Rocky road to Dublin but Ospreys flying again

AS sports fans, the Irish can be as myopic as the best of them but spare a thought for the Ospreys side which will pitch up at the RDS for their Magners League tie with Leinster tonight.

Sean Holley’s side left Wales late last week for San Sebastian where they suffered the disappointment of a one-point defeat against Biarritz in their Heineken Cup quarter-final and they haven’t returned since.

With a Magners League tie in Ravenhill last Tuesday and a third game in the space of six days pencilled in for Ballsbridge this evening, the decision was taken to spend the last week at the La Mon Hotel near Belfast.

Hardly an ideal calendar of events at the back end of a long season but the Welsh region have responded to adversity well, bouncing back from their controversial European exit with a bonus-point win over Ulster.

That result secured their access to the Heineken Cup for next season and lifted them from fifth to second in the Magners League.

Realistically, they may now need just the one more win to secure a play-off place in the latter tournament.

That may be all they get.

After tonight, the Ospreys will have to return to Ireland next week to take on Munster at Thomond Park so it would be no surprise if they were still waiting for that crucial victory ahead of their last tie at home to the Dragons.

“The last two games are been and gone now,” said their Kiwi number eight Filo Tiatia. “We are playing against a good side (tonight), against the Heineken Cup champions and current league leaders, and then next week it’s the Magners League champions Munster.

“That’s the challenge that is in front of us now. Historically we haven’t won very often out in Leinster, so you would say that there is a small mountain for us to climb before we can secure a play-off place but it’s definitely achievable and that is what we’ve been focussing on.”

Holley and Jonathan Humphreys have husbanded their resources carefully on their mini-road trip. They decided on only three changes for the game in Belfast but have made seven again for this latest meeting with Irish opposition.

That means no place in the starting XV for Tommy Bowe, James Hook, Mike Phillips or captain Ryan Jones. Bowe doesn’t even make the bench, which is fortunate for Leinster but unfortunate for the neutral.

Despite all the musical chairs, half a dozen of the Ospreys starting tonight will be doing so for the third time since last Saturday, although only two more are backing up for the second time in two days.

Even without all that, it would be difficult to compute a formula which would result in an Ospreys win. Their only success in Dublin came back in 2005 and Leinster have won the last five meetings either side of the Irish Sea.

Michael Cheika’s side is also unbeaten at home in the Magners League this season and hasn’t lost a game, home or away, in either competition in over four months – a stretch that includes the disruptive Six Nations period.

As was the case then, Leinster are missing a sizeable chunk of their first-teamers – this time due to injury – with Jonathan Sexton, Brian O’Driscoll and Rob Kearney all recuperating from injury.

With Sexton a major doubt for the European semi-final against Toulouse, Shaun Berne’s every move will be heavily scrutinised this evening while Girvan Dempsey and Fergus McFadden fill in for Kearney and O’Driscoll.

There are two further changes in the front row where Cian Healy and Mike Ross have taken over from Stan Wright and CJ van der Linde, the latter of whom is also nursing a knock suffered against Clermont Auvergne.

Over 15,000 tickets have already been sold for the encounter but no doubt the home support would settle for a by-the-numbers win, a solid performance from Berne and a lack of additions to the injury list ahead of May 1.

“We believe in ourselves,” said Cheika of the war on two fronts. “There is no issue there. For the whole season. We have to manage our resources well and we have had a good season so far. We haven’t had many losses.

“We are very proud of that record and we will get stuck in as long as it takes from (today). With the injuries we are going to have to manage our resources pretty much perfectly to get everyone in the best possible position for (Toulouse).”