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'We took it personally and we talked a lot about it'

By PA
Ospreys v Leicester Tigers – Heineken Champions Cup – Swansea.com Stadium

Skipper Justin Tipuric described Ospreys’ 21-10 Champions Cup win against French champions Montpellier in France as “among our best in Europe”.

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The visitors upset the odds to put themselves back in the mix for a place in the last 16.

It was only their second win of the season and ended a run of 12 games without a victory in the Champions Cup – a draw and 11 successive defeats.

“That result has to be up there among our best in Europe given we went into the game having not won for such a long time,” admitted Tipuric.

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“To win is great, but the biggest thing for us now is to carry on winning. We need to become more consistent.

“That’s the standard we want to be playing at week in, week out. We know we can go up another few gears and we want to push on to be better.

“It’s special to put one over on the French champions. You could see they were hurting at the end and they will come to us in the new year really fired up.”

Coming on the back of a disappointing home defeat to English champions Leicester Tigers, this was a win that came out of nowhere. The bookies had them at 25-1 to win in France.

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“Everyone was bitterly disappointed after last week’s performance. We took it personally and we talked a lot about it,” said Ospreys head coach Toby Booth.

“We got the chance to go again and the sign of a good team is that you learn quickly. We learned a lot of lessons out of the Leicester defeat and we proved that tonight.

“But the best part of it was that after the elation on the final whistle, the players were genuinely disappointed that they hadn’t taken more out of the game. It’s nice to have some positivity and to have turned a corner.”

The last win on French soil by the Ospreys in the Champions Cup was in Bourgoin in 2008.

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Trevor 2 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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Bull Shark 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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