Howlett has been a revelation

ONE of the fundamentals for success in any sport is respect for your opponent. Defeating Saracens by 30-3 only two weeks earlier, Ryan Jones’s Ospreys side overlooked that basic requirement in last Sunday’s Heineken Cup quarter-final.

Even the body language of some players, James Hook in particular, suggested they were beginning to believe their own hype, and they paid the ultimate price.

Full marks to Alan Gaffney and his Saracens players for rising to the occasion; despite injuries to key personnel during the course of the game, they displayed sufficient commitment and hunger for battle to shock a team that I was sure would make life extremely difficult for Munster in a semi-final.