Shane Williams has urged the Ospreys to ensure they take the positives from Sunday's draw with Leicester into next weekend's Heineken Cup clash against Clermont Auvergne at the Liberty Stadium.
The current French Top 14 leaders visit Ospreylia on the back of a bonus point win over Viadana on Saturday, and Shane says that having pushed Leicester close on their own turf, it’s important that the players learn from their mistakes, without getting too disheartened after a game they could have won.
He said:
“We’re disappointed, we’ve done enough to have won that game, especially after going behind to a try so early on. To come away with just a draw is disappointing, but Leicester are a very good side, they played very well and threw absolutely everything at us, particularly in the second half, so maybe a draw, in the end, was the right result. We are disappointed, but that’s good to see really as we’ve come up here before and haven’t come close. Having come up here and seen the boys gutted because we haven’t won makes me feel a little bit better because we deserved something out of that game.
“We’re in a better position than we were last year, we’ve come up to Leicester and taken two points from an away fixture and Leicester have dropped points from a home fixture, so that’s a bit of an advantage to us. I think we’ve proven today that we are capable of doing well in Europe. There are lots of things we can learn from today’s game, but a lot of positives as well.
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself, there’s only one game gone, but it’s a positive that we haven’t lost today. We won’t dwell too much on what people say, or what people think, we’ve just got to concentrate on our training and get on with our game. Hopefully we’ll learn a lot of lessons from today from a Leicester side that weren’t going to give up until the end. That’s why they are so successful in Europe.
“It’s easy to say we should have kicked on from half time and got a bonus point. That’s what we should have done but it’s a lot more difficult than that. Trust me, it’s a lot easier said than done. To be fair to Leicester they never gave up, they played right to the 81st minute, and they deserved the draw in the end. It’s a very difficult game. Of course we should have kept the ball down there and played a bit more territory but Leicester made it very difficult for us.
“The contact area was savage. We lost far too much ball in the second half and our discipline at times was shocking to be honest, and that’s something we can certainly learn from for the next game. Sides who give away penalties against the best sides are going to suffer. We have to learn from that today and not let it happen again.
“Coming off the field, we’re certainly disappointed. The boys are sitting in the dressing room having given so much, and to not come away with a victory are gutted. They felt we deserved more, but we can’t dwell on it too much, we’ve got a big game coming up and we need to take the positives out of it as well as the negatives, and concentrate on our next opponents, who are Clermont Auvergne.”