Ospreys eyrie 131223

The speaker welcomes the listener to the Ospreys Airey podcast and explains that they were unable to record the podcast last week due to illness and work commitments. They then discuss the recent Benetton game and the use of rolling mauls in rugby. They mention the possibility of injuries to some players and discuss the low attendance at the game. They also thank the Ospreys for their hospitality during a recent event and express their support for the team. Welcome to the Ospreys Airey. Hello and welcome back to the Ospreys Airey podcast, the podcast for Ospreys fans by Ospreys fans. We're back for an unforced week's break where I was ill last week and as well as being ill I had a million, million things on with work which meant that recording the Airey on a Wednesday just really wasn't, really wasn't doable for me but fear not, we're still going to be talking about Benetton, just the second part of the Benetton saga. Joining me as always is Yestin, Yestin how are we? Good evening, you did, we did so much rotation from the first Benetton game that we somehow switched to this on the main wrap podcast before just using a rolling mall for the second week to make sure we got through it and now we're back. So yeah as you mentioned a bit of a delay in recording but here we are and we're going to chat probably about rolling malls for the remainder of the night. It works for Glasgow fans, why can't we do it, there's nothing wrong with a rolling mall. I think, I can't remember the exact quote that Toby Bootholder says but he doesn't apologise for using something and he brings that up quite often and someone, and it always comes up when there's been a good forwards performance but I can't remember the exact quote but he just started, I don't apologise for, so if someone could fill in the blank for me either send me a message or tweet us, feel free, but yeah, if you've got a mall just use it now. I play rugby with a lot of Clins fans, I live in that part of the world and they always go on about stupid sexy rugby and like you know missed three passes and four goose steps and you know, don't need that, you just need 12 big men pushing, you know, Derry Lake all over the place. That's all you need. And then, yeah, and then if you really want to show off just have a second row doing double missed passes every now and then just to make it a little bit interesting. Yeah, why not, we'll come on to that later, it will be the anniversary soon of Adam Beard missed passes in Montpellier, which I'm happy to talk about off the back of a bad James Ryan performance. I'm always happy to do this, right, yes, Leinster were brilliant, Joe McCarthy I thought was excellent, James Ryan is not a good captain, thank you Leinster fans. I hereby declare that James Flanders is the best second row called James. Agree, there's no other, yeah, they're the only two second rows called James. Great, what have we missed, there has obviously been no news, as we speculated the Cheetahs boys have gone back, it's been confirmed, Reeve Van Cleer and Marlon Svendermurder were in the matchday squad that beat Zebra Parma, went to Italy and Daniel Kassandre has also confirmed that he's gone back as well. No news yet as to if they'll get any more Cheetahs players, I'm sure it's something being talked about in the background, especially with squad sizes being so small, it's something that has come up in the press conference yet again, looking around the club, injury wise nothing maybe has come out, probably sweating over the fitness of Reuben Morgan-Williams after, he's got two HIAs last, how he survived the first one I have no idea. Yeah, it looked quite nasty from the replay camera, it looked like the Barrington player didn't tuck, he tucked his arm in and went in for the head. What was the first one, the knee though, I thought he cut the knee to the head. I'm not too sure, the first one came off the liner which a dog goose goes from later, and it looks like one of the Barrington forwards kind of goes in to make the tackle but the ball's bounced off Morgan-Williams' knee. Right, you may be right. And it looks quite a nasty collision which wasn't picked up by anyone, and the replays look, well not he was in the Barrington player foul play, but it looked like he might not have wrapped fully around the person he was trying to tackle, in this case Morgan-Williams, and then he went off, I thought all right that's the end of this game because it did look like a nasty collision from watching it live. And then remarkably he came back on, and I'm not so sure what happened in the second one unless he might have spoken to one of the physios and said oh I'm not feeling 100% and then they took him back off again or there was another incident. It was a really weird one, so we might be sweating on the fitness of Morgan-Williams which means we'll probably see Luke Davies start with either Cameron Jones or your mate Rodgerie on the bench. Have you had any chat from Rodgerie this week to say that, you know, he's coming out? I haven't actually spoken to him which is a bit of a worry. Because he was training pretty much, which he hasn't done much of this season that I've been told so, which may be a positive sign that you know, not sure what's happened there. The other one that was talked about is Kieran Williams which was mentioned at the press conference, doesn't sound like Kieran's going to make it out to Montpellier which would be a shame, but I thought Watkin and North played quite well on Saturday. Plenty to work on but defensively I thought Watkin was great and I thought he was decent going forward as well, so I'm not overly, I'd rather have Keith back for Boxing Day, fully fit, you know, making Johnny Williams look silly. Oh there it is, Hugh you can tell me, I know you're listening, I mentioned the Scarletts, yeah you're bad, leave. You only mentioned Johnny Williams, I don't think that counts. Yeah, yeah, fair enough. That's if, you know, Scarletts decide to pick a different centre partnership, which apparently they've done every week since Johan Lloyd's been at Scarletts. Well is Wayne Pivack back down there or something, because that's what he did with Will. Has he moved out of Gleneath yet? No clue, absolutely no clue. He was living in, randomly, Gleneath of all places. Isn't he out in Japan now Pivack? Yeah he is, I think he's kept the Gleneath house. There's a bit of a long commute from Gleneath to Japan every day, just to train. Jack McKeown Williams would just go past it, swearing at him every day, like when he left his house. Oh I don't know, because, well, he could have, but I think Kevin Williams would have probably ran through the front of the house somehow. He would have gone through the door. And probably like ruined his cup of coffee or something, and yeah. I also noticed on socials today that Will Hickey seems to be back in full training, which is really, really good for him. He's had some horrid injuries. I really liked the look of him on the South Africa tour last year, as did many Ospreys fans. So I really, really hope that over the next couple of months he really gets his training games together, because he looks a serious talent by all accounts. He's coming out, he does look good. That's the end of the news really. There is no news. Yeah there's no news. We picked an excellent week to go off the pod, because there's been not much news. Everyone else has news. Everyone's got, you know, bits of news. Ellish at Leaving the Dragons. Scarlet's got a bit of news. Cardiff, you know, got Wales Online articles being written on them every two minutes. So yeah, it's been quite, you know, it's been quite reserved really with news. So let's go into the Benetton game then. Were you there, Justin? Yes, I was. The luxury of a Saturday afternoon off, so I spent my time down at the Swansea.com. Were you and three people, as it seemed? Yeah, me and my dad and about three and a half others. So yeah, obviously the attendance didn't look great. The atmosphere wasn't as bad as I first thought. I thought... Well they had a lot to cheer about. Despite the low numbers, you know, I didn't realise how much of an effect rolling balls had on the crowd participation. So that was an interesting one. But yeah, it's a bit of a concern with the attendances at the minute. Especially, you know, when you see only 3,300, I think it was in the end, you know, turn up for a European game, half past five on a Saturday. It's a bit... It is a bit of a worry. But for the people that were there, myself included, I think everyone really enjoyed looking at the comments online after the game. And there was quite a lot of comments saying how much it was a good game. And I don't think the Ospreys could have done much more in terms of advertisement of that game. You know, tickets are as cheap as 10 quid in some parts of the ground. So I don't think there was much that the Ospreys could have done, in a way. But I really enjoyed it. Except when Lorenzo Canone jumped on Jack Morgan to make sure he didn't disrupt the nine for Oliver Scrum, which led to Benedict's second try. Yeah, how rude of him. Other than that, it was really good. Yeah, I thought it was... I obviously didn't get to the game. I chose to... The next game that I will be at will be the box... end of the New Year's Day game in Bridgend. I refused to go to the Park of Scarlet on moral grounds, as well as it being somehow in a worse place than the Liberty Stadium, also a .com stadium. But yeah, look, 3.3k is not great. We know that. The Ospreys will know that. Ultimately, it's up to the fans to go down. We, as a region, have a responsibility to get behind these boys. Results will come. If we keep winning Australian games together, it'll go up. You know, we've got World Series coming up. Hopefully the Bridgend game will be a success. And then we look to the New Year to do something. You know, my grandfather was down there. He was fortunate enough to be doing Santa Claus again this year. I've been in the posh prawn sandwich boxes for the players and staff's kids. So, you know, I said it on the rap part and I'll say it here. Big shout out to the guys at the Ospreys. Particularly Joe, Duncan Jones's wife. She's absolutely amazing. But a big thank you to making him feel welcome. And, you know, he really, he really enjoyed doing it. The Ospreys are his life. So, yeah, really, really, really big shout out to them. But in terms of the game, 43-34, it finished to the Ospreys. Ospreys get the revenge after losing 18-13 the week before in Treviso. Ospreys started off in the seventh minute with Demi Lake going over in close range. Williams converted. Seven minutes later, Benetton scored out wide through Ratave. Converted by Umaga. Just three minutes later, Garth Thomas goes over from close range. Again, Williams converting. Ratave responds again four minutes later with another try. Once again, converted by Jacob Umaga. Who I really like in a Benetton shirt, by the way. That's a team that can easily build around him. And I wouldn't mind him playing for Italy as well. But I think that would give him another 10 option. Just four minutes later, again, Demi Lake gets a second of the game. Before Seb Negri scores a lovely try on the 34th minute. Frozen at the half, Jacob Umaga scores a penalty, which meant that Benetton went into the half with 24-21. On the other side of halftime, then Demi Lake secured his hat-trick just six minutes in. Owen Williams, once again, proving handy off the boot. But then just five minutes later, Paulo Adoguo, from Waschmann, comes to that francaise centre. Goes over. Demi Lake scores an uncovered try in the 56th minute. Before replacement Spagnolio gets a yellow card, which I believe was for repeated infringements yesterday? Yeah, I think so. Because Brex made a no-arms tackle on someone. I want to say it was Owen Watkin. And then, yeah, I think the prop went off. Oh, I can't remember. It was near the end, wasn't it? The last 10 minutes? The 35th minute Spagnolo got a yellow card. Um, yeah, I think it was repeated infringements. Yeah, it might have been prop time. So I believe repeated infringements. Ospreys backed themselves despite Tom Shankton not approving on cons. And went for the corner. The Moor came up just short. But inspirational leader Maldon Morris went over with the Walsh kicking extras. 79th minute, Jacob Uemanga kicks a penalty to bring Benetton back into losing bonus point range. Before a Nicky Smith turnover in the 80th minute in front of the post. Sees Jack Walsh kick a penalty, meaning Benetton only come away with the one point. So 43-34, it finished. Let's look at the stats. Um, six tries to four. Can't really ask for much better there, can you? Yes, 10 tries at the dot com. Don't see that very often. Normally it's against us. You don't see the Ospreys score six very often, do you? Unless they score their own tries or something like that. But, um, yeah, it's six tries. All right, a couple of them did come off rolling walls and some very good carry in from Gareth Thomas and Morgan Morris, who's obviously a follower of the podcast. They should say. And, um, yeah, you know, it was, um, you know, good fun. End-to-end stuff. Um, Benetton kind of exposed, um, the Ospreys blitz a little bit at times, especially for the first and, uh, first and third try. So I think the second try came off a scrum. So, and they just jotted down the blind side when everyone thought it was going to the open side. So, um, yeah. So a bit of a lesson there in terms of, uh, maybe the width of the Ospreys defence. Um, but on hindsight, looking for the stats, the Ospreys defence wasn't as bad as conceding four tries bad. Yeah, let's focus on that actually, because I myself obviously was watching on telly and said to, uh, said to you as well as others in the group chat that, wow, we can't defend. And when I went to look at the stats, uh, this week and I tweeted yesterday, um, uh, on, on Twitter at Ospreys Irie, uh, we had a 92% tackle depletion of 130 tackles made. We only missed 12. It seems to be more of a structure thing rather than, you know, missing first tackles. Um, you can see we were, we were shooting very narrow. Um, and actually Benetton had, uh, seen this and said, right, you know, we need to get the hand of the ball in the hands of Retave. Um, and Adogwu, and you would have thought Padovani, but I thought he had quite a game, uh, as not merely as a potent attack and threat, but Retave especially. They get the ball that way, particularly to that, that channel of Luke Morgan and Yester Hopkins. Um, I think Giles was quite an underrated defender, um, but Luke Morgan and Yester Hopkins definitely were frail defensively. If I go to the missed tackles stack, this might tell me a bit more. Uh, if I go to tackles missed, it was actually, yeah, so Yester Hopkins and Luke Morgan both missed one. Um, you know, so you're looking definitely out wide their way and it was just a geospace thing. They, they just moved the ball really well. And Benetton do do that. Um, you know, Umang is a great distributor. He was, uh, um, he was at Wasps. Um, so, you know, I'm not surprised to see that, but defensively we were really, really good, I thought. You know, let's look at the tackle charts. Um, Reece Davis playing at six again, uh, made it 18 tackles. I don't think missed any. Uh, I missed one. Adam Beard, 15 tackles, missing two. I thought Adam Beard had a fantastic game. Uh, Adam Beard had 13 tackles, so I missed him too. So I thought he had a really great game. Um, and Jack Morgan again, feels like we say this every week. Jack Morgan, he had 15 tackles. It was Fender hit double digits, you know, so, so the, you know, boys making tackles aggressive off the line, shutting down the big ball carriers. You know, I, I can't remember the words. Okay. Feketewa being announced at all. Same with, you know, I know Negri scored a try, but I thought he was quite quiet. What, uh, Kanone, you know, the, these, these really, really big tennis ball carriers. So we kept them really, really quiet. Yes, how was it stadium wise? Who stood out to you defensively? Um, I was going to say George North. And for the first try, Umaga put in a superb little offload, um, which makes him look a little bit, a little bit silly because North shoots out the line, which is probably what he's instructed to do to try and stop, you know, the ball getting out wide. But Umaga produces a really good offload. So, um, that was a bit, that was, you know, good to watch from, from, from that perspective that Benetton kind of made sure that that was their plan and they didn't stick to it. And they did stick to it. Um, well, but the players you just mentioned there, you know, you, you're totally correct. You know, James Fender went well, Adam Beard went well, but it wasn't just them all that went well. They, they defended well too. Um, recently they've turned into more of a six now. Um, I don't think many had that at the end of last season, but he's certainly growing in that, in the back row. And then you've got two players like Jack Morgan and Morgan Morris who are, you know, they're constantly there every week. Okay. They may not be there when Six Nations comes around, but when they're playing at the Osprey, they're constantly there playing really well. And it's just, you know, it's something that they're good at and they just do their jobs. And, um, I think Booth mentioned post-match about how Owen, of the leadership group and how Owen Walken is the defensive captain or defensive leader, one or the other. And, um, you know, you can, you can see that when they, when they blitz out from, from defence. Okay. They got caught out a little bit, but you can definitely see, you know, that the intention's there anyway. And, you know, it's just the old era, maybe allowing Benton back into the game or giving them the platform to, you know, attack. And if they, you know, if they clear that route, maybe the odd exit or, well, for the dog who tried the error from the liner, which follows, uh, which results in Morgan Williams not controlling the ball and then Benton have a chance in the 22. But the Ospreys, the good thing about the Ospreys was they always came back into it, despite giving away a try. They'd always go back up to the other end, force an error from Andy Urine, the Benton nine, who kicked them out on the foul, for example. And he didn't have a great day off the boot at all. Andy Urine, there was evidence he got rattled a bit, but again, I don't, the depth at nine really helps. Playing Scarlet's Legend, coming off the bench. In terms of, you talked there about the, the, the sort of the grit and the heart of the Ospreys showed, but, you know, they go try, they get, if Benton get a try back, the Ospreys go up the other end. Where does that come from? Does that come from sticking to the systems, you know, trusting the game plan, trusting the kicking game? Ospreys kicked 20 times, you know, Benton 18, so relatively similar. Like we mentioned, Benton probably didn't kick as well as they did last week, when back at home. Or does it come from just forcing, forcing Benton to do stupid things? If you look at the dominant tackle stats, Jack Morgan, you know, Owen Williams made two dominant tackles, Rhys Davies, you know, there's the, there's the, the aggressive defence and the tight force, and it's on to play a bit more. And then, you know, says you give the ball away, putting this back down the field. Where does that come from? You could argue that the togetherness and the, that could come from the culture that's been installed. You mentioned about how, you know, Benton sort of tried and the Ospreys came back. We saw elements of that last year in the home game against Montpellier. So, yeah, a very, very similar try by Morgan Morris right at the end of both games to, you know, seal the result. And so, you know, there's probably a little bit of that, that, you know, that, well, the majority of that squad, they've, they've been playing with each other for over a season. And they are, they are a tight squad from what I hear. And I think maybe the individual errors give Benton the opportunity to score tries, but maybe, I'm not sure if they, if they thought about maybe running it from deep. Of course, that hooker made a, made that line break in the second half before being chomped by Derry Lake. But, but the kicking stats were remarkably low compared to the week previous. Because Benton made 38 kicks the week before in the URC game. And the Ospreys did more than that. They kicked the ball 42 times last week in the URC. So, the, so it's probably in terms of the game as well, how un-dwendy it was. I think the URC game the week before was a bit stop-start in a way. There might have been the old landing error or, you know, and maybe the ball going to touch a little bit more. So, I think probably the less kicking probably suited the Ospreys' defence a little bit. Because it was, you know, because Benton would go, Benton would go multi-phase to score quite a few of their tries, except for the second one, which they scored off first phase. But I think it's just, I don't know how to really put it. It's just, I think it's just the togetherness of that Ospreys squad. And, you know, the developing leaders would, throughout the squad, you know, Jack Morgan, Derry Lake, Wales' co-captains. Morgan Morris, who's now kind of taken over as Ospreys' captain because Justin Timberlake's injured. Owen Watkin was mentioned as defensive captain in the press conference last week. George North was given a bit of praise as well. Absolutely. It wasn't Imperius, you know, or as Imperius best, but the knowledge and wisdom he imparts. You know, others than that. Looking a bit then at where it went right for the Ospreys, I think it's really easy to say they just hit rolling walls. You know, Benton gave away, I think, 11 penalties. And when you back yourselves to kick to the corner, which the Ospreys did a lot. You know, they did it at Leicester last season. When they went away to Montpellier, actually, last season, the Moore, Sam Parry, you know, they forced the yellow cards. And Montpellier would be smart to this time, I think. They'll look a lot of... But you can't, you know, you can't equate for raw power. You know, as someone who does Moores at a very, very low level. How you structure and how you set up that Moore is so important, you know, and having the right callers, having the right jumper, you know, where you're hitting the floor, you know, where you're hitting through. Things like that, they all make a difference. And it's clear, it's Toby Booth and Richard Kelly sat down with Beard, Fender, Dewey, Sam Parry, Ethan Lewis, all these different people to be like, this is how we want to structure this Moore. This is what I need you to do. And how are we going to use this as a weapon? Because it was just, you know, it just hits a head of steam. But where we really made best on it and where it sits best in stats is obviously line-up percentage, 100% for Dewey Lake. He's really, since the Elias sort of conversations this season, when he came back against the Lions, Elias has been wildly inconsistent. Dewey, I think, has been on a really good curve, was brilliant as a scarlet, obviously didn't play last week and, you know, wasn't perfect off the darts. This week, in terms of our attack, Ospreay's passed the ball 208 times, something we see a lot, you know, especially the tip-on into contact, you know, Adam Beard puts people into contact, Morgan Morris passes six or seven times a game. We carried the ball 167 times compared to 103 to Benetton, but where the stats really show this 282 metres post-contact. Benetton do have 224 with seven lane breaks, which is like we discussed earlier, mostly came from out wide. But it's just that relentless ball carrying that I think around the tight area of first phase, you know, we pass a lot of nines. You know, I will mention the Reuben or Morgan Williamson. I think Reuben's the right nine for us where we are right now. I get Luke Davis is quick, I get that, you know, Luke Davis seems to be a really, really good regional player, but Morgan controls the game well, he kicks well, we play a lot of nines, that's exactly what we need. Reuben wants to turn it on, he can, and we've seen that in the past. You know, carrying wise, Dewey Lake carried 26 times, Morgan Morris carried a good few, Owen Watkin carried 15 times, you know, the names you expect for the Ospreys, but ultimately it's just, they just battered Benetton up front. In a way, not like you batter the Scarlets a couple of weeks ago that you're suffering, you know, drawing penalties out of them and things like that. In this case, it's just like it's in a brick wall constantly until it falls. That's when it was like, you just break them down and you see that from the tries that come up close, is just bringing runners like Gareth Thomas and Dewey Lake or Morgan Morris around the corner all the time. A defense is going to stutter and a defense is going to let tries in and that's not a bad thing. What did you notice attack-wise, Yes? They did actually play, the narrative of the Ospreys, I'll keep that tight using the four words, they did, you know, spend a bit of time playing it out wide as well. So there's a bit of variety and then Giles had a couple of nice touches. You know, they were trying to expose Benetton out wide as well. It wasn't just always a forward dominant, you know, display. I think in the build-up to the Gareth Thomas try, you know, there's some nice touches from mainly, but from everyone involved, forwards and backs combining. There was times where Gareth Thomas was standing out in the 15 channel, which was rather interesting. And then, you know, you've got the likes of, you know, Kieran Giles unlocking George North, you know, while trying to break through and expose the Benetton defense out wide. And then once they probably reached the 22, they just all got tight and go back to your basics and, you know, just use the forward, use what works for you, use the dominance that there was up front. And it all goes back really to that first rolling mull right at the start of the game, where the Ospreys just sat up a mull. I think it was round about the 10 meter line and they just kept going and going and going and eventually forcing out a penalty out of the referee. And then, you know, kept further on downfield and copy and paste, really, and do them all again. So, yeah, despite the forward dominance, there was some really nice touches. Okay, they didn't result in tries. I think that might be one of the one things to look to work on over the course of the next week or so, maybe. But then again, if weather conditions are like they are in Wales, you don't really need fancy backs moves and you just need a strong pack. So, yeah, it may be something a little bit to work on, but it was, you know, an element of that attacking display in a way. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I look at... The Ospreys have got the ball wide quite a bit this season, is what we're doing with it. And it doesn't always necessarily get into a line break. You know, we got against Scarlets, we got the ball in their hands to Morgan a bit. We did it against Benetton. You know, it's about how we deal, do it out wide as well. You know, we don't necessarily use the back row we're playing the minute. We don't necessarily set a back rower out on the fringes like we do with like a Justin Tipperick or a Will Griff, someone who is really, really comfortable. I know in the past, Morgan Morris has been... I've been down that tram line, but he's so important in that within, you know, 15 to 15, essentially. Any other thoughts from the game? Well, but do you want to talk about the hit on Zambotta? Or would you just... Was it worthy of a look? I think it was worthy of a look, I thought at the time, because I think the replay came on quite late following the incident. I think the game had probably got underway again as they showed the replay. So I don't think they could have looked back late because the game had moved on. Well, on TV, the referee said the TMO has confirmed no head contact. Well, I don't know if I agree with that. Yeah, this is the inconsistency that I don't like. I thought the ref had a very decent game up there. I thought the yellow card for Benetton was deserving. It was after, you know, a lot of parties in succession. The Oscars only give away six penalties in total. You have a duty with head injuries and, you know, look, I'm also of the agreement if Zambotta got hit in the head, he should have gone off for HIA. But to me, it was at least worth a look from the referee to say, oh, actually, I disagree with you there. He's hit him on the chin. It's upright in the tackle. There were no dips from both. It's dominant. It's, you know, so I think it was definitely worth a look. But, you know, unfortunately, it didn't change the outcome of the game. Hopefully, Tom Boat was available. Let's look ahead to Ospreay's European tour. We're off to Montpellier, off to the old stomping ground. We won twice there last season. We got the monkey off our back, finally winning an away game in France as well as Europe, against a big club. Let's get out of the way early Montpellier and not having a good season. They sit at the rock bottom of the top 14. They have one win this season, I believe, and that was against La Rochelle. This is coming from the Scarlet phenopod, who, you know, I have here is, you know, twisted it to say that Scarlet statistically have the hardest group in Europe and we have the easiest. Um, okay. So we go out to Montpellier, who come off the back of a victory against Newcastle Falcons, for Newcastle Falcons team, and may add a very second string. Montpellier went out there with a very decent squad, you know, I looked through Harry Williams, uh, uh, Clement Dumouneur, Sam Simmonds, Leo Colley, Louis Cabanel, Ben Lamb, George Bridge, Anthony Boutier, look on the bench, you got a guy, Thouin Oufiaké, Thouin Oukouafé, Titi Lamassatelli, you know, we've been, we've been here before, right? We, we went out there last year, the famed double pump mispass from Adam Beards, but Morgan Morris over, how are you feeling about this one, Aston? Bit of a banana skin, isn't it? When you look at Montpellier's start of the season in the top 14, you're like, oh, you know, going away to the side, this bottom of the top 14, you're thinking, you know, reasonable chance that, that you could go there and get a result, but you just mentioned the caliber of those players that were playing last week in their game against Newcastle, and it is a banana skin, and despite what the league table says, they don't care if it's the easiest group to call them the sum or, or wherever, um, you know, the Montpellier side is still very good. It wasn't so long ago that they were winning the challenge cup, and they won the league. Okay, Andre Paul has moved on, was a big loss, but you've got someone like Louis Cabral now, then as backer, and who's now first choice. I'm not sure if Pablo Garbici's injured, he was playing on the weekend, you know, he is a good outside half, and there's still some good players. We, you know, in the last game, last season's game in Swansea was probably one of the best in terms of quality throughout that season. There wasn't, there wasn't many errors. Okay, I still have a little bit of a grudge from Paul Valencia for his hit on Rhys Davies, but that's, that's the sport we all follow, and we all love, but, you know, there's still, you know, still some good players in that team, regardless of where they are in the league, and if they go fully loaded, it's going to be a real tough test, especially up front, because if you've got, it's going to be a brilliant experience for James Fender going up against Paul Valencia, but, but, you know, look at, if you put those two teams on paper, very similar to the Bantam game, it's an exciting matchup, but it's also a tough matchup. So, it'll be interesting to see, you know, French sides in the Challenge Cup, they might not send their strongest side, they did last weekend's Newcastle, maybe it was to get a win, under their new coaching regime, but, but yeah, it's going to be interesting, if they could send out the kids, that, on their second string, that would do me a treat, because, you know, there's a bit, a little bit less pressure then, instead of rocking up and seeing Ben Lamb and George Bridge, up against, Luke Morgan and, potentially, you know, someone like Keelan Jones, and you're thinking, that's going to be some tough battle. Yeah, it's, it's a really, interesting matchup, I think from a, from an Ospreys point of view, because actually, you go out there, and you don't want to sit and rest on your laurels, and be like, oh well, we kicked them twice last year, they'll remember that, they were hurting from that, you know, they put out a, probably a bit more of a weakened team at home, against us last year, compared to the ones that came out of the Swansea.com stadium, and when we beat them, there was a sense of like, shit, we just lost to the Ospreys, we're the French champions here, and it was still a good, it was a still a good Montpellier side, but I don't remember there being a Paul Wilhelmser starting, Wilhelmser came off the bench, Wilhelmser definitely came off the bench, but compared to the squad they sent down a week later, you were thinking like, yeah. Actually, looking at, I'll just search that up, yeah, they had Boutier-Fullback, captain, Ben Lam and George Bridge on the wings, Farbenel at 10, with Garbisi at 12, with Darmon at 13, they had Botelho, I believe he's a French international at loose head, Anga and Moussa, he, yeah, he was good, and no Welsh international, Henry Thomas was starting, he wasn't good that day, Wilhelmser was on the bench as a part of a 6-2, with Twinka Afasi, the New Zealand proc, and well, Leo Colley was there, the French second row, was in trouble over the last two months, oh, the racists, yeah, yeah, he was there, I think he was starting, he got yellow carded didn't he, I think the other lock alongside him got Sindent, yeah, which I'm not going to try and pronounce his name, Sam Simmonds played, Sam Simmonds was, didn't play, Zach Mercer played, oh, Zach Mercer, that's the one, and Reinhardt, and Reinhardt started at 9, so, looking at that side, it's definitely not full strength, but there was, they sent a better squad, I feel like they sent a better squad the week after, either way, they both got twatted around by Adam Beers, well, let's not take it away, let's not take anything away, I mean, we still, you know, despite all the good work from the pack, a miss pass was like the most memorable thing after that doublehead, which is quite, well, okay, maybe Tipperick might have, might have a say about that, yeah, yeah, maybe the, maybe the Tipperick, but I think, you know, still strong sides from both legs, I think, yeah, and you're going to get strong sides from, from that French, from that French team, where I think we can definitely, pilot them again is the lineup, they only have a 70% lineup completion rate up in Newcastle, I expect, we'll talk about squad predictions in a minute, but the front row, we may have a little change around, but yeah, it's a really tough one, I think, it's such a banana skin game for us, we have to go out there, I think, target two points at a minimum, and be like, if we can come away with two, like a losing bonus point and a bonus point, I'd be really happy, because it means, we just have to be pimping out at home, essentially, to qualify top, I'd imagine, but actually I want the win, and I'd rather get four points, you know, if we, if we go through at top, we play a weaker team, Marona 16 than we would, which, you know, we're still the Osprey, so we will lose, you know, somehow, we start trying to say again, Parisi will somehow be there, and yes, in a way, we'll just say they're going to face us, and again, we'll probably be moved to the Principality Stadium as well, just for old time's sake, just to piss us off even more, let's have a go, at doing our squad, from up here away, I remind you, we have no idea on injury updates, okay, we literally have zero, insight into the squad, Ospreys, I know you're listening, please send us squad updates, and let's have a look, I will, did not delete, my streets won't forget, you can go and look at my streets won't forget 15, and a lot of, you know, a lot of love for that, big thank you to Caelan, for tweeting his monster one as well, that really helped bump up the numbers, I think, I think Liam, everything kind of rugby, did his as well, please have a go for your team, doing your streets won't forget, I think there was a Scarlet's one published as well, so big thanks to Robbie for giving us that idea, but give us more themed 15s as well, I want to do more, we might, I might try and knock up a Christmas themed 15, but definitely give us more themed 15s, they're really good fun to do, yes, then I really enjoy going back and forth on these, on our Twitter, through the DMs, right, let's have a look, yes then, who are we starting at? Loosehead, I'm sticking the same front row that went out there last year, oh, right, so you're going, so you're going Gareth is it? Yeah, I think he's going to take out Nicky, for the scrimmaging ability, we're both saying Dewey, or are you saying Sam Parry? I'm going to stick with Sam Parry, I think, he's harsh on Lake, I know, and he scored four tries, but I might have one eye on Boxing Day, just, you know, yeah, I get you, I think you're going to start Dewey, knowing our luck, we pick a bunch of injuries this weekend, and it all goes wrong, oh, don't say that now, and then, Tommy Boater, I think we're both, both migrating, Boater will start, moving into the row, I think he'll stick with the same second row we've gone with this week, yeah, I think so too, yeah, realistically, we're not knowing any back rows coming back, Tipperidge, not Bath, no news on Griffiths, Rafferty, so safe to say that we could be seeing, so let's go with, Adam Beard, four, Beards, then, my friend and yours, the self-proclaimed petrol head himself, Southgow's finest export since sand in your boots, it's James Fender, have you been to Southgow before Justin, you've been up there, oh, no, so for those who haven't been to Southgow before, it's a beautiful looking pitch, you know, you go through the loveliest part of Mumbles, you go up, people pass, it's some really beautiful landscapes, you get up there, and it's the most windswept place I've ever been, there's sand everywhere, it gets everywhere, and it's always, just any time of the year, the windchill is horrific, and they were a gnarly bunch to play against as well, so no surprise James Fender came out that thriving, so we go with a six, probably Rhys Davies again, yeah, absolutely, I don't see why we would swap that, the alignment threat, he's, I think, probably the most underrated player in Wales at the minute, definitely the most underrated Welshman, he's had an underrated start to the season as well, by playing both lock and six, so yeah, I think he's going to go for a six again, in my one and only time I've ever praised the Scarlets, he's had a very similar season to Alex Craig, I think, he's had a really good start to the season with the Scarlets, yeah, but Alex Craig is Scottish and plays for the Scarlets, so I will, you know, disregard him, at open side Flanker, there's only one man for the job, there surely isn't there, well I don't think he played in the fixture last year, he was off the bench, Jack Morgan, and then with Morgan Morris it's eight, the only thing that's missing from this team is Ethan Root's whacking advertisement board insults, I mean stop doing this to me, every week you mention Ethan Root and I get more and more sad, because he was in France this week, he beat Toulon away, with a Henry Slade last minute penalty kick, I'm so happy for him, I thought he was going to go out there and maybe be a bench warmer, Premiership Cup starter, he's really smashing it, and it just shows how highly rated he was at the Ospreys, and full power to him, he's a nice bloke, and an even better Blaise O Flanker, nine, this is where it probably gets a bit tricky now, what am I saying? Probably Luke Davis, I think he earns enough credit from the band and performance, I think, the band and performance I should say, I think it'll be Luke Davis as well, I just don't think Ruben is alive right now, I think somehow, how he was on that pitch I would never know, ten, this is a tricky one for me, because Owen went really well, I don't want Jack to stifle his momentum, because I thought he was playing really well, but I'm going to go with Owen, are you sticking with Owen? I'm sticking with Owen, yes. I think Owen rightly faced a lot of criticism after his performance, in the URC marathon, but I thought he was back to his best on Saturday, you know, kicked everything by one I think, yes, one touch then conversion off his wrong foot, yes, well you can forgive him for that, right, positive from the URC game, he made a couple of rip tackles as well, he tackled well on Saturday, out of nowhere, he just propped up, and he'd be the second man into a tackle, he'd rip it out of the bench. So, the only time I think clearly touched is his channel, but Owen stepped up, he made 11 tackles, two dominant hits, yes, I thought really, really good pause for him, left wing, Keelan Giles, isn't it? Keelan Giles for me as well, good to have him back, he's just, he's just bags of fun, 12, Owen Watkin, I'd imagine, yes, defensive leader, 13, I'd imagine we'd take, North would go out, again, didn't have a, he had a much better game than he did against the Dragons, hopefully him getting a run of games under his belt means he's just, has that bit more momentum, on the right wing then, unless for a freak accident and Harry Houston comes in and beats up Morgan, wouldn't it? Has he played every game this season and only picked up one yellow card? Don't say that. I just wanted to say. Didn't he get a yellow card that over Montpellier last year, and should have had another one, he should have had a red. He got, he deliberately knocked the ball on for one attack, and it came just about time as well, and there's a massive defensive shifter, to basically avoid conceding a try, and I can't remember the second one, was it a high tackle or something? Yeah, I think it might have been the other way around, actually, definitely, he should have had a red card, but look, wouldn't change him for the world. And then, 15, the child, Destin Hopkins, because Max Nagy has no leg. Jack Walsh for fullback, anyone? Do you know what? It crossed my mind, but I just feel that if we're going to have Walsh on the bench, he's better off on the bench than he is at fullback, because otherwise you're just wasting an attacking talent like Hopkins. Yeah, my only other argument to that would be Matt Prothero, but he's only definitely attacking talent. Yeah, let's look at the bench then, so obviously that was the other way around, I think it would be David Lake, you think it would be David Lake, I think it would be Sam Parry, 17, oh, congratulations to Sam Parry, by the way, on the birth of his newborn baby, congrats to all from the Ask Brasario podcast, really, really, really good news. Lucio Propp, oh, we swapped around on this as well, Nicky Smith for you, Garton for me, Gareth Thomson's best performance of the season. Yeah, I think Garton probably deserves another run now after his performance, I think if Lake didn't score four tries, Garton was very close to winning Man of the Match. He was very, very good, 18, are you going with Big Sexy, or are you going with the Citroen C4? Oh, that's a tough one to pick, isn't it? I think it'd be Ben Warren. I think it'd be Ben Warren as well. He's settled into that role nicely now. As much as I'd like to see Rhys Henry score in the corner to win the game, I think it'd be Ben Warren. Well, this is where it gets tricky, are we going to see Harry Deeves in at 19 again? Yeah, I think so, it was a brief cameo last week, wasn't it? All right, the Beast, and here we've got some points clean, and then will you say Tristan Davies? Yeah, I think he'd warrant a European game after USC Benetton. Again, was on the bench, had a very brief cameo last week, 21, he did come on, I believe. He might have, I can't remember. I know, I remember Deeves come on, because of his cap. Yeah, 21, replacement Scrimoff, unless we're going 7-6-2, which I don't think we have the forwards to go 6-2. Have we got seven forwards on the bench to do a 7-1? Well, can we? Will Hickey is going to be in 22. Who are we saying? I think Cam Jones. You're going to go Cameron Jones and Scrum Heart, but not to the Leeds City. From what I've seen, he looks quite quick. So, I will go Cameron Jones as well, but I would not be surprised if we saw another short ginger player in Roger Lewis. He'd have a go at you if you called him ginger, but he'd really have a go at you for that. I don't think he's got a great club. I might pass on the message to him. Fine. Another short player who's played for Swansea recently. There we are. I'll do. Replacement Schleinhardt, or 22. Are we both in agreement that Welsh here? Yeah. Notice how he didn't play Luke Scully this week, because it wouldn't be fair on Malatai Fektoa, because he demolished him. Luke Scully demolished him the week before. Yeah. What is the difference between Yeah. What did Luke Scully do wrong to be completely dropped from the 23? That is the question of the week, isn't it? He was just too good. We have to contain his powers. Finally, are we both in with Prothero? Yeah. I would not be surprised when Matt Prothero starts, so, ahead of Luke Walden. I would like to see him start for the chaos that he brings, but I think... Um, right. So, our squads to go to Montpellier are... Let's go. I'll go with Yestin's first. Yestin has been Gareth Thomas, Sam Parry, Tom Boater, Beardy, Fender, Rhys Davis, Jack Morgan, Morgan Morris, who I'm just going to assume is captain. Luke Davis, Owen Williams, Keelan Giles, Owen Watkin, George Knorr, Luke Morgan and Yester Hopkins, Debbie Lake, Nikki Smith, Ben Warren, Harry Deeves, Tristan Davis, Cameron Jones, Jack Walsh, and I assume Prothero. I've gone for a very similar team. I've gone for Nikki Smith, Debbie Lake, Tom Boater, Beard of Fender in the engine room, back row, Davis, Morgan and Morris. Backline is... is exactly the same. Luke Davis, Owen Williams, Keelan Giles, Owen Watkin, George Knorr, Luke Morgan, Yestin, Hopkins, on bench, Sam Parry, Gareth Thomas, Ben Warren, Harry Deeves, Tristan Davis, Cameron Jones, Jack Walsh, Matt Prothero. Yestin, give me a score prediction. Um, I was on the Welsh pod earlier and I may or may not have said Montpellier by two. Okay, Montpellier. Uh, Montpellier by two. I am gonna go, I'm feeling Osprey's win. I'm gonna go Osprey's by four. The vibes are just too good. The vibes are too good. Uh, that is it. Uh, for us tonight. Relatively short one, I believe. Um, Brent Fraser, are you having fun? Yeah. No chatting about the streets, don't forget 15. I know the fact that down to Sunday should be captain of every 15 that we ever made. Yeah. If for those who don't know, I tweeted out the streets won't forget 15 and I said I was going to do it a lot quicker than I did. So my street, my James's streets won't forget 15 went like this. Aaron Jarvis in at one. The man who inexplicably played for Claremont for so long was also a very solid prop. Scott Arden at two. Thanks for returning far too early. We couldn't put Evan Phillips in there. He's on the bench. Scott Arden was, was fantastic and one of those underrated hookers. Tited I struggled with. Okay. I wanted to go Campbell Johnstone, but he only appeared like six times. Um, Dan Souter was a meme. So I've just gone with Malfufia. Um, but the four to eight is where it gets sexy. Tyler Argeron, four. What a man. Oh, he is awesome. World Cup winner, Marvin Ory. The, the, the yin to my yang. That's a great, that's a great boiler room, isn't it? Uh, back row, Sam Lewis. Uh, one of the man with the most unfortunate timing in Wales rugby to come through when he did. Um, now playing straight at Hartbury. Um, Simon Hill at seven streets. We'll never forget the 2015, 2016 season. Um, and then at eight, the original Cornish barrel, Joe Beaman. James King should be on that bank somewhere. James King is on the bench. I haven't done a bench, but James King is like further down the document, just in capital letters. James King. Um, Joe Beaman was he's one that started in a leak leak title when in final. Yeah, exactly. And I love James King, but he was like, the type of guy, you know, who sells you windows? Like he, I love James King, but he's the most boring man I've ever seen. But the streets will forget him because he looks like, you know, a furniture salesman. Well, he pinched the old line out. You're in there. I think there was one. He perfectly, perfectly serviceable. By all accounts, a really nice man. You know, according to a Wales interview, I watched a few years ago, the tightest man ever as well, which I respect. Moving in at nine, then Tom Haggerfield, squidges favorite player to ever exist. So they play the Oscar, but genuinely the mole was a very, very good nine. Controversially at 10, I've gone for Joe Thomas because I have to get him in there. Because that brief period when hook was, was injured last retirement, we didn't have a 12. Joe Thomas just turned into the prime, you know, prime James Huck all of a sudden. He can play 10 as proved by Swansea RFC. As everyone says, Stephen Myler, but Stephen Myler's not streets will forget. He's a club legend. Yeah. Like when we do make a hall of fame, Stephen Myler will be first balance. You know, the streets won't forget Stephen Myler because, you know, he's, he's, he's a myth. He's an urban legend. Number 11, Eli Walker. Tragically cut too short career wise. I think he's got a brace in his final game for injury against Cardiff. Yeah. Oh, what a man. Honourable mention goes to my favorite player. I say in the Tonga. Shout out the hat trick against Cardiff. Blues at 12, Josh Matavesi, the most outrageous dummy in, in, in world rugby. I think the team, the rugby trainer, Ben Jon. Vastly underrated player. I thought, it's a career tragedy. Kept short with Scarletts. 14, Jeff Hassler. Boom, boom. Canadian boom. What a man. I'll never forget being sat in the West stand. I think it was a New Year's Day game against Conox. But it's definitely against Conox. And he, he's running down the left-hand side of the pitch. Goes to score a try. The, I think it might have been Caelan Blade or someone like that, runs into him. And goes about five meters the other way. Because Jeff Hassler just sends him basically into row one. And then at 15, this is more of a tribute to Andy Howell. Felt Matthew Maldon. Nipper. Prime nipper at Ospreys was just unplayable. I think it was, was it that try against Edinburgh? You might know the one I'm on about, where he's just halves, or he weaves through the defence. There's a try against the Dragons, which he, which he had a set up of scores, which Nigel Owens falls over after a tackle from Toby Falotel. Yeah. Honorable mention to your bench should be Hanno Dirksen. Yeah, Dirko's definitely in there. Scored against Edinburgh when it was like snowing, and he just chipped and chased him about. But just Hanno Dirksen in general, like a bloke who came over and just threw himself into the whole culture of the Ospreys. We've already mentioned James King. That definitely goes in there. Obviously my hero in yours, Daniel Kosende. Who else would go in there that, that just... With the Mishu Haith set as a bench tight end. Yeah, and this is where I think it's club legend comes in. Because our hip was just, for years was a cornerstone of the Ospreys. I had a hundred appearances. Streets will never forget him, but I don't know if he makes it into the 15. And there's actually Beck Squeaky's way in somewhere. He's close as well, but I think he's more of a club legend. He's a club legend, but wasted talent, 15. In terms of just blighted by injuries. Who else would go in there off the top of my head? Dan Baker goes in there blighted by injuries, 15. Um, oh, who else? I'm just, no one off the top of my head. We mentioned James King. Someone mentioned, I think it was Hugh Griffin said Rob McCaskill. Um, no. You give me really silly free kick against Saracens in Europe. Yeah. Dan Evans, Dan Evans maybe for just the sheer amount of tries he's scored, but he goes into club legend. In his peak. Club legend status. Like Dan Evans from what, 2016 to about... No, before that. I'd say 2014, 15. I'd say. Yeah. So about the time he kicked Teddy Tom on the head. Until he discovered delivery. 2019, say. Off the top of my head. I can't really think of anyone else. I have to go back in. Tweet me. Tweet us at AskRosairie. Tell us any theme 15s you want us to do and any more to the streets. And we'll forget 15. We'll add it to the Twitter. Uh, yes. Then where can we find you on X slash Twitter? Um, yes. Then underscore Thomas to one. Are you on blue sky yet? Do you have a code? Yes, I have. And I've got an invite code. So if anyone wants, wants to hop on that, send me a message. I've got a code apparently. So I don't think I have a code because I'm not actually finished setting up my profile, but you can follow me on blue sky. It is James Reese eight, which you can also follow. I'll just do one invite code available guys. If you do want me, I am on blue sky at James Reese. Uh, blue sky. Um, I have an invite code available. Please drop me a message. The blue sky is generally full of lens to support us. Yeah. If you, if, if you are an Ospreys fan, get on blue sky and, and get following us very quickly because it is hell on there. And it is not only the, the, the Chino wearing lens to support us. There's like hardest supporters on there as well. Um, you know, look at you doc, you know, who else is on there? Scarlet's fans are, Ed Jenkins is running wild on there, right? Please get on blue sky Ospreys fans. Um, you can tweet me at James Reese eight on Twitter. My DMS are open. Hopefully we're going to have a break over Christmas now. Um, it's unlikely that we're going to record next week is something that we'll have to sit down and do and talk about. As Lee mentioned on the main rap part, we are hopefully going to be recording some super cool stuff over the next week. So that'll keep you guys fed over Christmas. We will be back. Definitely to review the Sunday game against the old enemy. But it depends if we win or not. It depends if we lose. But I will try and think about doing something, a little preview beforehand. Maybe with him from, from Scarlet fever. We'll see. But other than that, you can see us at Ospreys on Twitter. Go follow the main pod rap. I'm a main presenter on there. Now, for some reason, they've let me run wild on there. Yes. And appeared on there numerous times. You can check out social podcasts, Scott fever podcast and the podcast as well as yes. Then where else do you appear on? I'm on the RFC match. What do you record? Just before we do this podcast? It is the pod comrade. So Welsh language podcast. I think it's Pod Cymru. I think the Twitter. Pod Cymru. That's the one. If you are blessed enough to listen to, but to understand the language and speak it. Yeah. Well, Pod Cymru, it's you. From Central. Who is great. Both really great. I had the pleasure of sitting in and listening on their recording the other week. It really is. Really is an exciting Welsh language podcast. Other than that, we will see you maybe next week. We haven't decided. We have a Christmas to enjoy as well. But we will see you definitely in the new year. This has been the Osprey Diary podcast. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to the Osprey Diary podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. Please subscribe, rate and review wherever you listen to us, as it really helps to spread the word. You can find us on all the usual social media channels or email us on welshregionalrugbypod at gmail.com. And remember, whatever the question, rugby is always the answer.