Man of the match Dan Biggar has urged the Ospreys to take their game onto “another level” over the next two weeks after kicking off the festive season with a gritty win over Cardiff Blues on Friday.
Next up now for the region is a Domino’s Derby double header against the Scarlets, the first leg of which is an away game on Boxing Day. Biggar kicked 17 points in a man-of-the match performance at the Arms Park, and while he was pleased with the win he insisted that improvement is needed if the Ospreys are to enjoy their Christmas.
“We knew that coming to the Blues after they’ve had two good wins in the Heineken that it was always going to be tough” said Biggar.
“The conditions made it a little but tougher as well, with the wind, but I thought we managed it pretty well in the first half.
“I thought we played some pretty decent rugby actually, first half, but couldn’t quite find that killer touch. I’ve knocked one on just on the line which would have turned it into seven points instead of just three, we felt like we should have been ahead by more at half-time.
“Fair play to the Blues, they scored a good try after a bit of loose play from us. We managed to dig in during the second half. It wasn’t about playing perfect rugby in the second half by any stretch of the imagination, it was about trying to play as good a kicking game as we possibly could playing into the wind.
“In those conditions you can try to play rugby but it’s about that constant danger of coughing up the ball, particularly with a kicker of Halfpenny’s stature who can punish you with that wind from anything inside 60m. We tried to play a bit without giving them too many chances to eat into our lead. We were a little bit cautious of long range penalties in the end, so it was a case of even if we kicked it down their throats, it was just put it down there and defend from there, in their territory, rather than our own. The boys dug in exceptionally well.
“Steve summed it up in the changing room, if you are going to get a top four finish it’s about coming on a Friday night to a place like this and winning when you’re not playing overly well. It was a good way to finish it off and close the game out but like Steve said, there’s a couple of things to work on
“These derby games tend to shape your season. There are a lot of games in a short space of time and there’s a lot of points on offer. We’re hoping to build on this, we’ve played some decent stuff, but now I think it’s about taking our game to another level. If we can keep creating stuff it’s just about finishing one or two more things. If we start finishing try-scoring opportunities off then we won’t be far away at all.“