Webb relishing return to action

After picking up the man-of-the match award in last Friday’s win over the Scarlets, Rhys Webb says he hopes to find form and consistency over the coming weeks as he continues his return from injury

 

The 25-year old scrum-half, who is just three games away from completing a century of Osprey appearances, missed the opening months of the season following surgery to repair ACL damage suffered on the final day of 2012/13.

After beginning his comeback with a couple of outings as replacement, he has started in four the last five games for the region, coinciding with an upturn in results that has seen the Ospreys defeat French champs Castres and go undefeated in the Welsh derbies over Christmas.

Speaking after Friday’s win at the Liberty, Webb insisted that his personal priority was simply to recover the form that saw him rewarded with his first senior Wales call-up two years ago.

“I’m just enjoying being back out on the field” said Webb.

“Obviously being out for so long with injury is frustrating, so it’s good to get a few starts under my belt. Hopefully I can get some form and consistency into my game quickly.

“I’m just finding myself again really. Two seasons ago I had a good spell in the team where I was starting games, there was good competition between me and Kahn and I was enjoying my rugby. Last year was more frustrating for me, I wasn’t starting as often and then got injured which kept me out at the start of this one.

“I want to put that behind me now and just play as many games as a I can. All I want to do now that I’m back from injury is keep playing for the Ospreys and make up for lost time. I want to be involved as much as I can, to keep playing and playing, and hopefully I can get back to my best and help the team in some big games, with big crowds.”

With two big games coming up in Europe, and the Ospreys needing to win both and then rely on results elsewhere if they are to extend their interests in the competition, Webb says he’s looking forward to going head to head with an old colleague:

“We’ve started to put together a good little run since beating Castres at home. The derby wins have been important as well. We’re in a good place going into Northampton at home which will be a big game.

“We’ve had a very busy couple of weeks but we’ve got to front up again for two more big games, Northampton and Leinster. I’m looking forward to hopefully being involved, particularly against Northampton at the Liberty. It may be a case of going up against Kahn who is a world class nine. These are the people you need to test yourself against. It could be interesting.”

Tickets for Sunday’s Heineken Cup game against Northampton Saints are on sale now at the Liberty Stadium Ticket Office, online at www.ospreysrugby.com/buytickets and via the Ticket Hotline on 0844 815 6665.