Ospreys coach Mark Jones says the target is to keep on climbing the URC table now they are up to seventh after beating Connacht Rugby 43-40 in a “crazy” 12-try thriller.
Jones’ team looked to be heading for a comfortable win in Swansea when they led 38-14 and then 43-28 as wings Keelan Giles and Dan Kasende both crossed twice.
But Connacht refused to lie down and scored four tries in the mid-section of the second half to set up a grandstand finish, with the hosts having to repel a prolonged late onslaught to claim a bonus point victory which puts them in the play-off positions for the first time this season.
Jones said: “It was a crazy game. We let it get out of control ourselves, we were part of the problem really, but the good thing is we had enough solutions to get the job done.
“I would rather focus on what we did well than dwell too much on what we didn’t. It’s pretty obvious what we didn’t do well and it was on the defensive side. It wasn’t poor all the time, it was just very inconsistent and when you play a very good side like Connacht they will work out pretty quickly where you are vulnerable and go after it and they did and they were very ruthless around that area.
“It’s a good learning for us because there are a lot of tough tests to come, a lot of good attacking teams to come, so we are going to need to make sure we are back to what we have been previous to this game.
“We will be better for this performance. It was good in parts, but we are going to need to be better with the challenges that are coming because we got out of jail a little bit.
“There were loads of positives in the game. We scored some lovely tries. It’s just a case of can we try and win a game without having to score 43 points!”
Reflecting on his team moving into the top eight, Jones said: “If you want to jump up five places in the league, there is a lot of effort involved.
“The table doesn’t lie. It tells you how competitive the league is, it tells you how good the players in the league are.
“We have been chipping away at our results over the last 8-10 weeks and hopefully the boys are in a position now where we have got something we can really get our teeth stuck into and try and stay up there if we can and keep climbing.
“We are right in there and we are going to go toe to toe with the other teams for as long as we can. We'll just have to see how far that will take us.”
The Player of the Match award went to Ospreys utility man Jack Walsh who crossed for one try, provided assists for four more and played in two pivotal positions, starting at full-back and then switching to fly-half amid a plethora of injuries.
“Jack was very good. He played particularly well,” said Jones.
“We know he’s a player that can bring our game alive with the ball. He’s got great feet, he’s deceptively quick, he’s very fit and he’s got a good skill set, so he joins our game up around trying to get the ball to the edge or playing through the middle.
“What I was particularly impressed with was his work-ethic, his back field cover. He made good decisions there. So he had an all-court game.”
The downside of the day for the Ospreys was the injuries they suffered with Justin Tipuric (back spasm), Keiran Williams (twist to knee), Garyn Phillips (shoulder), Tom Botha (bang to knee), James Fender (HIA) and Reuben Morgan-Williams (shoulder) all casualties.
Attention now turns to a huge pair of fixtures vs Scarlets, with a historic first European knockout between the sides at the Swansea.com Stadium on April 6th.
