RUGBY HEINEKEN CUP:THE OSPREYS will travel to Thomond Park for Sunday's Pool Three summit meeting in relatively rude health and on the back of a fourth successive win last weekend at home to Edinburgh.
Shane Williams, who dislocated his shoulder in Wales’ defeat to South Africa back in November and is expected to be out of action for two months, is their only big-name injury casualty.
Akin to Munster for much of the last decade, though less so perhaps over the November window, the Ospreys are both inconvenienced but to some degree helped by having such a large contingent in the Welsh set-up.
The Ospreys’ head coach, Seán Holley, estimated they were “10 per cent off from what they need to be” for the visit to Thomond Park after Saturday evening’s victory.
“Alun Wyn (Jones) has also said that in the dressingroom after the game. We are nearly there. It’s tough because it’s one week, one game and you are back in Europe. But for all teams challenging at the top of their pool, it’s on a knife-edge. It goes to the wire in these games. Against Toulon we were ahead for 76 minutes and then, bang, it’s taken away from you.
“I have no doubt that I will have to see the doctor to check my blood pressure, as will Johnno (Scott Johnson). It’s going to be tight the next few weeks and if we are good enough we will come through.”
Wales fullback Lee Byrne, who pulled out of Saturday’s victory over Edinburgh with a thumb injury, is expected to be fit for the Munster clash. “It was too much of a risk (to play him),” said Holley. “His thumb was still bruised after the All Black game. Why risk him ahead of Munster?”
Alun Wyn Jones, Ryan Jones, Andrew Bishop and Nikki Walker were all in the starting line-up, while Adam Jones, Mike Phillips, James Hook and Tommy Bowe were also in the match-day squad and look sure to start in a star-studded line-up. Encouragingly for them, too, was Dan Biggar kicking 23 points in the 33-16 win over their bogey side as he seeks to arrest a drop in form in November.
“You are always happy to win and we came through unscathed,” said Holley. “We got everybody on the field and back in the fold and when we have a good look at it we will be happy, but at the same time we still have plenty to work on. We took the decision to give them four days off and we only had Thursday to prepare and a light run on Friday and we got across the line with 30 points and that has to be pleasing.”
This is the only group in the Heineken Cup in which all four teams have registered a win apiece, but with Munster having obtained two bonus points and the Ospreys one, they lead the way and the feeling has strengthened that whoever emerges with the better head-to-head record in these back-to-back meetings will hold the balance of power heading into January’s final two rounds.
The Ospreys can also benefit from their greater familiarity with Munster and Thomond Park than, say, Toulon, who were a little over-awed by their first trek to the Limerick fortress when losing 45-18 in round two last October. Although the Welsh region have lost all three previous Heineken Cup contests with the 2006 and 2008 champions – including a 43-9 quarter-final defeat in 2009 – they won there last season in the Magners League.
“We’ve had seriously bad experiences at Thomond Park in European competition but we’ve also in other games had real positive performances there,” said Holley.
When asked which of those contrasting experiences they would draw from, Holley said: “I think there’s elements of both we’ve got to take experience from. It was a good win there last year, it set us up for some silverware but the quarter-final a couple of years ago was a painful experience. We felt we had the gameplan but lost (sinbinned) Filo Tiatia early on and during that time Munster took real advantage of that and ran away from us.
“It’s two different teams slightly, it’s a different time. We see this competition that is significantly important and if you’re going to progress and eventually win it you have to go to the champion places like Munster and do really well.”
