Ospreys Eyrie - Celebrating the Stormers win, over and over

The hosts of the Ospreys Irie rugby podcast discuss their favorite Ospreys moments and games. They also talk about their recent win against the Stormers and how impressed they were with the team's performance. They highlight the belief and confidence of the young players and discuss the strong defense of the Ospreys. Overall, they are excited and pumped after the win. Welcome to the Ospreys Irie. Hello and welcome to the Ospreys Irie, a rugby podcast that will soon have an extra baby but not in this call, not in this room. James is missing, you may be noticing, this is not his voice, this is the voice of the other one who sometimes drones on. I am Robbie Osquidge, whatever you want to call me. I am joined today, delightfully, as ever, by Yestin. How are you doing? Yeah, I'm all good. It felt really weird having an email from Squidge Rugby. It just came up in my inbox thinking, what have I done? But then I realised, oh wait, that's just the Zoom meeting. So yeah, I'm all good. Still Yes, I like to say. But yeah, all good. It was, yeah, you're really close to deadline now, aren't you? Yeah, there's like two over the next couple, well, two over the next week, there's one on Friday, there's one next Tuesday. And then that's like 99% of it's done. There's like a PowerPoint presentation in the middle of May, like a day before the Dragons game. And then that's like everything done for the second year, which is rather scary because, yeah, I don't know how I'm in second year already. Time kind of like flies sometimes. I, yeah, I'm almost 10 years on from graduating. I don't know how that's happened. It'll catch up with you. It'll happen. I don't know how I'm at the start of second year, never mind. So far on. And delighted to be joined by the one and only Harry Thompson, the other person I met after winning at Walford Road. So I met you on the way down the stairs and at the bottom of the stairs, I met yourself, Harry, how are you doing? Good to have you. Yeah, I'm good. I just about remember that. Yeah. Hello, everyone. My name's Harry. Longtime listener, first time caller. And if you want good astute analysis of the rugby stuff, you have to listen to Robbie and Yestin. I'm very much a drink a beer with a rugby kind of person. I have two strong and two confident opinions. So I do, I do just remember the last I gave a meeting you afterwards. So I want to do a quick intro just to get people up to speed, maybe listening. And I suppose we might as well answer the same questions afterwards because they are brand new. So favourite Osprey, brackets uncapped, favourite Osprey, brackets capped of all time and favourite Osprey, let's say game or moment. That's a really tricky one. Favourite Osprey player of all time. I think I got to go down bigger because I think, OK, it's just, you know, I think we were based for so long and just having really good quality international fly half. And I think even though we kind of building in that sense now, we've missed it ever since. I think the scrum is better than it's ever been. And I think that top quality international fly half I really missed. I'll say down bigger in terms of my all time favourite Osprey moment. It might be Leicester, actually. Yeah, we were just saying before we started recording that, you know, I'm a big supporter of the URC. You know, I kind of watch the Ospreys just to have fun, just to drink beer as my friend and a lifelong fan. And so I try and just enjoy it and not get too much involved in sort of the, you know, where we've got terrible referees or where the league doesn't work and things like that. But we're just saying there's something really special about this sort of Anglo-Welsh away clashes. And we've got a group of us that kind of have season tickets together and we'll go on the away trip. And there's just something, the Surrey's one was really good as well. It wasn't international, but you kind of did the traditional like trip down on the train to London, Welsh fans, a chair for the beers, but also, you know, we lost it and go away. But that Leicester one was incredible just because of the atmosphere. We just went there. We loudly supported the Ospreys. There were loads of other really good fans there too. I think we were kind of supporting them, ironically, with a sense that we were going to lose all the way through and that our loud support was going to be rubbed in our faces by the Tigers fans. And then we just ended up winning it in the last couple of moments. So I think that was one of my all-time rugby memories, I got to say. Obviously, you know, we've had objectively higher moments with the league wins and winning, you know, the final away in Dublin and things like that and all those obvious ones. But I have to say for me, the favourite ever win, I think I got to say it's that Leicester one, yeah. I think honestly, right up there for me as well, like having grown up as a Ospreys fan in the East Midlands, everyone I knew that liked rugby was a Tigers fan. And I've been, you know, I've seen the Ospreys play at Walford Road more than I have seen them play at the Liberty or Swansea.com now. So, and they'd never won there. So that was kind of a moment I'd waited for a long time. Yes, Dink, can I ask the same question? Well, I really want to be really boring and say the same game, but I'm not. Even though one of the best memories is just me and my dad in the car eating KitKat about 1am when we eventually got home. And I have to think of a game on a flight now, it could be anything. This could be, oh. There's so many good ones. I'm trying to think of one from a few years ago when I started to get into it. Because there is quite a blank spot, the kind of alley car, a blank spot. And we obviously had that season where we only had two wins, so that reduced the number as well. I don't know why, but 2019-20 has gone to the front of my head for no apparent reason. And it's a bit of a weird one, but I think it was like dragons away from 2021. There's like the first season, all the fans are kind of like back in. The Ospreys never win a Rodney Prairie today, but this weird occasion they did. And yeah, Michael Collins scored a brace on debut, that back in. And Luke Morgan scored a decisive try despite a late Dragons comeback. That's probably not my favourite game of all time. I think there's probably other games you've watched on the telly. I highly rate Montpellier away in Europe. Oh yeah, that was good. Game season against Leicester, that's probably in the mix. But yeah, it's a bit of a recent memory, just getting back in from Covid. That was the first real game. So yeah, that's probably up there. But like personally, there's probably a lot of Ospreys games I've missed and people will be shouting at me saying, why haven't you got this game? But in reality, months of 2016-17 stuck in my head for no apparent reason. And more on that later. However, right, there is a little Stormers game that we need to talk about. How are we all feeling post quite the win, quite the incredible win at the weekend? I was just saying before we start recording again, I was just refreshing myself on it and watching the second half again, right before we start. And I was getting hyped up watching it again. I was just saying, I didn't actually watch it live, classic. It's the one I didn't get. I was on holiday with my girlfriend in Barcelona. It was the last night of the holiday. So we sat on the street and that kind of took over the evening. Me trying to get WhatsApp updates from my friends because I couldn't load the game on my phone. But it was just awesome. In terms of how I'm feeling, it was just such an intense performance. I was also just saying before we started that sometimes when you see those sort of, you know, you see these Welsh sides who go against South Africa and New Zealand and they don't think they can win. And then the confidence builds at the end and then they realize they can if they're close enough. And it actually didn't feel like that at all. It felt like the Ospreys just believed right from the start they could win, which is a pretty immense thing from a group of young players like that. But I think it's maybe perhaps like Toby Booth says, they don't have the scars. They don't have the losses. They just go out there and believe in themselves and they win. So I'm always a pessimist when I'm thinking about the Ospreys. I still, we've seen that. I still think we can't pass by the balls, but they just keep proving me wrong. I thought we had absolutely no chance and they just played in such an incredible way with so much heart and passion. Yeah, I'm really pumped after just watching a bit of it there and refreshing myself. Yes, Tim? Yeah, my glass half empty attitude towards Welsh rugby was exposed again. I didn't fill out my Superbrew predictions for one, as I forgot, which is a bit of a kick in the teeth, but it probably saved me of an incorrect answer, if I'm being really honest. I didn't really expect a win out in South Africa, but you tend to see sides, especially we out there, you think, they started well, they pinch an early try and then you kind of see the opposition get back into it. And the Stormers kind of did that when they scored that try from the line-out. But then you just expect the power and the CF Leclerc-ism of the Stormers to get on top, but it kind of didn't. And that was the pleasing thing to begin with. Then Sam Parry scores and you're thinking, right, if we're still in this, there's a bit of a chance, then Manny Liboch tries this crossfield kick with about 10 seconds or half time. For whatever reason, I'm not so sure why, but I think probably only Manny Liboch can really answer that question. And Jack Welsh reads it beautifully and puts in Luke Morgan and you're thinking that was a really crucial time to get a score in as well. And despite Liboch's excellence at the start of the second half, they're putting in Irvine Roots with that little loop. It kind of felt like every time they got into the 22, and Robbie's been on record about this, about sides maybe not taking points on offer and the Stormers fell into that category, well, in the first half, let alone the second half, compared to the Osprey defence. And they did so well, especially in that last 20 minutes, you thought, right, Deves has scored, but there's still a little bit of pressure because the Stormers got a quick try, it's game on all of a sudden. And to defend so remarkably, well, for up until the clock went red, and then unfortunately give away that penalty try at the end, which gave them a losing bonus point. And you can see that the attitude from the squad that Toby Booth said post-match, you know, there's a couple of players walking off, they're disappointed to give them the losing bonus point at the end of the game. So you're thinking, you know, that attitude shift from a few years ago, like I mentioned, the 2020 season where the Ospreys only won two games, which is still crazy to think five years on now, the Ospreys go into a game this weekend with a chance of a clean sweep against South African oppositions in the URC and five wins in one season against South African oppositions is absolutely mental. Insane, insane. To say they hadn't won a game in the URC year against South African side, the start of the season, to then going to almost potentially looking at a clean sweep this weekend. But it's like, you know, the pair of you were saying there was a sheer kind of intensity to them. I think on Saturday, there was a moment within the first five minutes where I kind of thought there's a chance we might win this even before the Luke Morgan score, because the way they were flying up in defence and how accurate they were in attack and how switched on they looked felt like a team who were going to go on and win. You know, it didn't feel like a team that turned up to get pumped, but maybe try and get a bonus point along the way, as was the case last year in South Africa, as we were kind of led to believe might be the case this year. I think we were probably, you know, I think we're talking last week, but we would have been quite happy if we'd come out of that game with a try bonus point and that wasn't it. And then suddenly, somewhere in that first kind of 10 minutes, I've just watched that first 10 minutes back and how accurate they are, and how fired up they are and how intense it is, just suddenly felt like, oh, no, we'll be gutted to lose this. And in the end, there was no need to worry that again, watching those early stages back, just how good Dan Edwards was before he had to go off, quietly, you know, Harry Deeves, I thought was unbelievable, all game long, as he so often is. Watching it a second time, you start to realise, I've been on the Owen Watkin player of the season, Hype Train, and Harry Deeves is quietly coming from behind to sneak that. Morgan Morris remains favourite for like a 17th year in a row, but watching it back, like Watkin was fantastic in a way that perhaps you didn't notice as much first time around, but has been quietly brilliant all season, and that was enough performance for it. But yeah, just absolutely, absolutely brilliant. And it kind of felt like the model performance, which they can build off and which they can look to is, this is the standard we can hit every week. Because I think the Leicester game we mentioned, the Montpellier game we mentioned, and old games against the Scarlets, they've shown what they can do when they're at 10 out of 10. And this was a performance in which they didn't have to be a kind of huge emotional high in the way they were against Sale. Or there were even the game against the Lions was a bit of a fluke where they kind of pulled out the fire at the last second. The one in January, not the recent one. And this felt like a level they can achieve on a fairly regular basis that is still good enough to be beating a team who has only lost to three teams in the UFC era at home ever. I got to say as well, it's just one of those things that makes you absolutely love sports in general, doesn't it? And it's so nice that it's our team that's doing these stories, because they've just got absolutely no right to do it, do they, with the way the budgets are. And it's just, it's just, it's players who haven't had a huge amount of international experience. You've got your Razzies and your Suttons and things like that. Going away to South Africa and was 100% scrum completion, three scrum penalties. And Ben Warren comes on in the 54th minute, and then we go in a scrum penalty again. And then there's the tribe that follows on after that, because their scrum is going backwards so much with where, you know, Welsh rugby is and the budgets and, you know, the lack of exposure to some of these Ospreys players to international rugby that they just have absolutely no right to go and play like that in South Africa and win. So it's just, you watch for, and you're a fan of this stuff, for these storylines, for these kind of underdog stories. And it's just, me and my friends, we're on a full season ticket now. And when we got our season tickets, it was kind of, when they're talking about the merger, and it was a use it or lose it kind of thing. And we we refer to it at the start as the Osprey tax. It's like our time to pay for our season ticket for the Osprey tax and go and watch us lose every week, because otherwise we might fold and close. What Tooby Booth has done and what all these players have done to turn us around in a few short seasons that we're getting results like this. It is absolutely immense. It's just so, so good, isn't it? It's nice. Yeah. We've accidentally skipped the news, but we'll come back to that. That's fine. We don't need news. In fact, there is almost no news. The news is James Fender signed a new contract, which is great. And I think we're all very happy with it. Yeah, it's good news, especially with a few rumours that were floating around. So it's very good news these days. Yeah. There are rumours that he was off to France, but his agent suggested he'd be better staying put. So he signed a new contract there and also rumours about the Scarletts, his previous Christmas podcast. So, yeah, really good to keep hold of him. And then Kieran Hardy's come in as the other, you know, big signing for next season, I suppose. Probably the highest profile signing we've had so far for next season, but I should mean more people have heard of him than World Great Banks. Let me just reflect about World Great Banks, who I'm assured is incredibly famous in France. And yeah, again, I would say a kind of perfect fit for this squad in terms of the type of player, the profile player, and the budget range we can afford. Yeah, I think it's a really interesting signing. I've been really impressed by Reuben Morgan-Williams as well. I think we've got some good scrum halves. It'll be interesting to see who kind of emerges in that battle too, because I think all three of the ones that we tend to use are really good. And you kind of imagine, because he's obviously got the most international experience, obviously, Pivac was trying to use him all the time, wasn't he? So I just think it'll be really interesting to see where he sort of falls in the pecking order. And scrum halves are potentially, would you say, the most competitive position on the pitch in some ways. I suppose you've got the props as well, but it'll be really interesting to see that sort of scrap position between the three of them. And yeah, it's a really interesting signing, I think, because you almost feel that we didn't necessarily need it. We felt secure at scrum half anyway, so it was a real luxury signing in some ways. So yeah, really interesting to see how that one turns out. And congratulations to Kieran Hardy on his promotion. I think it's a great move for him, getting more game time, not having the fear of not being in the matchday 23, which was on the running at times at the Scarlets, and also as a team that better suits his skillset. I know for a fact that members of the England backroom staff a few years ago were jealously looking at him as the kind of scrum half they'd have wanted, that he would have been in there, just because he's one of the most accurate box kickers out there by their kind of metrics, which is really promising for a team that kicks off nine and off a lot of the Ospreys do. And I think it's a really good move also for Rupert Morgan Williams, in the way that he's had a season as undisputed first choice, having been second choice behind Reece Webb for a few years. He's had a year to stamp his authority, show what he can do, and he is the number one, but he's got someone who would expect to be number one coming in alongside him. And it's probably really good for his development to now have that push, having had a year of just being backed outright. Yeah, it'll be really interesting, that competition, because it's Rupert Morgan Williams. He's still young, isn't he? But it'd be interesting to see if he can start to compete for a Wales jersey, because I think he kind of wasn't there before this season, wasn't he? He would have stood a bit high in the sky, him getting selected for Wales. But I think a couple of the Ospreys players, you wonder why they're not getting picked up, and maybe it will change in the next sort of sets of internationals. But he's probably not on the top of the list of one of ours to get picked up, but I think he's getting closer and closer, isn't he? And I think if some of these Ospreys players do start getting picked up, then there's something to be said in terms of keeping players from clubs and regions together at an international level as well. So it'd be really interesting to see if he can win that battle to the Osprey scrum half, then he's definitely in contention for Wales selection as well, isn't he? Yeah, absolutely. The only other piece of news is that Jack Morgan is absolutely in love with a giraffe. And I don't know if any of you follow this on basically the full squad social medias today, they've been visiting a wildlife sanctuary of some sort. And I've never seen a man happier than Jack Morgan looking at a giraffe in three separate photos. I did see it. I was surprised they let them back into the safari parks after the ScotBowl win, but they kept them next to them for this time. So yeah, it's good to see them doing it, isn't it? And it's very nice. Just the team bonding as well. You can see they've got a really good culture in the team. I don't know if you caught Toby Booth's post-match press conference where he was talking about having two weeks away from the wife, wasn't he? And then he tried to roll back on his comments, but he said it was just good to have some time together with the squad. And you can see that and that it's almost like a mini tour, isn't it? So yeah, nice to see. Yeah. And again, saying that they really value time together. And that's clear. And again, just playing cards together and yeah, running on here. And Alex Cuthbert was saying on the Scrum Five part that he reckons they're probably trained twice this week and have a lighter week and just enjoy each other's company and have a more relaxed time to recover from the game and prepare for the next one rather than flogging them and trying to drill too much in. Yeah, definitely. Well, they worked hard in that last game, didn't they? So you don't overwork them. Yeah, it's a small squad as well. So to return to it, that's the news. Congratulations. We did it. Hugh Edwards moment. Not in that way. So yeah, things started very well for that Luke Morgan try. And then, as you mentioned, yes, then the Sam Parry score and the Luke Morgan follow up at halftime. At halftime, it very much felt like a kind of fantasy land half. Like, where's this going? How can we do it from here? Yes. And how are you feeling as you got into that halftime and you kind of saw actually they're ahead out of nowhere? I'm a little bit shocked. And probably because my crossfield kicks the stormers did all afternoon. That was the most shocking thing out of the first half. But yeah, they just took their chances really well, didn't they? And that's probably a really pleasing thing for Toby Booth. And then, you know, on the battle up front was evenly matched as well. And, you know, going on to the second half when, you know, you maybe not have the strongest of front rows to come on, you know, the likes of Gareth Phillips, Ben Wilmore and Bruce Lloyd, you know, all coming off the bench, all relatively young. They're going to learn from that experience of coming off the bench. Maybe not so much in terms of the scrums because they did go backwards a little bit compared to the starting front row. But you kind of felt the halftime, it was like they're definitely going to try their best to go up a gear. But will they? And then you realise about four minutes into the second half when they're having a route score, you thought, oh, here we go. They might just turn it on. And weirdly, they didn't, which was a bit of a surprise. And shout out to Hugh Satton for two ridiculously good jackal turnovers. And he made one crucial one, I think it was right after the Stormers' try as well. And that was rather important at the time. And, you know, there's players like that, you know, everyone talks about James Fender and Rhys Davies about international section. Hugh Satton is somehow turned into a jackal freak and can play in the second row. Then that would be rather astonishing. But you've got, like, the likes of Satton, James Routey, he's been excellent over recent weeks. And obviously, Morgan Walsh won the man of the match and Harry Deeves was spectacular. You know, the tackle in the first half was, right at the end of the first half as well, was brilliant. And you kind of just felt like, you know, maybe there's not enough praise for these players, they've gone in under the radar. You know, you mentioned Morgan Williams there, who played very well on Saturday night, you know, Satton, Routey, you know, Owen Watkin, he might have missed a few tackles, but in terms of line speed, they burst up quite a lot in the middle of the field as well. This is what I found really interesting, because I do sit down and watch quite a bit of rugby from time to time. And the both centres kind of just pushed up, and there's still like space out wide for the for the winger. So a little more than maybe drift a little bit behind them, because of the amount of pressure that the two centres would bring on. And well, JJ Cotts here found out the hard way in his own 22 in the first half, when he tried and get that pass, which Kieran Williams was having none of, which obviously leads to the parry try. You know, there's things like that, that I just find really fascinating. But that's probably more about me being really geeky. Oh, I'm exactly the same though. You're in good company. But yeah, it's like, you know, those defensive moments, you know, as I said in the first half, and, you know, the constant pressure the second half, you know, I thought Adam Beard came off the bench and played rather well. Everyone has said he maybe he doesn't do enough around the park. And I personally thought, was that a little bit of an error, maybe not putting him to start. But then again, if he's coming off the bench and playing 25 minutes like that, you know, I wouldn't have thought in my other streams that Adam Beard would be that much of an impact. You kind of associate Adam Beard as someone that plays 80 minutes, and, you know, continues with a lot of hard work. But there was, I think he made some, a really good turnover, which didn't go his way, because there was a knock on from the scrum. But it was like, oh, you thought, oh, wow, this Adam Beard, he can stay. And yeah, and there's probably more of a credit to the South African lads as well, who came in on short notice, of course, Setepe got that penalty against him with that block, which was rather unfortunate at the time in the first half. But, well, Boshaw came on on the wing, which is interesting. That was a discovery. I love a slow winger. And Jayden Rudolph, a turnover before giving one away a few minutes later, which is also fascinating. But yeah, on the whole, it was a really good performance. And at halftime, we kind of thought they were going to get back into it. But there's many standards on the Osprey side, and they held up rather well, except for the penalty try at the end, obviously. Yeah, but you can kind of forgive that when the game's won, as you say. I love, so I watched it with the South African commentary. And they, when Jayden Rudolph came on, loved him, and was just lavishing him with praise constantly. In that way that, you know, when you, I don't know if you get this a lot, but like, when you watch a player play it, like maybe, you know, because he's obviously a Curry Cup player an awful lot, he's been playing at the Cheetahs. When you're used to watching, you know, you watch a player in a Welsh Premier League and they have one stormer, and then they get a game for the Dragons like a year later, or for whichever region, and you're like, no, this guy's great. This guy's really good quality. And I've seen him play once, but I love him, and I'm going to talk about him endlessly. And it had that kind of vibe. We saw him once, and they're talking about a great turnover merchant. He's fantastic, just really bigging him up. And then he wins that turnover. And like, what do we tell you? What a player he is. I love that. And I thought, generally, this African commentary is really, really good, good value, and really bought into this rather than it being moaning about the, you know, the box miss kicking, or the storm was having a bad game. It really felt like they were won over. It feels kind of like the narrative has become everyone's been won over by the Ospreys an awful lot. Yeah, I don't want to blow my own trumpet a little bit, but I was at Wales, Italy in the Six Nations. And obviously, the result-wise didn't go very well for Wales, of course. But Manuel Zulani came on the field. And I said to the people I was working with, say, I'll watch out for him, because there's a good chance he might win a turnover. And then obviously, when Wales were on the attack, who won the turnover? Manuel Zulani. So that's like one of my claims to fame of being really geeky. I'm going to continue to say that story for the rest of my life, all thanks to a bad back rower. So I can't really complain. But yeah, just like to just mention the defence as well. There's a moment in the first, there's, I think, two or three moments in that first 20 minutes, which kind of set the tone where one, they make a kind of breakaway, the storm would win it off a turnover ball in the 22. And Watkin makes a brilliant defensive read out of nowhere, just flies up, shuts those enormous overlap down entirely. And the storms end up going backwards and losing the ball. And as the other ones, the Keel and Giles intercept off a cross kick, which is one of those where you can kind of point to it and it looks a bit like luck. But ultimately, Giles has trusted that Kieran Williams is going to get across and make that tackle. And a lot of wingers would come in and commit and try and make the double shot and put him into touch or not trust the winger. So wait out. And instead, Giles goes, I trust my teammate to make the tackle so I can stand off and watch his support, which I can make the intercept, make it downfield. A storm is going to be a penalty from that, which I suppose kick to the corner and they score the opening try. And it's an enormous, enormous kind of 14 point turnaround, 10 point turnaround, you know. And I think it kind of sums this team up more than anything else, is ultimately it's trust in their teammate is what leads to that try, what leads to that interception. Before, yeah, Dan Edwards' work on that is also like, I think, absolutely brilliant. The way he sees it two phases out, that winger being committed to the line, Manu Lebox kind of refold onto the wing having been in the backfield and spots that, kind of runs one phase where he crashes up with Rhys Henry to condense the line and then flashes around and immediately drops on the toe, having seen what's coming, just hoping to pull the winger up. Um, just really smart play. And I think there's a few moments that first 10 minutes, the set of tones that they then kept up the entire way. Do you think there's an element of really good coaching in there too? Because it reminds me of there's a couple of interceptions and it reminds me of the sale game. I think it was where I think was both saying that he gave himself some credit for once, didn't he? And identify that the replacement scrum half more had more of a lead in time, this passes and that's where the interceptions came from. And there was a couple of those, the Keelan-Giles cross cake. And I think there was a scrum half was picked up on interception towards the end of the game, didn't it? It didn't go to a try or anything, but he got that too. So it felt like there were quite a few sort of opportunistic moments where they'd read the play really well. And you just wonder also, it just seems like Toby Booth is a coach who really watched his tape and identified these things. So yeah, I mean, I have to get in a, a glowing Toby Booth reference into that. And it felt like that a couple of times when I was watching. More of those to come, because I think there's another thing in that they started dropping the knowing money, the book loves that cross kick. And the way the defenders since Mark Jones came in as defense coach has the winger start quite narrow and then push out, you know, and kind of trust the winger to cover an awful lot of ground rather than starting wide and working into the kind of more springbok type system. And the fullback comes up an awful lot and kind of tries to cut off the space. And instead they kind of left the fullback where they are an awful lot to work in a normal role and tried to use the 10 more to carve those cross kicks, allowing the winger and the fullback to do so. And so you see it for the, um, secondly, Morgan Troy is Jack Walsh comes in, takes that kick perfectly because he's been dropped into backfield early and is watching for the cross kick specifically, but you see it. There's, um, I know one of the first off with Dan Edwards kind of doesn't get there, but he gets across and makes a tackle following it. And they're just using that 10 to watch out for the opposite 10, watch out for one of the box strength. And it turned a weakness in the defence that clearly the storm has gone in and gone. This team is really, we've got 10 who's absolutely brilliant at cross kicks. This team is quite susceptible to cross kicks. Let's do a hundred thousand of them per minute. And instead turned it kind of from a weakness into a strength. And yeah, I thought just brilliant attention to detail. Yeah. And just evidence of the growth in some of the players as well. I think there's so many of them, like you mentioned Jack Walsh there, and I think he deserves a mention as well, doesn't he? Cause he just gets better and better, I think. And Keelan Giles put a really good performance. I think there's some of these players who are quite, you know, Keelan Giles isn't too young, but lots of them quite young, you know, Keelan Giles, um, sorry, Jack Walsh only came in a couple of seasons ago. And some of the, some of these players who are young have kind of put in patchy performances towards the start of their time at the Ospreys and have just grown into it and grown into it. And this season, and particularly this game, they just looked awesome. I think Jack Walsh is looking really, really good, better game by game. He is looking like a really dangerous attacking player now, and it doesn't cause too many mistakes either. So I just think I've seen, I've seen a lot of growth in particularly some of those sort of younger backs too. It's been really nice to see. Yeah. And then there was a really remarkable last, basically straight 15 minutes from essentially the Harry Deeves try onwards, which is again, brilliantly taken of just defending and trying to keep them out from getting that losing bonus point, which eventually did come in the final play. But I think again, that last passage of defence, once again, characterised what the team's about. Again, the way they've improved the Morgan Morris post game gave credit to Mark Jones, that the way he's helped them improve that defence and made it much more, you know, clear and simple, and everyone knows their role in defence much more. But yeah, I thought, again, right to the final play to, yes, there was a try, but it was a penalty try, and they were, you know, free of help, and they defended, they put in an awful lot of tackles in the last 10 minutes. But yeah, I thought again, some of the team up, some of that performance up, and some of the intensity they're able to hit up these days. And like Aston said earlier, Terry Boothwood said he went to chance the pitch and spoke to three players, and everybody annoyed they conceded that try, despite the fact they just went away in South Africa. Just such an impressive performance. I think, I'll keep talking about him, I don't care. Toby Booth said again, he said, he said, I think he called it like a typical archetypal Ospreys performance, didn't he? And it's just built on hard work and just having a lot of pass, a really good, aggressive forwards performance, including in defence and in the scrums. There's just such an identity to this team now. And like we've said a couple of times in this, that this game, this result has really summed it up. Yeah. Aston, anything else on the game? I don't think so. Okay. Except for Vardy Gossop's little burst on the wing. Oh, yeah. The preceded it. That was fun. But I think that's all I got. So this would have put us into sixth in the table, which is an insane state of being to be in with four weeks to go. Wouldn't have seen this coming at the start of the season. However, that losing bonus point put the Stormers level with us on 40 points and their points difference is better. So we sit in seventh at the minute with four games to go, which again, if you look at, you know, if you were to do a budget table of the URC, we are very far off being seventh, especially if you adjust the cost of living and inflation and everything else and, you know, exchange rates. So, yeah, that is an insane achievement already. And looking at the fixtures, there are two fixtures on there at the start of the season, I think I said on this podcast, so basically unwinnable, you know, there's the three games of Africa, Leinster away, and then kind of Connell and Edinburgh away, kind of felt like almost unwinnable games at the start of the season. And they've gone and won a number of those already. And the ones that they didn't, you know, Edinburgh, they were one better line out away from taking that. So it kind of feels like nothing's impossible with just a few weeks to go. But the table is unbelievably tight. There's what, three points, literally three points separating fifth and 11th. So the kind of playoff race is insanely competitive. If you were looking at that table, going into the Stormers game, you think, okay, here's one team that you can discount, it's the Ospreys, because they got to go to Africa and away to Leinster. But now, that's just all been torn up, because that win, and you think just anything's possible. And I saw a couple of people, I think, including you, Robbie, talking on Twitter about that Leinster game and just rubbing our hands together, because you should never go to Leinster and expect it or even dare to think about a win. But yeah, they've got a pretty intense fixture list themselves. And you'd imagine that would be the game where they can wreck some players. So obviously, their squad depth is insane. So we'll see. But yeah, I mean, to be honest, I had to predict it because it's the Ospreys. We'll probably go beat the Bulls, we'll probably go beat Leinster away and then lose to the Dragons and not get into the top eight. Let's see, I don't know. Yeah, it's insanely tight. The URC put out a thing last week, where they had, right before the games, a percentage prediction of how likely everyone is to get in. And they put the Ospreys at 17%. And I can't wait for this weekend, because that is going to be different. I bet our odds won't be 17% anymore. But yeah, look, should the Ospreys be favourite to make the top eight? Probably not. Would I dare write us off if I was a fan of another team? It would be a huge mistake to do so, I feel. Yeah, it's just great to see. You referenced it earlier, just that the Ospreys getting a bit of an aura back. We were having a discussion about this. You mentioned you grew up in the East Midlands. I grew up in the South West, so I was born in Brecon. We were talking about when we're at the Leinster game, actually, if we bumped into another sort of English-raised Ospreys fan who had Welsh heritage. And there's this thing about the Ospreys, even though it's a really young brand, it didn't pick up the old club brands like Cardiff or Llanelli did. There's that Galacticos era where, and I think we're a symptom of it, if you're part of the Welsh diaspora, you picked it up because they're almost like the Manchester United of Welsh regional rugby. And then we had some dark times. It's kind of picking up again now. But when we're out in Gloucester, we're talking to the Gloucester fans and stuff, they're fully aware of the Ospreys brand. And you talk to them. We're a club that's, what, 21 years old? So it's very young, but there's so much history of the league wins and the players we've had. You think the Adam Wynne Joneses, the Shane Williamses, and you're sort of chatting to them and they're saying, God, it's so good to have a good Ospreys team as though we've had a team that's been around for 300 years. So it's nice to have that aura back. And I definitely think you're right. We're one of the teams, I see this season, where you just think if someone's going to do something a little bit special, it's going to be the Ospreys, isn't it? And given we've got the Bulls away, the Leinster away, and two Derbys as well, it's a really hard task. But yeah, again, if someone is going to be something a little bit special, it's the Ospreys. So I might guess, and I've got that natural Welsh rugby pessimism sort of bred throughout my life. But if any team's going to make you believe, it's going to be this one, isn't it? So let's see. Absolutely. And so there was that kind of holy triforce of bad guys in the noughties of the Ospreys, Munster and Leicester Tigers, who had very similar playing styles, were the best team in Ireland, the best team in England, the best team in Wales at the time. And I've always kind of regarded them as like a holy trinity that go together. And Leicester Tigers won the league two years ago, Munster won the league last year. Surely it's time. Surely it's time to pay off the third part of this. The third part of this bad guys return revenge trilogy that we're getting, this legacy sequel, this like Maleficent style return for the bad guys. I don't know. That's, look, that's, I dare to dream. I dare to dream about that. Yeah. Everyone heard Robbie's prediction, Ospreys win the league next season. It's that or it's Munster and Leicester again, and that ain't happening. No, Leicester ain't happening, but Munster, alarmingly close. They look very good. And another team that had a huge win in South Africa this weekend. Ospreys won the final, though, who could call it? Perfect trip to Toman Park. I've been there once before, and we got batted. Kai Evans kicked three penalties. I was over the moon because it felt like the best performance of the season, because we'd actually scored points. Peak, peak kind of Alan Clark into the coachless era. I want to say that might have been Craig Casey's debut, random fact. I was just pulled off the bench. That sounds right. Really random fact is just coming to my head. I think it genuinely was Craig Casey's debut. I remember talking to two separate Munster fans that day who talked about Craig Casey and just kept comparing to Peter Stringer, as though that's a good thing. But yes, they were so excited about the thought of having another Peter Stringer with hair. Speaking of Munster, should we play a good player? Yes, we may as well. It's just the high of last weekend, so I think it has to be in store. Oh, so let's pick up on another great away league win. The year is 2016. The date is Valentine's Day, Sunday, February 14th. And the game is Munster at Toman Park against the Ospreys. 17-21 to the visiting team. A historic win. Again, this was just after the year when Munster were completely unbeatable at home, where the Ospreys had a run of pretty good results around there. But it was still a hell of an achievement, still a hell of a Munster team you had out there. Do you want to run through the teams or do you... Yes, Tim, what are your memories of this game? Um, it comes in a really weird patch, because if memory serves me correct, I don't think the Ospreys played particularly well in the league. Obviously, the European run that season was, I think, might have been their most... Oh yeah, it was that year, yeah. Yeah, so the league was kind of like a bit of a no-brainer, because the start didn't go very well, mainly because of the World Cup. And you kind of... And it comes in a really weird patch, because there's some really big wins against Munster around this couple of year gap as well. So it's like the underrated away win in Munster that everyone kind of seems to forget, I feel. Yeah, a very young me was very happy by this result, mainly because of the try scorer with a few minutes to go. So the Ospreys were in ninth going into this game, and it pulled them up to seventh. So yeah, it wasn't a vintage season, just the two Italian teams, free their renaissance, and the Dragons behind us on the table. And then, yeah, managed to pull us up the table a bit. Do you want to run through the Ospreys team or the Munster team first? Um, that's a good question, because we normally do the away side, but it's an away game. It's one of those where you think, do you stick by tradition or do you break it? Should we do the Munster team first? Should we run through? May as well. Okay, and build up, you know, build up on a high, because number 23 is a glorious, gorgeous player. At loose head for Munster, Dave Kilcoyne. Yeah, solid, good player. Yeah, dancing Dave, as he was briefly known. Mike Sherry at Hooker. I just about remember. Remember him briefly, not much as Dave Kilcoyne, but briefly. If you said the name Mike Sherry to me, I'd go, oh, he played Hooker for Munster, and I could give you no further information. John Ryan at tight head, because it's a Munster game. It's like tradition, you just see number three John Ryan in the Munster team now. Sometimes it's not him, and they just, they just accidentally write Ryan on the back of the shirt. Number four, Dave Foley. Again, like good servant for Munster, I think played for a very long time. Yeah, Mark Chisholm at number five. It's a former Wallaby lock, who I had no memory of playing for Munster, was there for just the one season. Obviously, with the news of Munster, and well, Irish rugby and non-Irish qualified players, I think we should stay away from that particular part. Yeah, left the Wallabies, retired from Wallaby career, went to Bayon, and then signed for Munster for a year. So we go Billy Holland at six, another like big servant for Munster. Yeah, I think the back row is all like really good servants for Munster. So it's kind of like all three of them kind of like fit the bill. Yeah. So at number seven, we have Jack O'Donoghue, you know, plays Captain Munster an awful lot, another one slots right in there. A good player, good player, Jack O'Donoghue. And at eight, former Cardiff and breakdancing favourite Robin Copeland. He's perhaps best remembered for doing Cardiff kit launch, we saw breakdancing in the middle of Westgate Street. I forgot about that. Yeah, I was going to say, you need to explain the breakdancing reference to me. But yeah, huge favourite at Cardiff for a while, then left to try and play for Ireland. I think you won two caps in the end. Yeah, it was a very brief stint, wasn't it? Yeah, you know, played for his country, but perhaps wasn't as successful. But perhaps wasn't as successful as he could have hoped. Duncan Williams at nine, who was a rugby player. Very Welsh name, I can say that about him. It's amongst the side without Conor Murray, but obviously it's a Six Nations window. So that's probably the reason why. Yes, that's it. I think I have a vague memory of I think he had a really bad game here and then scored a try 10 minutes in and you're kind of like, no, but he's having a stinker. Where's his try come from? I'd just seen like the highlight. I saw like the first 10 seconds of the highlights and he scores a try from a box kick. Chad Stone from a box kick himself, he gathers and scores. At 10, another great servant is Ian Keighley. Benetton legend. Benetton legend. I discovered this week it's something like six on the all time most minutes played in the URC. So he played a lot for Munster as well. So it was like, you know, just by two different teams. He kind of like played a good chunk and obviously went to Italy for Benetton. And it was quite a long time. Yeah, it was iconic before that as well. Ronan Omani on the wing, completely forgotten him. The other Omani, because he came through around the same time as Peter. And then one of them had a great career. And then the other one was also there. Rory Scannell at 12. Solid. Yeah, solid player now in France. I'm trying to remember if he was the player there was a scandal around. Can't remember. Let's move on. Good player at 13. Didn't have the best time at Munster. I remember him tackling Kieran Charles into touch in the 2016-17 game. It was like the game before the Benetton game, which kind of derailed the season. And I remember thinking that he committed a high shot, but then looking back at it, it didn't look that bad. And I was just complaining for complaining sick with Marius Matreya in the middle. He's currently a ratting. He was one of those players that like was very good, but then just didn't work at Munster. Like I know Munster fans really didn't rate him. Just didn't fit in for whatever reason. Sometimes happens, you know, play a side for a club, it just won't work out. Darren Sweetenham on the wing. He's a good player. Is he still out in France? I can't remember if he is. I think so. Yeah, he was... Oh God, where was he? He was playing for one of those like bottom of the table URC. All you know, he's an all you know. Great player. Former... was he a hurler or a... Gaelic football, he played to like a semi-pro level. And that came up every time he was... anyone commented on him. And then Andrew Conway at fullback. A rare sight. Good player. If not more, then good player. Great player, great player. Greatly underrated. Yeah. The bench. Niall Scannell, solid player. Pete McCabe, very little memory of. But number 18 is a great one. Mario Segario, the Uruguay prop. Who they signed off the back of the 2015 World Cup. Where he had a really solid game against Wales. Where they just couldn't get anything past him. And Munsu were like, we like the cut of your jib. We'll sign you. Played one season there, then that was kind of it. And kind of retired from Uruguay duty around the same time. But good player. Conor Oliver, Shane Buckley. I don't imagine we've got any input, no. Thomas O'Leary. Very almost a Lion. Got injured a few days after the Lion squad was named in 2009. Replaced by Mike Blair. Cian Bohane. Don't remember much of him. No memory of him. And Dave Johnson. Which brings us on to the Ospreys team. And this is the main event, right? At loose head, Nicky Smith. Good player. Great player. At hooker, Sam Parry. Trey Scorer from last weekend, so good player. Great player. Tight head, another one I think we've all waited to hear more of. Dimitri Arhip. Love that. What a front row that is. That's great. Saw him play on the weekend, so still counts as good player. Robust. I'd call that front row. Robust. Second row of Rainer Bernardo and Rory Thornton. Rory Thornton now coaches Cardiff University. Does he? Briefly checked the varsity game. And Swansea have won, by the way. That's why James Permess is in the WhatsApp group. And all of a sudden the camera just pans to a Rory Thornton on the touchline. But I'm just assuming he's there as a coach. I could be completely wrong, but yeah, he was at the vicinity anyway. Good for him, making future strides. One day maybe we'll see him as a coach of another team. And yeah, Rainer Bernardo, left of the Scarlets. Good player. Decent player. He's all right. Now this back row. Six. Joe Beaman. Good player, solid. Yeah, underrated. Seven, Sam Underhill. Yeah, great player. Yeah. No notes, no complaints. And eight, another greatly underrated player, Dan Baker. Great player. Once got me stuck for him in a pub, so. I can see it. I can see it. So I've always had a soft spot for him and very good player too, isn't he? He was sat near me before the Munster game the other week. And yeah, he's still massive. That hasn't changed. Brendan Leonard at nine. Can you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men. Um, and Sam Davis at 10. I can't remember if Sam Davis won one of the matches or not that night. I want to say he did because of his points display. Yeah. I'm just going to give it to him. It was the Sky Sports era. So they were probably just talking about his left foot that was kissed by God. I'll definitely give it to him then. I don't know why they questioned it. Scored a try, a conversion and three penalties. So yeah, you're calling a man of the match. We're calling a man of the match. Definitive man of the match performance. Centres, Josh Matavese at 12. And a great player. And at 13, the man of the hour, the main event, the reason we're covering this, JJ Engelbrecht, former Bull and former Stormer. So incredibly relevant this week. And also former Ospreay. I think this is like his only win against, well, for the Ospreays. Yeah. Because they had a draw and then defeats. And then obviously this win. Because an exclusive from the WhatsApp group chat that we were thinking of doing over him or Johnny Cotier. Yeah. And it turns out from the four appearances that Johnny Cotier played, the Ospreays didn't win a game. Despite him scoring two tries away at home in the Challenge Cup. So I believe this is like the only game that JJ Engelbrecht played and won. And he played full 80 as well, eh? JJ Engelbrecht's only full 80 for the Ospreays. He'd come off the bench in a draw against Glasgow the week before. 20-0 draw. I was there for that game. Oh, man. I remember him picking like a good line in that game towards the end. That's a good memory. I can all remember two months ago. But this is it. I can't remember anything else in life. But I have intimate memories of certain Ospreays games. And certain lines people ran. I'll have one memory of like... I'll remember every game between about 2008 and like 2012 in vivid detail. And then games between then and now, I will remember one thing per game. And that's the way my memory's gone. So, other wing, on the wings, you had Ben John, great player. Great content creator as well. Yeah, great content creator. Really lovely guy. Really like Ben. Yeah, great guy. The rugby trainer, if you're curious. And Tom Grabham on the other wing. Yeah, there's a lot of scrum arse in this Ospreay side. I just realised looking at the squad. Oh, god, you're right. You're right. It's like nothing but scrum arse. Do we not do wingers at this stage? I remember a little, quite a lot of this time period. But did we not do wingers? There's not a single winger in this team. You've got a centre and a scrum arse on the wings. And at fullback, all together now, it was an Ospreay game between about 2012 and... What, about last week? All together, Dan Evans. Perfection. Couldn't be anyone else. Great player. And in fitting with this team, has a bit of the attitude of a scrum half as well, I think. And I really rated him. It's a shame he dropped off a bit towards the end. But there was a time where he was just really, really good. So definitely a good player. This was like peak complaining he wasn't playing for Wales. Yeah. Period. And I was making those complaints too. I thought it was awesome. I really enjoyed it. Yeah. His infamous, just trying to figure things out, tweets. When he tweeted, after a Wales squad was named without him in it, he tweeted a photo of a guy at a chalkboard stroking his chin. It was just the caption, trying to figure things out. And forever defying Dan Evans in my mind. Bench. Scott Austin. Great player. One of the very good at chip and chase as well. This is an awesome bench. Sorry for the spoilers. But yeah, look at the names here. Yeah. Was this... No, this wasn't the chip and chase Scott on game, was it? Because that was a way of Munster. Yeah, that was the playoff semi-final. Yeah. 23-3 and scored two disallowed tries. That was weird. Yeah. That last minute, that lazy one that... No, that's the semi-final before. There's a lot of games against Munster in this time period. I've mentioned it before. I think there's probably too many. They all blur into one after a while. There's a lot that stick in my head. In the alternative universe, there's like five games going on. And Josh Matavis, he's tried the end, probably stands in all five of them. Apart from the one where it happened. Yeah. So Scott on walked past me and James before there was a game. We kind of had... He turned to me and was like, is that Scott on? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's Scott on. Which I bet he doesn't get a lot of. But you put him in that particular environment. And it was like, oh my God, it's Scott on. Gareth Thomas, fourth choice loose head on the bench. Great player. Yeah, good player. And Mafu Thea. Dude, there are all sorts of stories about, not a great scrummager, but a fun player. Yeah, he scored a brace against Rassen in Europe once. That happened. So, good player. Good player. A young Adam Beard on the bench. Years before British and Irish legend Adam Beard as well. Yeah. A long time ago. This was his second game for the Ospreys. Oh, wow. Made his debut against Glasgow off the bench the week before. And yeah, playing his second game. Played 11 minutes there, 10 minutes here. Great player. Yeah. Went on to win his first cap against Samoa a year later. So yeah, real start of something to come. He's been playing for the under-20s. Yeah, that was the year of him being... Yeah, that was the Grand Slam. Grand Slam, with him and Evan Watkin, who's also on the bench. Spoilers. So, Olly Cracknell then, who... A player, still playing at Leicester. One of my friends is a massive Olly Cracknell fan, so I'll say it. Really? Good player. Yeah, yeah. I will not argue, even if I don't agree. Um, Rhys Webb. Again, club legend, right before he went to Toulon. I think he came back from injury at this point as well. Was it... Oh, this was his first game back before the... After the Italy World Cup warm-up, where he ruled and stuff. Oh. This was his first game back, I think. Oh, yeah. No, you're right. You're right. Oh, no. That's cursed energy to it. Oh, that's got a lot of bad memories. I remember watching that Italy game. Just losing half-penny, then losing Webb. You're thinking, oh, no. Then, got called up mid-tournament by Wales. Came on the bench against England. Literally, his cameo. And that's what came of it. I remember when Gatlin used to do that all the time, where he'd call someone up mid-tournament if they came back from injury. And the same thing happened with Mike Phillips a few years before that. Wow. And then, the aforementioned Owen Watkin, who, again, coming straight out of the 20s. Very, very young, Owen Watkin. Oh, no. This was... No, sorry. This wasn't his debut. His debut was the other game against Munster that season. So, you're looking at his fifth game for the Ospreys. So, again, really early on in, you know, out of the 100-plus he's played now, that you've kind of got on the bench the star of who are now our senior players. Yeah. Really sick, aren't you? And then, number 23, the man, the myth, the Haberfield. The greatest Osprey of all time. The best we've ever had. The greatest Scrum Off Wales never had. And the biggest mistake Warren Gatlin has made in his life, not papping that man. Yeah. He's a good player. But it's really weird because there's a home game against Worcester that really sticks out from the Challenge Cup. And Haberfield puts in a box kick when Ospreys are playing too much kicking during the Alan Clarke era. And Haberfield put this really good box kick in about a minute ago. And I don't know, it's just weird seeing him and Watkin next to each other. Because Watkin commits a high tackle, which gives Worcester a penalty. They kick down the field, nail the drop goal. And everyone blamed Tom Haberfield for it. He did nothing wrong. Just by box kicking. So the Ospreys won 17-21. Sam Davies, well, you know, there's a couple of early scores for Munster. Sam Davies' try, then slowly kicked them into control with Owen Watkin scoring his first try for the Ospreys on the hour mark. Before, yeah, late Sam Davies' penalty to put them kind of in control, having been one point ahead. And yeah, a memorable, historic win. Mostly memorable for JJ Ingebrecht, one week after hitting that one line. But a week before, we now play his former team, the Bulls. That is the smoothest segue. This is why I am a professional content person. So, obviously, last week was a really great win. Going into it, I think we're all expecting a pretty torrid afternoon. How are we feeling heading into another game in South Africa against another team right at the top of the table? Do you want to go first, Justin? I'll try. I think it's going to be quite tough. I think that's like the nature of things when you go to South Africa. Whichever team you end up against, it's going to be tough. And obviously, from the two games, well, the Lions game wasn't so much because that ended in a 10-point win in January. But they're all relatively close. So I think this is going to be another tough task. I think the pack are going to really have a big challenge. If Akko van der Merwe started, he'd probably score at some point because he's very good at that for some reason. This is the genes. The try-scoring genes. Yeah, and it'll be Jack Walsh. Well, whoever's a fullback. Probably Max Nagy against Willy LaRue. What more do you want? And yeah, maybe a Kirk Leanne Arrinter involved somewhere. It'll be quite intriguing to see what team the Bulls actually put out. Because obviously, there's been a lot of discussion about deciding against Northampton in Europe. And then obviously, they reverted back to type last week and lost to Munster. So they're going to be a little bit angry, I think. So it's going to be really interesting to see what team they do put out. Will there be a bit of a mix and match? Or will they just go fully loaded, trying to correct their mistakes from last week? And if they do go fully loaded, it's going to be a really tough test, especially on a Saturday afternoon out in Pretoria. And it's probably going to be a little bit sunny and a little bit warm. And I don't think many people will want that at all. Harry? Yes, we've talked about the Welsh rugby pessimism a couple of times. There's two ways you can go with this. One is you say, can the plucky South Africans finally get a win against the mighty Ospreys? The other way, which comes much more naturally to me, like Justin, is I don't feel confident. What keeps coming to my mind is, when was it that, well, I'm not sure what the rules I'm swearing are on this show, but Warren Gatland did a bit of shithousing against England that time, didn't he, where England smashed New Zealand in that World Cup, right before they had the final against Africa. And he says sometimes teams just play their final and they can't get ready for it the next week, sometimes when you have that. And ever since he said it, it was proved right. It was such a funny thing to say. There's no need to say it. But it's come back to me again and again throughout the years, because you just see it happen all the time. I felt a bit of it when, you know, against Gloucester, to be honest, when we beat Sale, there's a lot of emotion, a lot of energy. And then you go to Gloucester and, you know, as much as they tried really hard, perhaps the performance felt a bit undercooked. And sometimes you just feel like, can you maintain that intensity week after week? So if they can go and beat the Stormers and then go and beat the Bulls away against Africa, it's just an unbelievable achievement. I know it's only a two-game tool, but to go and do a season undefeated against the Africans and do a little undefeated tour in South Africa and then go to Dublin would be a huge achievement. But the pessimism just comes through to me. I think, you know, like we said earlier, if there's any team you want to believe in, it's this Ospreay side. But it's just such a hard thing to do, a 3pm kickoff in South Africa. Like Yeson said, the sun's out. You've had a big game the week before. I think the smart money is on the Bulls, isn't it? But you just never know. And I'm certainly not going to be betting on them, because who knows? But I will default to my pessimism and hope to be proved wrong. That's it. I think that worry starts to set in, doesn't it? Was that a final being played, you know, kind of getting over the gloss again by having a huge performance? And in the same way, you know, we saw them have a huge performance against the Lions after a really disappointing loss against Munster, that game was really targeted. And I worry about that as well. That's in my head. But also, there's a bit of me that does feel like that performance against the Storms feels more repeatable than the one against Sale, where they kind of just raise their intensity rather than it feeling like a kind of fail and end or like everything has to go perfectly game. And I would feel like the biggest optimist in the world if I predicted another win, especially if a bonus point win, because that was beyond the wildest dreams last week. But I think there's a chance in which we can go and get points out of this and get points on the table from this game. And that feels more like the target, right? If you'd, before this tour, said we'll get six points or seven points out of this, would have bitten your hand off, would have even survived, you know. So if they can just claim any points and anything to that total and anything at that table, I'd hope a couple of other results go away. You know, harder can be Edinburgh. You know, things can start to fall there. And then target those last three games a bit more. That'd be huge. The one of the facts that's worth talking about, because it'll probably be the big one in the lead up, is Dewey Lake. It should be, fingers crossed, fit and available again, which could be a huge boost on the bench, having some of his, some of his kind of power experience and try scoring ability to come on. You know, potentially replacing Sam Parry, who is, you know, the try scoring monster himself, or Lewis Lloyd, who I thought was absolutely fantastic when he came on the weekend as well. Like the rate he gets off the line defensively is amazing. But yeah, there's outside chance of Jack Morgan. Looks like it's not going to be the case. But yeah, Dewey Lake would be a huge, huge figure to come back as well. Yeah, and that adds a bit of momentum, doesn't it? And momentum is such a thing in professional sport. I think it was at Wales when we went, we got England the first game we win, it kind of carries us through a little bit. And so it's just that inherent pessimism to say, we've just won a game, that means we must lose a game. But momentum is something in professional sport. And if you've got Dewey Lake coming back, do we have, did I see Tipperick is, is he? He's over there. Yeah, he's over there. Okay, yeah. I mean, that's an unbelievable bench, isn't it? If you were to put those two on the bench. So yeah, and that could, you know, freshen up the squad a little bit, especially, you know, it's been a long season and they don't have much rotation. But I think they just put in a good performance. Having players like that back is just such a massive advantage, especially when the squad is presumably in a good place mentally as well, from having that momentum. Yeah. Do you want a stat as well, by the way? Yes. So the Ospreys and the Bulls are the two teams in the URC this season who statistically take the most of their chances in the opposition 22. The two most clinical sides in the competition. So we might see a reasonably high scoring date, which the Bulls number one, the Ospreys number two, which is an incredible feat from where they were a year or so ago, to have just tightened up so much of that kind of detail in the opposition 22. But yeah, that's quite exciting. The Bulls are on a bit of a losing streak as well at the minute. They're bastardly on in centre for a second team, and they beat the Dragons a few games back in, you know, the mid Six Nations period. But otherwise, they've lost, you know, three of their last four. Obviously, one was the infamous Northampton game. But yeah, lost at home to Munster, lost away to Leinster. It's, I don't know, you talk about momentum, you talk about belief, and there's perhaps momentum heading in opposite directions here, even if the Bulls, as you said, the smart money should be on the Bulls and they should go in as favourites. But I don't think it's a done deal by any account. And yeah, the target's got to be points and see if you can kick on from there and perhaps aim any more, score any more. Yeah, and you just do not want to be undercooked or, you know, not top tier against this Ospreay side, do you? Because you saw that intensity against the Stormers last week. It's just, if a team turns up, if the Bulls aren't in their best place, I think this Ospreay team will punish you. And that stat is amazing, by the way, isn't it? The Ospreays, compared to where we were a couple of seasons ago, even the Booth era, it just felt like it was the scrums really good, but we can't take our opportunities. And so they were the best in the league now at doing that. I just think, you know, it's such a clinical side that if the Bulls do turn up, they're undercooked. And I think there's probably, where we've benefited this season, there's maybe teams like the Stormers potentially, potentially last week, not taking us seriously enough. I think, like Booth said, we've earned that respect now. We've got it. So hopefully the Bulls do take us seriously. But if they are undercooked, if their confidence is low, I think the Ospreays are a team who have that intensity to punish them for it. So you never know. Maybe I'm talking myself into some confidence here. Yeah, it's a really weird one, isn't it? Because you look at the results, obviously, you know, the Bulls losing and the Ospreays winning against the Stormers. And you kind of think, oh, you know, maybe a little bit of momentum here and there would, you know, it could mean another away win. And it would be ridiculously impressive if it would be another away win. But you kind of always got that sense of the Bulls will fight back. And it feels like back-to-back home defeats. It kind of just doesn't sit right with any South African side, really. That's, you know, the bigger sides who are always there and thereabouts. And the last is the ORC. And, you know, and obviously, the Bulls lost heavily against Leinster a couple of weeks before as well, which was quite a bit of a shock because everyone was building it up as, you know, the big game of the weekend. And whilst Leon Arens has got a really good try, that was kind of it. So it's a game that you might look at it thinking, oh, you know, Ospreay's got a little bit of form. Bulls, you know, got the odd win here and there of their last two games. But you kind of feel like it's still evenly matched between two sides that, like Robbie just said, are really, really clinical. So it's going to be really interesting to see what happens. Yeah. The Bulls running beyond this is Glasgow and Bennison at home, then Sharks away. So it's three games, four games here that are really winnable for them. So maybe they don't view this as the must win, but also off the back of last week, which, you know, I think they were fairly up front, Jake White, in wanting to get some daylight in the playoff places, you know, Munster being the other team chasing that kind of third and fourth spot, that they stepped up on that and they want a home place. And they're now only four points ahead of Bennison. So, yeah, they're probably really going for this. We're probably going to be really going for this, knowing, you know, it's ridiculously tight. We're only one point ahead of 11th, despite being in seventh. But also, you know, only six points behind fourth. So stupidly tight atop a league. But, yeah, I think there's reason to believe and there's something to kind of hang on to. Yeah, in Booth we trust. In Booth we trust. So very quickly, I guess we're probably looking at a fairly similar team. We mentioned Dewey Lake coming back in. We mentioned Justin Tiberick might come back in. Who plays 10? There's plenty of questions if Dan Edwards is fit. Owen Williams has travelled. Or do we just stick with Jack Walsh, who plays very well in the second half? And then does Nagy stay at fullback? Or does Walsh perhaps slot in there? There's also Gareth Thomas is up there as well. So maybe bring in some international experience into the front row. I kind of like the prospect of having him start and then having Nicky Smith just power on the bench. And knowing Toby Booth, they'd probably switch that round and start with Nicky Smith and have Gareth Thomas on the bench. But, you know, it's nice to have that international that's had a week off, in a way, you know, and has given experience to someone like Aaron Phillips. 10's an interesting one, like you mentioned. If Edwards is fit and, you know, able to play, I think it's another really good opportunity for him. And to really see, you know, another game against Africa and maybe have Walsh on the bench again, because I thought the impact he brought off last week was very good. And I think Max Nagy deserves another shot at fullback. Not because he tried in the other drop goal after 10 seconds. Which was rather spectacular. If he'd got it, they would have got the leading bonus point. Yeah, well, if you look at it that way, if you take away the yellow card as well that he got the other game, it's quite a comfortable away win. But no, nothing on that. But yeah, you know, it's another game for him. Not only will he get back to speed, I think he's done that now. He's obviously crossed the bench against Munster, against the Lions. Obviously played the full 80 against the Stormers. There's been more opportunity to gain that consistent form that we saw of him at the start of the year. Because at the start of the season, he's probably one of the better players in Wales. There's a lot of talk about him, if he was Welsh qualified or not. And there probably still is somewhere. And obviously that injury away at Benetton was a bit of a killer at the time. Especially that he scored about five minutes beforehand. But it's nice to see him back and playing consistently again. Yeah. And one thing that stands out to me is that all those names are so good. You just say Gareth Thomas, Nicky Smith, Max Nagy, Jack Walsh, Dan Edwards, Owen Williams. There's no player there, if I saw them on a team sheet, I'd be like, oh, no, they're on the team sheet. It's crazy that with the budgets where they are, that we have this amount of sort of choice. And that any way we pick them or rotate them it's just going to end up in a good side. I love the idea of Nicky Smith going to Africa with a bombshell of our own and bring on Nicky Smith from the bench as an impact player. I think part of it just depends on where the players are in terms of their bodies, isn't it? Like when we talk about, it's what Toby Lewis' big thing, isn't it? About not maybe having the player rotation you need and having to be really careful about who plays when, how you get game time. So because all those players are so good and we just know they can do a job, it's just going to depend on those conversations with just how you're feeling and how you're holding up and who's feeling the freshest as well. Yeah, and it's amazing you mentioned that depth. So many of these players were unknowns at the start of the season. And I made this point before, but like Dan Edwards hadn't played a game of professional rugby. Luke Davis hadn't started a game of professional rugby. Jack Walsh had played a handful of games last year. Harry Davies has played more games this season than he had in his professional career before. He'd played 13 games for the Ospreys, including appearances off the bench going into this season, and has played 18 games so far this year. It's just like the number of players in this side. Lewis Lloyd, again, hadn't played a game of professional rugby. Morgan Morse, if he comes in, again, hadn't played a game of professional rugby at the start of the year. Ben Warren had maybe two appearances, three appearances. Just throughout the team, there are so many players who have been built over the season as proper seasoned players. And yeah, really exciting to see that depth coming through. Really excited for what they can do in the coming years, but also very much this weekend. So, Yestin, thank you as ever. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for giving us your time and your deadline week. Godspeed with that. Harry, thank you for joining us. Thank you for stepping in. Yeah, no problem. Great to be here. And yeah, good luck, Yestin. Thank you. I'll take all the welcome support, because tomorrow is going to be rather interesting. I think I might just sit in front of my laptop for the most of the day. I might maybe just think about five-metre tap-and-go's briefly. I might be going out to see me somewhere. But yeah, it's probably a better time to pack that aside and focus on the university studies for a little bit. I'll tell you what, the good player game would have been right when I was doing my dissertation. It would have been right in that period. Yeah, that was absolute peak, sheer panic. Yeah, I've got another year to go as well, so a good player's going to come in serious and I'll do the times next year, I'm sure of it. All right, that's brilliant. Also, all the best to James and his partner, Max, who's, I believe, expecting tomorrow or in the coming days. So again, all the good luck and God bless us and to Yestin. Double that there. I can only imagine, so excited, so proud. But yeah, all the best. Thank you for listening. 2pm kick-off this weekend and we'll see you there and we'll see you next week for more of the... I automatically start doing the Squid Rugby video signing end of thing. That isn't how we end this, is it? I don't end it by just going rugby. My brain's been broken by six years of doing this, six and a half now. Jeez, how is this? How have I been doing? I've lost track of who I am. It weirdly stuck in my head as well because you were about to say more and I thought, oh, please say rugby at the end of this. I thought it was going to happen. But yeah, it's kind of somehow got into my head as well. It's just there. I say it all the time. It's broken me. But more rugby. Thank you for listening to the Osprey Diary podcast. We hope you enjoy the show. Please subscribe, rate and review wherever you listen to us as it really helps 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. We'll see you next time.