[2013/14 HEC] Pool 1, Round 1

[dullonien]

I disagree with Psychic Duck on Ryan, I thought he had a very good game, especially considering it was his first game back from injury, and only his second game since March. Tipuric is also bloody amazing every time he plays the game. James King was also encouraging in the lineout.

Well, that's all the positive over and done with.

On the backrow theme, why does Joe BEarman feel the need to run sideways all the time? It's begining to really get my goat. We ought to give Morgan Allen a chance in big games. He's a big lump and can smash his way over people, rather than spending two minutes trying to find the smallest defender so he can get tackled by him instead.

Disagree on all these points.

After a great start winning the first penalty, I thought Ryan Jones had a very average game. He conceded a lot of needless penalties, and generally looked a yard off the pace of the game. I personally would have replaced him earlier with Sam Lewis, to see if Lewis could help Tipuric stem the flow of turnovers they were conceding.

Tipuric was way below his best, as he has in his other two performances this season. He was blown away at the breakdown by SOB and co. and didn't really get into the game till late on when he finally managed a turnover and then put Hassler away down the wing. It wasn't a terrible display, but far from the all out displays he usually gives.

I thought Bearman was one of the Ospreys few positives. He regularly got the Ospreys over the gain line, using his pace to get him past the Leinster backrow so he could take on the Leinster midfield. He made a few errors, such as slipping off a tackle on SOB, but overall he was good.

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

The thing with Ryan, though, is that he always puts himself about. I don't know exact stats, but he seemed to make a lot of tackles and carries. Maybe it's just because I'd got used to watching Tom Smith, maybe it's because I'm biased by my undying love for Ryan, but I felt he played well, especially considering the injury situtation. I didn't disagree with bringing him off when they did, though.

That was almost the point I was trying to make, that Tipuric is always brilliant, no matter how anyone else is playing. O'Brien was fantastic, yet Tipuric still made steals and straightened the line and drew his man better than any of the backs could. He wasn't at his best by any stretch, but he's so good even when he isn't at his best he's his teams best forward.

Granted, I didn't think he played badly per say, it's more a pet peeve I've had for a while but finally tipped over with the frustration from the loss yesterday. Had we won, chances are, there's no way I would've mentioned it. I reckon he could've made far more if he didn't spend so long running around. There was one time we had a bit of an overlap and Bearman runs sideways, kills it, then takes it into contact and gets driven backwards. That annoyed me.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Any opinion from Ospreys fans on how Martin Moore played? We have a habit in Ireland of lauding any prop who doesn't have his head shunted through his arse come scrum time. I thought his battle with Duncan Jones was very much 50:50 and he was slightly on top of Ryan Bevington but I'm looking at this through biased eyes.

How do Os fans rate Ashley Beck? Any time I've seen him against Leinster in the past he's been terrific but yesterday wasn't one of his better days. Same goes for Dan Biggar.

***o Tebaldi got away with a stupid quick tap against Leinster in the RDS a month ago when he should have just left it to Dan Biggar to kick the equalizing score. Yesterday his quick tap and hail mary pass off the back of it was the turning point for me. How has he played in general since his summer move? I thought he was pretty good in everything else he did.

 

[dullonien]

Any opinion from Ospreys fans on how Martin Moore played? We have a habit in Ireland of lauding any prop who doesn't have his head shunted through his arse come scrum time. I thought his battle with Duncan Jones was very much 50:50 and he was slightly on top of Ryan Bevington but I'm looking at this through biased eyes.

How do Os fans rate Ashley Beck? Any time I've seen him against Leinster in the past he's been terrific but yesterday wasn't one of his better days. Same goes for Dan Biggar.

***o Tebaldi got away with a stupid quick tap against Leinster in the RDS a month ago when he should have just left it to Dan Biggar to kick the equalizing score. Yesterday his quick tap and hail mary pass off the back of it was the turning point for me. How has he played in general since his summer move? I thought he was pretty good in everything else he did.

Thought Moore looked strong in the scrums. Didn't notice him too much otherwise, but that doesn't really matter.

I rate Beck very highly, but he's been poor thus far this season, as has Bishop outside him.

Tebaldi has been very good, but yesterday he was quite average. Habberfield was much better after coming on.

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

I've been mildly impressed by Moore the couple of times I've seen him play, especially yesterday. He strikes me as a solid player, one who I'd group with the likes of Craig Mitchell and David Wilson, the kind of lump who doesn't get shoved backwards, and, on his day, could manage some decent shoves himself.

I'd've taken Beck on the Lions tour had he not got injured. That's how highly I rate him. However, he's had a pretty meh start to the season, as Dull said. I don't know why I'm posting this. Dull's already made all the points I want to make. I agree on Tebaldi, too. Those taps were stupid. We could've had a bonus point if he hadn't blown it.

 

[Packman]

Pool 1 where Ospreys do a "Quins" and Saints put a brave face on their bonus point loss. I didn't think Castre were doing that well in the Top 14. I feel a real euro champ would've won that game.