Ospreys v Scarlets - Bonfire Night, (Saturday 05/11/11) BOOM!

First topic message reminder :

Liberty Stadium, Swansea. Kick off 6.30 pm. Live on S4C from 6:10pm. Match coverage repeated from 9:00am on S4C Sunday 06/11/11.

Roll up! Roll up! It's the West Wales derby Part One - can the Scarlets beat the Ospreys for the first time at the Liberty since 2007 or will the Ospreys determination to make up for the loss they incurred last week in the Rabo spoil the Scarlets party? Their previous meetings have looked like this:

27/12/10 Ospreys 60 - 17 Scarlets
02/10/10 Scarlets 18 - 21 Ospreys
02/04/10 Ospreys 27 - 19 Scarlets

It should be a very exciting encounter, and I can't wait to be there Let the banter begin!

OSPREYS
15 Richard Fussell
14 Tommy Bowe
13 Andrew Bishop
12 Ashley Beck
11 Eli Walker
10 Dan Biggar
9 Kahn Fotuali'i

1 Duncan Jones
2 Richard Hibbard
3 Cai Griffiths
4 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt)
5 Ian Evans
6 Joe Bearman
7 Justin Tipuric
8 Jonathan Thomas

Replacements:

16 Huw Bennett
17 Ryan Bevington
18 Aaron Jarvis
19 Ryan Jones
20 Tom Smith
21 George Stowers
22 Rhys Webb
23 Shane Williams

REFEREE: Mathieu Raynal (FFR)
Assistant Referees: Neil Hennessy, Jon Mason (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner : Richard Gwynn (WRU)
TMO: Tony Rowlands (WRU)

SCARLETS
15 Daniel Evans
14 Liam Williams
13 Adam Warren
12 Scott Williams
11 Sean Lamont
10 Stephen Jones
9 Tavis Knoyle

1 Iestyn Thomas
2 Matthew Rees (capt)
3 Rhys Thomas
4 Dominic Day
5 Damian Welch
6 Aaron Shingler
7 Rob McCusker
8 Ben Morgan.

Replacements:

Ken Owens
Phil John
Rhodri Jones
Sione Timani
Richie Pugh
Rhodri Williams
Jon Davies
George North.

PS: There will also be a Food Fair that will get underway at 4.00pm ahead of kick off. The food suppliers confirmed for the event including Gower Cottage Brownies, La Crème Patisserie, Swansea Hog Roast, the Waffle Trailer and Welsh Premium Burgers, giving fans a real taste of Wales ahead of the big match. YUMMO!!

Actually its mostly me and im a Blues fan - but Fotuali'i has been awful and I dont know why Webb has been dropped a week before the HC.

Penalty Ospreys from the scrum

6 - 3

Aaron Jarvis on for the O's - That wont help their scrum against Iestyn.

Here come the reinforcements for the Scarlets,

Jonathon Davies and George North are preparing to come on.

9 - 3 to the O's.

Knock on from the Scarlets resulting in an offside.

I really expected the Ospreys scrum to be better than it has been.

606
fair enough. missed most of the first half as it was baby bath time...I do rate Webb highly but they have to justify the wages I guess...

Another offside, this time against the O's.

Dan Evans to attempt a long range penalty.

Fotuali'i is trying to injure poor old Stephen Jones now...

Excellent hands by the Scarlets, testing the Ospreys defence at last.

Bennett and Bevington on for the Ospreys.

Not rolling away, penalty

Stephen Jones - awful kick, still 9 - 3

Here come the reinforcements

Ryan Jones and Shane Williams on (but AWJ off oddly)

Stephen Jones kicks - guess who knocks on as he catches it - Fotuali'i, he had plenty of time too and no pressure.

Having a mare.

Both Ospreys locks off - Stowers on

Warning to Tipuric (now captain) about penalties.

Stephen Jones finally learns how to kick

9 - 6

22 minutes to go.

Timani and Ken Owens on for the Scarlets

Scarlets ferocious in defence, push several Ospreys backwards and force a penalty.

Scarlets lineout is a shambles. Another lost.

Biggar misses a penalty out wide - Its coming down to small margins, the Scarlets place kicking hasnt been good enough. (4 misses to 1 I think)

Ben Morgan has a better pass from the base than Knoyle

Fotuali'i kicks straight to touch.

mckay1402 wrote:Ben Morgan has a better pass from the base than Knoyle

hahahaha true

I want the Scarlets to win, but I predicted a 3pt Ospreys win on Sportsguru so I am torn...

Stephen Jones not having a good game, misses touch from a penalty

Knock on Scarlets, Ospreys scrum near their 10meter line - 5 minutes remaining, Scarlets trail by 3.

Scarlets against the head.

High tackle not picked up.

Could be a draw here.

George North flattens an Ospreys.

Ball 'passed' into touch, but ref was playing advantage apparently.

Stephen Jones to level the scores

9 - 9

2 minutes to go.

Fotuali'i manages to catch a ball to give O's possession with 1 minute to go

So...he box kicks straight to a Scarlet player....

Poor pass from the Scarlets gives O's possession.

But the ref has gone back for a knock on - Scarlets scrum

Clock into the red.

Ospreys half

Another poor pass from the Scarlets replacement SH.

Knock on

FULL TIME

OSPREYS 9 - 9 SCARLETS

Well that was pants!

Fireworks outside were much more exciting...

Well that was pretty turgid. Biarritz must be rubbing their hands. Need to buck our ideas up before next sat.

That just may have been the worst game I've ever seen, 9-9 summed it up, both teams were rubbish, god help both in Europe next week.

disappointed by how poor the game was - ref seemed to miss a lot for both teams and give away quite a few pedantic penalties. Can't believe Scarlets could well have won that if they'd not had such horrendous kicking, and that's without showing anything before North came on. Very Poor, still I would have taken a LBP, so a draw is a good result.

shocking game in all aspects both sides will have to pull out the stops next week and up the gears considerably.

Wales606, were you picking MOTM? no? Do you want to guess who it was? Your favourite Samoan scrum half!

Glas a du wrote:Wales606, were you picking MOTM? no? Do you want to guess who it was? Your favourite Samoan scrum half!

WHAT!!!!!!!!

Tipuric was better, despite the Yellow,

As was everybody else on the pitch.

Who picked that? Are they aware that a SH should be able to pass and catch a rugby ball?


My MOTM would have been Tipuric, but with the Yellow it goes too......ummmm,....Justin Tipuric, nobody else played well.

Dr Gwyn Jones. He even gave a reason - he had to give it to somebody and he couldn't think of anyone else!

I thought Wellies, Knoyle and Dan Evans were awful, time to bring in the youngsters if that's as good as the regulars get, that Ospreys scrumhalf was worse than Knoyle too and that's saying something and he got m.o.t.m.

George North and Foxy looked class coming on, front 5 is a huge worry for the Scarlets, not for the Ospreys though, both teams taking different things from that dirge, Ospreys happy with their forwards but need a better link to the backs and the Scarlets happy with the backs,but not the half-backs.

Turkster wrote:I thought Wellies, Knoyle and Dan Evans were awful, time to bring in the youngsters if that's as good as the regulars get, that Ospreys scrumhalf was worse than Knoyle too and that's saying something and he got m.o.t.m.

George North and Foxy looked class coming on, front 5 is a huge worry for the Scarlets, not for the Ospreys though, both teams taking different things from that dirge, Ospreys happy with their forwards but need a better link to the backs and the Scarlets happy with the backs,but not the half-backs.

I agree, Knoyle and Wellies were poor (thought the replacement SH made a lot of mistakes), is Gareth Davies still injured? Preistland has to play in the HC if fit.

Pity that Scott Williams and Adam Warren didnt get much of a chance to show what they can do.

Ospreys forwards were not the best, but they do still have A.Jones and P.James to come back in - their backrow is poor though (bar Tipuric)

wales606 wrote:

Pity that Scott Williams and Adam Warren didnt get much of a chance to show what they can do.

Ospreys forwards were not the best, but they do still have A.Jones and P.James to come back in - their backrow is poor though (bar Tipuric)

Eli Walker never touched the ball, unbelievable, if they don't think he's worth passing to why play him?
TBH during the game I thought Tipuric was awful, but then I realised he was just playing the ref, he was constantly off his feet, but the ref wasn't penalising for it so he carried on, fair play to him, got a few turnovers illegally, but if he gets away with it, so what?

rhodri Williams (the SH) has been poor every game I've seen him in this season, though his passing was faster today when he came on (not saying much) not sure why Tipuna wasn't on the bench as he looks ok. G Davies is injured, but not sure for how long.

I was hoping D Evans would continue his form from the Ulster game but I guess he's only consistent in his inconsistency.

Rees looked far from match fit - hope he gets there before next week. Didn't think Knoyle was as bad as some players on the pitch - although of course that's a long way from good.

Turkster wrote:

wales606 wrote:

Pity that Scott Williams and Adam Warren didnt get much of a chance to show what they can do.

Ospreys forwards were not the best, but they do still have A.Jones and P.James to come back in - their backrow is poor though (bar Tipuric)

Eli Walker never touched the ball, unbelievable, if they don't think he's worth passing to why play him?
TBH during the game I thought Tipuric was awful, but then I realised he was just playing the ref, he was constantly off his feet, but the ref wasn't penalising for it so he carried on, fair play to him, got a few turnovers illegally, but if he gets away with it, so what?

Yeah, Tipuric should have been penalised a lot, but he played the ref perfectly and was spoiling the Scarlets possession all night.

Knoyle needs a rocket up his jacksy, he's gone backwards big time, never had the best pass anyway but now with all the indecision as well he's awful, mind you we were getting smashed up front till the ospreys committed hari-kari and took their 2nd row off, can't help thinking if you combined the Ospreys forwards with the Scarlets backs we may eventually win the Heineken cup.

Turkster wrote:Knoyle needs a rocket up his jacksy, he's gone backwards big time, never had the best pass anyway but now with all the indecision as well he's awful, mind you we were getting smashed up front till the ospreys committed hari-kari and took their 2nd row off, can't help thinking if you combined the Ospreys forwards with the Scarlets backs we may eventually win the Heineken cup.

That basically what Wales does, only with a few Blues and Dragons thrown in for good measure. (especially in the backrow where neither the Scarlets or Ospreys have a good combo)

Just reading on another forum about Wellies possibly getting cited for the tackle that got him yellow-carded, what's the verdict here? I reckon that if that gets cited then the head-on tackle may well have to cut out of the sport unless it's at waist height or above, or below knee height, as the player getting tackled has the momentum to go over on his back otherwise. Most players twist once tackled anyway to get into position to play the ball back, so even if the tackler doesn't mean to tip it can still look like it, or am I wrong?

couldn't agree more turkster

I said at the time, Warburton deserved to be sent off and as he has now said he agrees, and Steve lifted and drove Tommy to the ground and should have recieved a Red card and the supposed high tackle by the Osprey was at the lower chest area and then rose to the upper chest area, it doesn't deserve anything.
I was worried about this game because of the loss of Adam and Paul, but our 2nd string props handled the Scarlets first choice extremely well, and Fotualli (sp) will come good he just needs game time.

Hey All. Had a blast at the Liberty despite the game not being a corker as expected. Most important of all I had superb seats - Tommy and Schlong were almost in my lap for the first half! It was my first time at the Liberty and I actually really liked the venue.

wayne wrote: Steve lifted and drove Tommy to the ground and should have recieved a Red card

maybe if you'd opened your other eye it wouldn't have looked so bad.

With regards to Stevo's tackle, it did look bad, but not terrible, he didn't drop him that's for sure, and I'm not sure he drove him into the ground either (haven't had the chance to see a replay). I think after the fuss at the world cup, he was very lucky not to see a red, and honestly I think he will get cited.

Personally though, I think a yellow sufficed. We shall see. If he does get cited though, Scarlets desperately need Rhys fit for next week, otherwise we'll be starting with Newton against Castres!