The Ospreys team to place Leicester Tigers at the Liberty Stadium on Friday 12th August 2016, KO 7.15pm, is as follows:
15 Dan Evans
14 Jeff Hassler
13 Ben John
12 Josh Matavesi
11 Tom Grabham
10 Sam Davies
9 Tom Habberfield (Capt)
1 Nicky Smith
2 Sam Parry
3 Dmitri Arhip
4 Tyler Ardron
5 Rory Thornton
6 Olly Cracknell
7 Scott Otten
8 Dan Baker
REPLACEMENTS
16 Hugh Gustafson
17 Gareth Thomas
18 Ma’afu Fia
19 Lloyd Ashley
20 Josh Cole
21 Matthew Aubrey
22 Ashley Beck
23 Dafydd Howells
- Ryan Bevington
- Rhys Jones
- Rob McCusker
- Luke Price
- Joe Thomas
- Morgan Williams
(- denotes unnumbered jersey)
Ospreys Head Coach, Steve Tandy, said:
“We haven’t had a pre-season game at the Liberty for a few years now so we are looking forward to this one. There’ll be a decent crowd and a good buzz about the place at the start of a new year, with a real sense of excitement in supporters that we share as coaches and players.
“It’s been a long, tough, pre-season but we’re all looking forward to Friday night and getting back into it. This is the start of the final phase of our prep, with two games against Leicester, one of the leading clubs in Europe, which will give us a real test, sandwiching what should be a good training week in camp in Belgium.
“It’s an important game for us as we want to build for the opening weekend of the PRO12 in a few weeks. When you look at the team we’ve picked for this one, it’s good to see the strength in depth we are building, with some very welcome players returning from injury, and some youngsters who impressed last season who want to build on that. We are still stretched in one or two spots this weekend, with some of the boys still rehabbing and working towards their return to play and a couple of injuries over the summer impacting on our options, but we’re in a good place going into these games.
“It’s a chance to get some air in the lungs against opposition who will never be anything less than competitive, and to gauge where we are as a team, as units and as individuals. They’ve done a hell of a lot of work, on their conditioning, skills, technical and tactical, and this is where we start to pull the different strands together, while always remembering that what counts most is where we are in a few weeks time, and in nine or ten months.”
Forthcoming Fixtures
Fri 19 Aug - 7.30pm (local) KO – Belgium v Ospreys - Stade du Pachy
Fri 26 Aug – 7.45pm KO – Leicester Tigers v Ospreys – Welford Road
Fri 2 Sep – 7.35pm KO – Ospreys v Zebre – Liberty Stadium – PRO12
Sat 10 Sep – 7.35pm KO – Connacht v Ospreys – Sportsground – PRO12
Sat 17 Sep – 7.35pm KO - Ospreys v Benetton Treviso – Liberty Stadium – PRO12