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Gloucester v Ospreys

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An Tarbh

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Gloucester v Ospreys
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Both sides go into this game having recorded opening day wins so an excellent chance to put a stamp on this group early doors.

Gloucester bring in Marco Bortolami to replace Alex Brown who was ruled out with a shoulder injury in the only change to the starting lineup which so convincingly won at Ravenhill last Friday.

The Ospreys for their part bring in Mike Phillips at scrum half as coach Lyn Jones make 3 changes to the side which won against Bourgoin in Swansea. Jonathon Vaughton takes the place of Shane Williams while in the pack Jonathan Thomas replaces Alun Wyn Jones.

Gloucester: 15 Iain Balshaw; 14 James Simpson-Daniel, 13 Mike Tindall, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Rory Lawson; 1 Nick Wood, 2 Olivier Azam, 3 Carlos Nieto, 4 Peter Buxton © , 5 Marco Bortolami, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 7 Akapusi Qera, 8 Luke Narraway. Replacements: 16 Andy ***terrell, 17 Christian Califano, 18 Will James, 19 Gareth Delve, 20 Mike Prendergast, 21 Chris Paterson, 22 Olly Morgan.

Ospreys: 15 Lee Byrne, 14 Nikki Walker, 13 Sonny Parker, 12 Gavin Henson, 11 Jonathan Vaughton, 10 James Hook, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Filo Tiatia ©, 7 Marty Holah, 6 Jonathan Thomas, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Ian Gough, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Huw Bennett, 1 Duncan Jones.

Replacements: 16 Richard Hibbard, 17 Paul James, 18 Alun Wyn Jones, 19 Hale T-Pole, 20 Justin Marshall, 21 Shaun Connor, 22 Mark Taylor.
 
If the Ospreys win this game, they should win the pool no-contest. If Gloucester win the match, they'll still need to go to the Liberty Stadium and record at least a draw (like Stade Francais last year) to remain on top of the pool. Good luck to the O's, although I believe Gloucester will win, given their extraordinary form at the moment.
 
cant wait for this game. This game will either make or break our season in Europe. Cant see us winning at Swansea so we have to put some points on them. Think we can do it but Brown will be a big loss as hes our best lineout foward but Bortolami is not a bad replacement. Ozam is outstanding in open play but his throwing in is a joke at this level . Are Gough and Evans good enough to take advantage of it?
 
While you believe Gloucester might have a terrible hooker throwing in, the Ospreys have Huw Bennet - also good around the field...also a joke when it comes to line outs.
This is going to be a very difficult match and i'm hoping for a fast-flowing game with the big boys actually showing up and doing the hard work needed of them.
Hneson has been shining as of late, Mike Phillips is starting at 9 and that's a good thing becuase Marshall just likes playing his own game in his own position. Hook is also going to need to do his trademark breaks and provide the team with some quaity ball because Gloucester has some fine backs and they will be a huge threat come friday night.
 
This should be an excellent game! I'm backing the O's to pull off a win, loosing Shane is a big blow though.
 
After a good start, a try by Sonny Parker, the Ospreys find themselves only 1 point ahead; 6-7. Needless penalties given away which were kicked by the brilliant Ryan Lamb has put Gloucester back into the game; there's still 60 minutes left for both sides to win!

Ironically, it's Parker who has made a serious claim for the Welsh shirt tonight compared to Henson. He's scored Ospreys two tries, 6 - 12.
 
I didn't miss his distribution, I just felt Sonny's contributed more thus far.
 
The Ospreys should be ashamed with those two tries they let in. Calling it 'bad defence' is generous, it was no defence at all! :%#%#:

At least my prediction was relatively accurate, :rolleyes:
 
I watched a bit of this game it wasnt bad i'm really impressed with the cherry and whites. :)
 
For all of our bravado pre-match, at the Speights Ale House (secret code for "portacabin stolen from a building site in Duendin by Italian mobsters and shipped to London") myself, Tim (Webby) and Steve (IBB) were all saying the same thing (albeit in varying levels of drunkeness):

How did the Ospreys lose that match? Seriously, every time we were looking at the screen, the Ospreys were on the attack and putting pressure on Glaws and then we'd turn away to chat for a second, turn back and see that the Cherry & Whites had piled yet another 3 to 7 points on the board! In the first half the Gloucester defence was shockingly bad, the amount of Gloucester players who fell off of Sonny Parker for both of his tries was staggering. Fair enough they managed to re-gather to actually make their tackles, but to stamp "well organised" on the Gloucester defence when taking into consideration how awful they were in the first half, that doesn't tell the whole story.
 
I was at Kingsholm last night and must say it was a really exciting game. Full credit to the Ospreys for their 1st half effort.The level of play and physicality was a step up from anything I have seen in the Prem this year. Glos just couldnt keep the ball and seemed to try and run the ball without doing the donkey work first.2nd half was a different story and Glosters play was much more controlled and precise. The Ospreys fowards had put so much effort into the first half that most of them were walking by the end of the game.
My man of the match was Luke Naraway who was everywhere.
If either Glos or Ospreys win in Borgoin the pool will be won cos Glos will not win at the Liberty stadium
 
It seems this pool will have two winners, Goucester could top the Pool if they beat Bourgoin home and away with a bonus point and then stop the Ospreys from scoring a bonus point against them in the Liberty Stadium. The Ospreys just have to do that and beat Bourgoin and they should be through on top. I wouldn't worry too much about Ulster, unless their new coach is some sort of genius.
 
Another stonking good match - anyone agree the HEC this season has stepped up a level?

Good to see Henson in form, and how's about Parker's hand off technique - he not only pushes the defender back, but pushes himself out wider in to more space. Disappointed in Tia Tia - how dumb is it for a captain to give the ref guff?

Gloucester won because they had better leadership, especially those last few minutes when they rumbled it about in the forwards.

That's the second good game in a week that this ref has allowed to flow.
 
It was a good match, love the fact that most matches have been high scoring so far!
 

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