The Ospreys moved back up to second place in the PRO12 after their bonus point win over Benetton Treviso at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday night, putting together a performance that pleased Forwards Coach Jonathan Humphreys - although he still believes there's plenty of room for improvement.
After watching his team run in five tries on their way to victory, it was a case of credit where credit’s due from Humphreys, while very much looking to keep people’s feet on the ground as the Ospreys look to secure a home semi-final at the start of May when he spoke to the Welsh media post-match.
“What pleases us is we were trying to apply what we’ve worked on during the week” said Humphreys shortly after the final whistle.
“It wasn’t perfect but we wanted to minimise our errors when we had the ball. There were a few tonight, but you could see that we were trying to be constructive and we were trying to kick a lot more positively so that we could regain the ball and keep it alive.
“Some of the stuff that we’ve worked on was coming through and the application and the desire of the team was outstanding. We are really pleased with where we are right now, but we know that going to Cardiff in a couple of weeks we’re going to have to pick up in a few areas and be a bit cleaner, to allow us to maintain more pressure.
“We got a bit nervy at 27-10 and they were on our line for a bit, but our application in defence was outstanding and it was good to see us finish strongly. It became a stop-start affair, two scrums took five minutes each and that clearly affected our rhythm, which until then had been pretty good. We struggled to get that back in the third quarter, partly due to them playing well, but the last 20 minutes was good for us. We got some field position and we managed to score some tries.
“We constructed some good movement out there. At times, we’ve got to be a little more patient when we’ve got into the 22, hold onto the ball a bit longer, but it was good to see.”
With the Welsh Six Nations contingent returning to Ospreylia on a Grand Slam high, followed by two wins in the last eight days, Humphreys says there’s a real buzz in the camp at the moment:
“It’s been a good place to be around. It’s been a really good place to come to work, and the enjoyment we’re having together as a group is showing on the pitch at the moment. From our point of view at the moment, and it’s not a cliché, we aren’t looking any further forward than the Blues. It’s a huge game for us, then we’ve got the Dragons home, two Welsh derbies, and where we end up after that, who knows. Our sole goal right now is to do ourselves justice up in Cardiff. We know it’ll be a particularly tough game, but they are the ones you have to get something from at this stage of the season. With only three to go they are all big games.”