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'Tells you quite a lot' - Booth on attitude of 3 Ospreys players after CPT boilover
For the Ospreys, the big goal this season has been to earn respect and they will certainly have done just that with their stunning 27-21 bonus point victory over the DHL Stormers in Cape Town.
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It goes down as one of the finest results in the Welsh region’s 20-year history, given the Stormers have been BKT URC finalists for the past two years and considering how hard they are to beat in their own back yard.
The Ospreys became only the third team – after the Emirates Lions and Munster Rugby – to record a league victory in Cape Town, while it was just the second Welsh win in South Africa in the three seasons of the expanded 16-team competition.
It’s also a result which has given their play-off hopes a huge boost, keeping them in seventh spot with four rounds of matches left to play.
It was a famous and thoroughly deserved triumph built upon mighty scrummaging, heroic defence and taking their chances in attack, with Luke Morgan crossing twice out wide and forwards Sam Parry and Harri Deaves forcing their way over from close range after sustained collective carrying.
Match Summary 
0
Penalty Goals
1
3
Tries
4
2
Conversions
2
0
Drop Goals
0
139
Carries
118
4
Line Breaks
11
20
Turnovers Lost
13
6
Turnovers Won
10
Delighted head coach Toby Booth said: “We talked a lot about what we wanted this season to look like and one of the phrases the players came up with is they wanted to earn respect and I think performances like that help everyone involved in the camp earn some respect.
“It was a really great reflection of an unbelievable group.
“I am so proud to be here talking about a team that has so much resilience and so much ability to find a way in difficult moments. They have got big hearts.
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“When we talk about finding a way, often it’s built on competitiveness, heart, energy, a never-say-die attitude. We are a good team when our backs are up against the wall, for sure. That comes from a group that cares about each other a lot and are prepared to do things that take no talent, because those are the things that get it done – and it got it done.
“I thought it was quite ironic that the three players I spoke to as they came off were disappointed that the Stormers got a losing bonus point at the death. That probably tells you quite a lot.”
Booth added: “The Stormers are an unbelievable team, especially here. We had to find a way to hang in there and win key moments and we did that enough.
“I can’t speak highly enough for the guys because they are the ones out there. They have to go and do it and they did it brilliantly.
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“It was quite an excited changing room after the game, with a lot of emotion kicking around. You have got to enjoy these moments.
“I am very proud to sit here and be the leader of this team, but they should be equally proud of the amount of respect they are earning for themselves.”
Adding his assessment on a game played in front of a 15,829 crowd, Player of the Match Morgan Morris said:
“I don’t think many teams win here, so it’s an incredible achievement for us. Everyone put in a shift. Every game, we fight to the end for each other.”
The Ospreys now head up to Pretoria to take on the Vodacom Bulls, with fit-again hooker Dewi Lake set to be available to bolster their ranks along with fellow international forwards Justin Tipuric and Gareth Thomas.
Comments on RugbyPass
Less modern South African males predictably triggered.
10 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
78 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
78 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
10 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
2 Go to comments