The Ospreys will be creating their own slice of history when they tackle Italian outfit Benetton Treviso for the first time in the Magners League tonight (KO 7.05pm).
Director of Coaching, Scott Johnson, commented:”It’s a little bit of history on Friday night, the first time that an Italian team comes to the Liberty Stadium for a Magners League game. It’s not a completely new experience for us, we’ve played Italian sides including Treviso in Europe before, but I think it’s going to be a different kind of challenge now.
“The Italian sides have recruited well over the summer, there’s been some good Italian players returning home and that’s been backed by some intelligent foreign signings. I think it’s excellent news for the Magners League and is a real step forward. Bringing the Italian sides into the competition has added another dimension to the competition, a different flavour, and it’s exciting.
“The result against the Scarlets sent out a clear message, but one thing’s for certain, we were well aware of the threat before that game, and we will be approaching the game in exactly the same way we would any other, don’t worry about that one.
“I wasn’t surprised by the result, it was good for the tournament and good for Treviso. It’s also a great credit to the Magners that we’ve got a new team in and they’ve done well first up.
“I think Italian rugby’s really on the up. I’ve watched improvement over the last few years, subtly, and the results probably haven’t gone their way. But there’s genuine talent across the board, they’ve got more players to pick from and we expect a very physical encounter.
“As for ourselves, we were disappointed with the end result last week, it was a game we should have won and could have won. We let ourselves down in some ways, I don’t need to tell you where, we could have played better and we are a little disappointed.
“That result means we’re a little behind where we wanted be, but I’ll say what I’ve said before, the Melbourne Cup isn’t won at the Watchtower and we’re not there yet.
“We’ve been able to make some alterations to the 23 but we are where we are with the squad, there’s not a lot of difference from last week. We’ve got a duty of care to our players, our internationals, we want them right at certain times of the year. They need their preparations, this is their time, and we’ve got to acknowledge where we are as a group.
“It’s a really important time for us, for some of our kids. We’ve got an eye on next year, when we need some mileage on the clock for some of the players that will be used. I don’t need a brand new car next season I need some good mileage going into next year, so it’s important that the clock starts ticking.”
Ospreys: 15 Lee Byrne 14 Nikki Walker 13 Andrew Bishop 12 Gareth Owen 11 Shane Williams?10 Dan Biggar 9 Jamie Nutbrown; 1 Ryan Bevington 2 Mefin Davies 3 Cai Griffiths 4 Ian Gough 5 Ian Evans 6 Jerry Collins (Capt) 7 Marty Holah 8 Jonathan Thomas
Subs: 16 Huw Bennett?17 Duncan Jones 18 Paul James 19 James Goode 20 Ben Lewis 21 Rhys Webb 22 Tommy Bowe 23 Richard Fussell
