Ospreys skipper Ryan Jones has told his team-mates that the next month will define their entire season.
Jones was among the players reporting back to duty at the region’s Llandarcy HQ this week following Six Nations duty, and he says that it is important that the players realise that they need to hit the ground running now they are back in Ospreys colours if they are to avoid disappointment later in the season.
“We’ve got a massive month or so ahead of us” said the back rower.
“When you look at the fixture list over this period, the size of the task we face is clear. We’ve got back-to-back Welsh derbies that are bound to be physical and intense battles, then we go straight into a massive game against Biarritz in the Heineken Cup, followed by three tough games away against Irish sides in under two weeks.
“That’s a a difficult schedule by anyone’s standards, and we realise that we need to be on top form right the way through this period if we are going to achieve what we want to. It will define our entire season, whether it is a success or not.”
Newport Gwent Dragons provide the opposition at Rodney Parade tomorrow evening (KO 6.30pm) before the Ospreys welcome the Scarlets to the Liberty Stadium the following Friday (KO 7.05pm), and while supporters may already have one eye on the glamour Heineken Cup quarter-final clash with Biarritz in San Sebastian, Jones insists that the Ospreys need to stay completely focussed on the domestic challenge before they even think about Europe. He added:
“We’ve got a lot of work to do before we start to contemplate the Heineken Cup game. We’ve got ambitions of reaching the Magners League play-offs, and we’re currently outside of the top four so we wouldn’t even qualify if the season was to end now.
“It’s really tight at the top of the table, and if the Dragons were to beat us on Saturday night it would be even tighter. It’s great as a group of international players to be coming back into our ‘own’ environment, this is where we spend most of time in work and there’s a great atmosphere and spirit here.
“What we have to do know is make sure that we are focussed properly on the job in hand over the next couple of weeks, get our performances right for these next couple of games and everything else should take care of itself before we turn our attention to the second phase of this busy period, starting with Biarritz before a very difficult set of games in Ireland.
“We can’t think too far ahead at the moment, we can’t allow ourselves to get distracted. We have to do it one game at a time.”
