By David Williams
Mark Jones admitted the Ospreys undermined their own cause as they crashed out of the European Challenge Cup after giving up too many penalties to Gloucester.
The region’s defence coach praised his team’s commitment during their 23-12 quarter-final defeat to Gloucester at Kingsholm.
But Jones confessed that a heavy penalty count against the visitors – then enabled Santiago Carreras to kick six goals – proved too big a burden to overcome.
“You get what you deserve sometimes and we probably deserve to come out on the losing side based on the penalty count and the errors,” said Jones.
“We’ve played better, and we knew we needed to play well to win away from home,” said the former Wales wing.
“I’m really proud of the effort, there was no lack of that, and there was some quality there in patches, but giving away 15 or 16 penalties, and the unforced errors around different areas of our game, means it’s going to be very difficult to win away from home in a quarter-final.”
https://twitter.com/gloucesterrugby/status/1778903951066149035
Both sides scored a single try but Gloucester deserved their win for shading the forward battle, forcing the Ospreys into too many errors.
The victory earned them a home semi-final against the winners of the Benetton v Connacht fixture.
In front of a raucous crowd at Kingsholm, hooker Seb Blake scored Gloucester’s only try after Keelan Giles had scored an excellent opener for the Ospreys.
But the Cherry and Whites exerted more pressure in both scrum and line-out with Ruan Ackermann and Zach Mercer punching holes in the Ospreys’ defence.
Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington said: “After missing so many tackles in our league fixture against Bristol [a 33-24 defeat], we’ve had a big focus on our defence in the last two weeks so I’m really pleased at how we went in that area.
“We knew Ospreys would go hard at the breakdown and they got into us early on and caught us on the counter with an excellent try.
“Despite it being only 14-13 at the interval, we were happy we were doing the right things but overall we weren’t accurate enough.
“We are lucky to have secured a number of knockout games at home so far this season and the more we bring to Kingsholm the better.”
https://twitter.com/BBCScrumV/status/1778888310212935839
Giles scored a very well-worked try for the Ospreys with former Gloucester player Owen Williams adding two penalties and a conversion, but they will rue their ill-discipline on the night as they were penalised at will by the French referee.
A simple penalty from Carreras gave Gloucester an early lead but they soon fell behind to a superb try.
On half-way, Adam Hastings over-hit a chip ahead, which Jack Walsh collected at pace to run 45 metres before providing Giles with an easy run-in.
Williams converted before Carreras kicked his second penalty to leave his side trailing 7-6 at the end of a competitive first quarter.
A poor straight into touch clearance from Stephen Varney then gifted the visitors an attacking platform from where Williams extended his side’s lead with a straightforward penalty.
Ospreys’ line-out was a source of concern for them losing three on their own throw in the first 25 minutes and they were made to pay when Blake finished off a driving line-out.
Carreras missed the touchline conversion but succeeded with his third penalty after Ospreys had made his task easier by losing 10 metres for back chat to the referee.
Full-time: Gloucester 23-13 Ospreys
The Ospreys' Challenge Cup campaign ends in disappointment as they fall to defeat at Kingsholm.https://t.co/PD5qRY5EG1 pic.twitter.com/65dCvkMIhX
— WalesOnline Rugby (@WalesRugby) April 12, 2024
With the last kick of the half, Williams booted his second penalty to leave Gloucester with a 14-13 advantage at the interval.
After a restart, a poor kick from Walsh when under no pressure lost his side 50 metres but flanker Harri Deaves won a crucial penalty at the breakdown to relieve the pressure.
Gloucester lost centre Max Llewellyn to injury but they overcame that to collect the first points of the second half with another penalty from Carreras.
An elusive breakaway from Luke Morgan won the Welsh Region a penalty but Williams’ kick rebounded back off a post.
Williams was made to pay for his miss as Carreras was soon on target with his fifth as Ospreys’ skipper continued to debate decisions with referee Pierre Brousset.
Brousset was quickly signalling another penalty in Gloucester’s favour, this time from a scrum, and again Carreras made no mistake to send the hosts into the semi-finals.
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