Head coach pleased with the effort and spirit on display, but says that the Ospreys need to continue improving
Speaking after the 21-14 win over the Scarlets, Holley said:
“I thought it was a tremendous match. The Scarlets certainly played their part, they contested everything, and the crowd were excellent so it made for a great spectacle. There are some sore bodies in the dressing room, so we certainly know that we’ve been in a battle.
“I’m delighted for Paul James. He’s the most capped Osprey of all time so he’s very close to our hearts here, and it was great to see him dive over twice. An unlikely match winner, but we’ll take them any shape they come. He played very well in the scrum as well, all round he was fantastic.
“It’s not an easy place to come, but I thought that physically we dominated most of the game and we took our chances when they came. We played smart, and I thought we defended very well, and that was what won us the game.
“We planned ahead for these four games in December, and we’ve got exactly what we wanted. We’re looking ahead to the Blues game now, particularly for the supporters. They were fantastic today. In the last 10 minutes there was only one set of supporters you were hearing and they were ours, so let’s hope we can take that back to the Liberty next week, and produce a similar effort on and off the pitch.
“As a team, we need to work on a few things, that’s for sure. We’re still not quite there. I think we got exposed aerially a few times, particularly early on, getting caught in no man’s land a little under the high ball. Our attacking game is still taking shape, slowly but surely. Our execution and composure wasn’t quite there even though we tried to play a bit of rugby. Those are the sort of things we’ll be talking about this week, but clearly selection is going to be very difficult.
“It’s great that the squad is slowly coming back to full strength, and to see Adam having a little bit longer is great. He scrummaged particularly well today, along with Huw, Paul and Richard. I thought Craig did well when he was on as well, so the signs are good. It was great to see Lee Byrne back today as well for the first time in a long while, and Barry Davies isn’t far off either, so we are getting our numbers up at an important time.”