The Ospreys team to face Edinburgh Gunners at the Liberty Stadium onSaturday 2nd September:
The Ospreys team to face Edinburgh Gunners at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday 2nd September - kick off at 5.30pm, will be as follows: -
15.Lee Byrne 14.Tal Selley
13.Sonny Parker 12.Gavin Henson
11.Shane Williams
10.James Hook 9.Justin Marshall
8.Ryan Jones 7.Steve Tandy 6.Jonathan Thomas
5.Alun-Wyn Jones 4.Brent Cockbain
3.Adam Jones 2.Huw Bennett 1.Duncan Jones (Capt)
16 Richard Hibbard
17 Paul James
18 Lyndon Bateman
19 Filo Tiatia
20 Martin Roberts
21 Andrew Bishop
22 Nikki Walker
Comment from Head Coach, Lyn Jones:
"Edinburgh have played well and looked a strong side in their pre-season fixtures. They are a confident group of players following their performances in the Celtic League and Six Nations last season. Having said that we will be looking to concentrate on our own performance although we still do not expect to be firing on all cylinders, although we hope that the quality of our individuals will pull us through"
"We are still building a team and although expectations are rightly high it will take time for things to come together. We have given our conditioning coaches as long as possible to build our fitness and strength levels and I expect it will take a few more weeks to build our team"
Injury and squad availability news
We have eight players not available for selection
Jason Spice will return from his pre-season spell with Wellington to be available against Ulster on 22nd September
Ian Evans is serving his suspension and will be available for selection against the Blues on 13th September
Six players are still unavailable for this fixture due to injury: -
David Bishop (knee), Richard Pugh (knee) and Cai Griffiths (shoulder) still hope to be available for the match against Ulster on 22nd September
Three players will not be available until 2007 - Matthew Jones (knee), Tim Evans (knee) and Craig Mitchell (knee)
September Fixtures
Ospreys v Edinburgh Gunners - Liberty Stadium - Saturday 2nd September - kick off at 5.30pm
Connacht v Ospreys - Gallway Sportsground - Friday 8th September - kick off at 6.30pm
Ospreys v Blues - Liberty Stadium - Wednesday 13th September - kick off at 7.35pm
Ospreys v Border Reivers - Liberty Stadium - Friday 15th September - kick off at 7.10pm
Ulster v Ospreys - Ravenhill - Friday 22nd September - kick off at 7.30pm
Ospreys v Gloucester - Liberty Stadium - Friday 29th September - kick off at 7.10pm