Shane Williams marked his 50th Heineken Cup appearance with a score that will be a candidate for the try of the season.
The wing-wonder’s 60 metre second half scamper reasserted the control of the home side and made up for the sucker interception try his team had conceded at the start of the second period.
Victory for the Magners League champions means they are firmly back in the hunt in Pool 3 and overtake Irish with five points from two games to their four from last week’s win over Munster.
The Ospreys started well and were quick to spreads the ball wide and it only took them three minutes to grab the lead when James Hook ghosted his way between the two centres before sending Tommy Bowe winging his way to the try line for the perfect start.
Dan Biggar, who had missed two key kicks in the closing minutes in Toulon the previous weekend, failed with his conversion attempt, but he was perfect from there on as he helped build an 11 point interval lead.
But his four successive penalties only came after the English Premiership leaders had calmed their early nerves with two penalties from the reliable boot of Ryan Lamb. That hoisted the side who had seen off Munster at home in Round 1 into a one point lead after 12 minutes, but the rest of the half was a story of mounting home pressure.
Biggar ensured that was converted into points with his four kicks at goal, one of which came from 52 metres, but Lamb lost his aim and was guilty of two poor misses that cost his side dearly.
If the Ospreys and the 12,000+ crowd were happy at half-time, they were even more pleased as the second period began in similar vein to the first. But for all their ambition and movement, it wasn’t the home side who scored next.
Instead the Irish came up with a near carbon copy performance to their opening of the second half against Munster by snapping up an interception try. Last week it was Topsy Ojo who ran 55 metres to break Munster hearts and this time it was Sailosi Tagicakibau who latched onto lee Byrne’s pass just outside the Irish 22 and raced the length of the field to score with James Hook desperately hanging onto his shirt for the final five metres.
Lamb made up for his earlier misses by banging over the wide angled conversion and all of a sudden there were only four points between the sides. Now the game was back in the melting pot and it needed something special to grab the initiative
That ‘something special’ was delivered in try of the season style by the greatest try scorer in Welsh rugby history, Shane Williams, who conjured something out of nothing for the second time in the game and this time finished it off.
His first-half effort had just fallen short after he had hurdled Ojo and fallen five metres short, but there was no stopping him after he chipped over the top after breaking out of his 22, re-gathered on the 10 metre line and then sprinted the remaining 60 metres to the line.
Hook converted in the absence of the injured Biggar and then added a 48 metre penalty to stretch the lead to 11 points again. Lamb responded with another Irish penalty, but the Ospreys were home and hosed.
