Ashley Beck was a two-try hero at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday night, his double helping the Ospreys on their way to a bonus point win over Benetton Treviso that moved the region back up to second place in the PRO12.
It was the third time this season that he’s gone over for a brace, and when he spoke to the press after the game they wanted to know why it is that Beck tries are like buses, always arriving in pairs:
“Yes, it’s funny that. I don’t know why that is, it just seems to fall in my lap. Every time I score one there’s another one given to me on the night.”
The 21-year old has become a growing influence on an Ospreys side that despite its troubles in Europe this season is again doing well in the PRO12. The win over Treviso was the perfect follow-up to a narrow victory in Dublin over league leaders Leinster the previous weekend, and Beck said that the team have bounced back wonderfully from a defeat in their last home game at the start of March:
“Last week was a big win for the boys. We had a bit of a kick up the backside when Glasgow came down here and I think it really opened the boys’ eyes. We went out to Leinster then and showed that we’re not going to let things slip. I think that showed again in tonight’s performance.
“We had a little bit of a rocky part of the game around the 60th minute but we pulled it back to get the bonus point. After last week confidence is up at the minute. With Tandy and Gruff coming in everything is new, it’s fresh and that’s showing in the way the boys are playing.
“There’s a bit of confidence here but we won’t get carried away. The Dragons came down here and beat us last season, the Blues is a hard place to go. You can never go there and expect to win because they’re a good team, and then it’s Aironi and again, we had a scare there last year, which nearly knocked us out of the top four. We can’t go into these games thinking ‘oh, we’ll win these’ because we could get a kick in the backside if we do.
“We are growing as a team, the young boys in the squad like myself are a bit more experienced now and we seem to be learning to edge the games out now. Leinster last week, we didn’t panic when we went behind. Whatever happens, we’ve got to take what comes and keep playing with confidence.”
Whilst Beck was full of praise for his team-mates in general after the game, he made a point of highlighting the performance of fly-half Dan Biggar, as well as the influence of a player at the opposite end of the scale, veteran wing Shane Williams:
“Dan is playing brilliantly at the moment” he said.
“He’s getting the backs going and his kicking is second to none. He’s kicking everything, his accuracy is brilliant. When you’ve got an outside half who’s playing really well then it’s easy being outside him. For the team, it’s a lot easier.
“Shane’s been great, he’s helped me a lot. He’s always got something to say or something that will help the boys. It will be sad to see him finish but he’s left a lot behind for other boys to learn.”