The Ospreys have rarely flown under the radar, but change at the other three regions has left them undetected so far this summer, says Geraint Powell. When the season starts, though, that could all change.

 

The Ospeys, without any shadow of a doubt, have been the one real success story in the post-2003 Welsh regional rugby era.  A whole far greater than the sum of Swansea and Neath, and I don’t just mean replica shirt sales.

Ospreylia.  “The one true region”, spreading 37 miles from east to west and for 24 miles from its northern-most point to the southern coastline.  Ospreylia has a total boundary of 151 miles, according to the Ordnance Survey map once commissioned.  And usually financially stable as a business, at least relative to the heavily loss making Scarlets and Blues.

Whereas the star studded “Galactico” backs of the late-2000s could never quite deliver on the biggest non-Test stage of the Heineken Cup, repeated quarter-final heartache the result, a mostly home grown pack that was the core of the Wales Test team was regularly able to bully and dominate the domestic league.  Four Celtic/Celt-Italian League titles were secured.

It is therefore rare that the Ospreys have been able to spend any pre-season going about their business in the shadows, with the media attention focussed elsewhere.

With the focus undoubtedly on an extraordinary six months at the Dragons, as transformational evolutionary change has been wrought on every aspect of the organisation and regional positioning as a result of the Welsh Rugby Union acquisition, and the decision of Leigh Halfpenny to reject a return to the Cardiff Blues and instead to replace Liam Williams at the Scarlets on a dual central contract, the Ospreys have been somewhat left to their own devices out of the spotlight.

Leigh Halfpenny Pic: Getty Images.

The timing could not have been better for them, given the way their 2016-17 season turned sour and fell away in the final two months.  A season that was well on track in early-March ended with six defeats in seven matches.

There was a disappointing exit from the European Challenge Cup against Stade Francais in Cardiff (after having gone unbeaten in their pool), a disappointing heavy defeat at the same venue to the Blues on Judgement Day, and a final exit from the Pro12 away at Munster in the semi-final.  This has left a summer to reflect upon and brood upon what went wrong.

Yes, there was an ever mounting injury list.  But there was, even allowing for this, a surprising decline in the forward power (the set piece generally and the scrum in particular turning into problem areas).

This will not be helped in the forthcoming season by Canadian International Tyler Ardron heading for New Zealand and Sam “play in England to play for England” Underhill having left for Bath to further his Test ambitions, without reinforcement.

Forwards coach Chris Gibbes has headed back to New Zealand to coach provincial side Wellington Lions, and is now replaced by Ulsterman Allen Clarke. It will be his job to solidify the forward set piece.

Cory Allen arrives from the Blues to try and resurrect his stalled career, and prodigal son James Hook arrives from Gloucester after six seasons in French and English exile.  Neither signing will boost the forward power, obviously, but they do provide strength in depth to a back line that will probably again be without the unfortunate injury prone Ashley Beck until after Christmas.

Although the Ospreys will be without their British and Irish Lions quartet (Alun-Wyn Jones, Rhys Webb, Dan Biggar and Justin Tipuric) for the opening weeks of the season, another former Lion in Dan Lydiate will soon return to action after his own lengthy injury lay-off.

Despite the Ospreys losing 14-21 to Leicester in a pre-season friendly last Friday evening at the Brewery Field in Bridgend, a venue suited to creating an atmosphere from a 3-4,000 rugby crowd, there were some promising signs.

The scrum was rock solid when Ma’afu Fia and the veteran Paul James played together at prop, with the ballast of Bradley Davies behind them, enabling Dan Baker to pick up and score one try under the posts from close range.

The Ospreys conceded two tries in the opening half hour. They were defensively exposed out wide down their right and then unable to handle a driving maul.  After pulling back to 14-14 before half time, through tries from Jay Baker and Dan Baker, they then dominated possession and territory but were lacking in clinical finishing.

Leicester added another (and winning) line-out drive try from a rare visit to the Ospreys 22 in the second half when the Ospreys were reduced to 14 men by a yellow card to Rowan Jenkins.

There were plenty of positives, even if the defending of line-out drives needs immediate attention.  Bath will be the next pre-season visitors, to the Liberty Stadium, on Sunday afternoon.

Welsh regional rugby requires a strong Ospreys region.

The Scarlets have superb firepower in the threequarters at full strength, but their squad looks decidedly vulnerable to any major injury list and it will be fingers crossed for Wayne Pivac.

They still require a ball-carrying No.8 and may be hoping Ross Moriarty heads to them next summer on a dual central contract in furtherance of his Test career.

The Blues have a decent squad, but long term planning and short term off-field distractions may come into the equation in 2017-18.

They need to bring through and retain some promising young talent, to position for the next decade and not just for the next 12 months.  Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards will assist the Blues on a consultancy basis.

And the Dragons are in the early stages of a longer term project, where expectations need to be realistic and managed.  New coach Bernard Jackman will be working with an inherited squad this season, one that was previously threadbare and only reinforced by Zane Kirchner and Gavin Henson.

Whilst the summer focus has been elsewhere, all eyes will be watching the Ospreys once the season commences and how they start.

A poor start, and the pressure will rapidly mount on head coach Steve Tandy.  A good start, and there will be a much greater feel-good factor in regional rugby.