He kicked half of the points in Judgement Day derby win, but post-match Dan Biggar admitted to feeling disappointed despite the victory that keeps hopes of an Ospreys place in the play-offs alive.
His 10 points saw him stretch his tally in regional derby matches to 342, an all-time record total some 114 points clear of his nearest rival on the chart. Nevertheless, when asked for his views after the game, Biggar was typically honest, acknowledging a feeling of frustration in the dressing room inside the Millennium Stadium.
“I’ve got to say that we’re disappointed if I’m being honest” was Biggar’s immediate reaction.
“It’s one of those situations where with the possession and territory we had, especially in the first half, it was nowhere near good enough that we went in level.
“To concede early in the second half then was very disappointing and it put us in a position that we shouldn’t have been in. We made no bones about it, the target was 15 points from the last three games. We knew how tough that would be but for a team trying to make the play-offs you have to set your standards that high. It’s disappointing that as far as that’s concerned we’ve failed at the first hurdle as it were, but we got the win, we’re still in it, and we know what we’ve got to do in the last two games now.
“Fair play to the Dragons, they defended well. We blew a minimum of four tries in the first half, at least, and when a team manages to hang in like that you know that they are going to go for it after the break and that happened. They are a dangerous team and we had to work hard to get control of the game again and just edge past them in the end.”
The Ospreys spurned some kickable penalties in the opening half, opting to go to the corner and chase tries instead despite the presence of the reliable Biggar. Although the team failed to take advantage of those opportunities, he insists it was the right call at the time to try and make the most of their early pressure:
“It was just about being positive. We had the momentum and we tried to use that to our advantage early on. We went close, we should have been more accurate and we dropped a few, while there were a couple of tight decisions that went against us. If we’d been more accurate in that first quarter it would have been very different game.
“Ultimately, when we were in the second half and still needed to get the score board going we opted to take the three points. That allowed us to win the game and four points is decent for us, but if we had been that little bit better early on we’d be looking now at a five pointer and saying they were the right calls.
“That’s how tight it can be at this level but we aren’t making any excuses. We didn’t take our chances when we had them and there’s nobody we can blame apart from ourselves.”
Reflecting on the win, a 14th consecutive victory against Welsh opposition, Biggar insisted that there were positives he would take from the performance.
“The boys dug in well and that’s something which is pleasing” said.
“We reacted well to going behind after having so much of the game when it would have been easy for some of the youngsters to let their heads go down.
“It was disappointing to find ourselves in that position but we did claw our way back and that’ll stand us in good stead for the future. That’s two tight games in succession where we’ve had to dig in during the closing stages to get the win, albeit two different types of games, but it’s a good indicator of the way we are going. It’s definitely a positive, showing that we will keep on going until the end.
“We’ve got two games to go now and I think 10 points will get us a real good chance of getting into the semi finals so we know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to keep our end up and we’ll be supporting Leinster and Munster the next few weeks, that’s for sure!”