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Wayward kicks prove costly as misery continues for coachless Ospreys

Ospreys loose forward Morgan Morris. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Ospreys’ miserable season continued as Cheetahs registered a hard-fought 18-13 Guinness Pro14 victory at the Gnoll.

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The defeat came at the end of a forgettable few days for the Welsh region who parted company with head coach Allen Clarke earlier in the week.

Ospreys had led 10-8 at half-time but failed to back that up in the second half as they slumped to a sixth successive defeat in all competitions.

Cheetahs scored tries through centre William Small-Smith and hooker Wilmar Arnoldi with Ruan Pienaar and Tian Schoeman contributing the rest of the points with the boot.

For Ospreys, prop Ma’afu Fia crossed with fly-half Luke Price kicking eight out of a possible 14 points.

Continue reading below…

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After a dreadful week on the coaching and PR front, Ospreys welcomed back Wales trio Dan Evans, captain Dan Lydiate and Luke Morgan from injury.

Carl Hogg and Matt Sherratt had taken training this week after the side had won just one match all season and following a 44-3 mauling at the hands of Saracens in the European Champions Cup.

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Ospreys were playing a league match at the Gnoll for the first time in 14 years – their last visit was in 2005 they beat Edinburgh 29-12 to seal the Celtic League title.

But they did not make the best of starts to their return after the Cheetahs went into the lead after eight minutes with a try for Small-Smith, who went over in the right corner after good work from a line-out by prop Boan Venter. Pienaar missed the conversion attempt.

Both sides swapped penalties through Price and Pienaar before Ospreys began to show some form.

The home side were sparked into life by a break and kick chase by Scott Otten. He earned a five-metre scrum when the Cheetahs were forced to kick dead and from the set-piece, Fia burrowed his way over under the posts for a try that was converted by Price.

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Ospreys could have extended their 10-8 lead but Price missed a penalty from in front of the posts.

Four minutes into the second half Pienaar also failed to make the most of a relatively straightforward penalty shot after a high tackle from Lloyd Ashley.

Ospreys were handed another penalty chance just after the hour but again Price was wayward.

It took until the 65th minute for the South Africans to regain the lead, with Arnoldi crashing over for a converted try to make it 15-10.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5gSOMwALvf/

That set up an exciting finale as Ospreys went in search of a try that would give them a chance of a draw or the win.

Price’s penalty reduced the deficit to two points but Schoeman responded soon after with a penalty of his own, making it 18-13 to Cheetahs heading into the final five minutes

Visiting lock Sintu Manjezi was yellow carded in the final minute but Ospreys’ driving maul was held up at the end to seal the Cheetahs’ win.

– PressAssociation

Former England international Andy Goode recently came out of retirement for one night and one night only:

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Nickers 46 minutes ago
The changes Scott Robertson must make to address All Blacks’ bench woes

Hopefully Robertson and co aren't applying this type of thinking to their selections, although some of their moves this year have suggested that might be the case.


The first half of Foster's tenure, when he was surrounded by coaches who were not up to the task, was disastrous due to this type of reactionary chopping and changing. No clear plan of the direction of travel or what needs to be built to get there. Just constant tinkering. A player gets dropped one week, on the bench the next, back to starting the next, dropped for the next week again. Add in injuries and other variations of this selection pattern, combined with vastly different game plans from one week to the next and it's no wonder the team isn't clicking on attack and are making incredibly basic errors on both sides of the ball.


When Schmidt and Ryan got involved selections became far more consistent and the game plan far simpler and the dividends were instant, and they accepted bad performances as part of building towards the world cup. They were able to distinguish between bad plans and bad execution and by the time the finals rolled around they were playing their best rugby as a team.


Chopping and changing the team each week sends the signal that you don't really know what you are doing or why, and you are just reacting to what happened last week, selecting a team to replay the previous game rather than preparing for the next one and building for the future.

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