with. Those are the differences, but we’ve got to look at ourselves and make sure we are ready for next week.
“It’s an opportunity for players to come into the squad, we should be biting at the bit, really urgent and desperate to prove a point. We should be giving a headache to the coaches that we are playing well and competing for places for the bigger games. That’s the part that probably hurts the most at the moment, it’s an opportunity for every individual that’s been given a chance today, but unfortunately, the Dragons had more than we did.
“I’m sure we’ll look at it on Monday, we’ll analyse the game from start to the end. There’s a feeling of frustration at losing at home. It hurts. It’s just a matter of saying fair play to the Dragons, they turned up and probably wanted it more than us on the day. I’ve just got to put it down to that factor.
“There’s a different momentum, a different team from week to week. We lost a lot of players but that’s no excuse really. We’re a good squad, we’ve got good depth in our squad. It’s just a matter of having opportunities and being hungry for those opportunities. Unfortunately tonight, there wasn’t enough."