Forwards Coach, Chris Gibbes, praised the attitude of the Ospreys after they overcame difficult opposition to secure the win over Zebre on Friday evening.
It certainly wasn’t pretty, and they left it late before securing the victory, but Gibbes was in no doubt that the young Ospreylians were worthy winners as they dug deep to ensure their unbeaten start to the season continues.
“We made incredibly hard work of it” said Gibbes after the final whistle.
“Everything we knew about Zebre and everything we came here expecting from them materialised out there but at times we failed to deal with it and played into their hands. They are a tough, physical outfit who are causing teams real problems on their own patch so we are delighted to be leaving with four points. That’s something we didn’t do last season so it’s a definite improvement.
“Once again we put ourselves under pressure by giving away too many penalties, which made it too easy for them at times. Lack of discipline lost us field position at times, and allowed them to keep ahead of us despite not really threatening throughout the game. That’s really disappointing and needs to be sorted out. We can’t go on like that.
“The reality of it though is we’ve picked up two wins away from home inside a week so we’ll take that. It wasn’t an ideal start, going behind so early, but credit to the boys. They showed real spirit and kept playing for 80 minutes. They’ve got a great attitude and I’m delighted that they got their reward for digging in. We want our players to be relentless and they certainly were tonight in difficult circumstances.
“It’s another experience for this young group, another difficult test that we’ve come through and that’s a positive. What was clear tonight, and what we’ve said all week, is that we still have a long way to go before we can be considered the finished article. There’s plenty of areas to learn from and improve on from this, no one is hiding from that.
“It’s been a tough week with two away games and plenty of travelling so everybody is looking forward to going home, having a few days off, and then gearing up for a derby match at the Liberty in front of our own fans next weekend. Without looking too far ahead, the boys will be up for that one, and the way the Blues ended their game in Connacht tonight you can guarantee they’ll come here believing they can win, so it should have all the spice you’d expect of a derby match.”