Ospreys react to Blues defeat: breakdown and discipline cost us says Shane

Reaction from the Ospreys.

Shane Williams:

"It’s a great feeling to be captain and I’m really proud to have been captain today, it was a great experience apart for the result. The boys gave everything from the first minute, but I think if anything there was a little too much effort. We were trying to do things when they weren’t on and ended up losing the ball in key areas. We were also second best at the breakdown. It was very messy, when I had to play nine I realised how messy it actually was there. It was disappointing, but hopefully, we can learn from this.

"It sounds like common sense, but when you keep the ball and go through the phases you can get in good positions and score points, as we showed at the end. Even if it isn’t a try, or seven points, if you can get a three pointer it puts the other team under pressure, which is what they did. We showed how to do it in the second half, it’s just a shame we couldn’t do it throughout, which was our intention. Our discipline was quite poor and you can't give the Blues the ball because they are going to score points from it.

"We knew the breakdown would be very tough, with the likes of Warburton and old Nugget, the old warhorse certainly taught us a lesson. Maybe there were a few issues where we thought they were off their feet, but we aren’t going to complain about that, the Blues deserved to win."

Jonathan Humphreys:

"We went out there with a big intention to play some rugby, but I thought we came out second best at the contact area and that was the telling factor in the game. They had a couple of half chances and they took them very, very well. We had quite a few chances in the game and we didn’t take them, our precision was definitely off tonight.

"We wanted to play rugby out there, I felt we really came to the party in that area, and the Blues probably played it a little cuter. They sat back and waited for us to make mistakes and didn’t try to attack us that much

"It was the contact area and us not taking some of those half chances that were the deciding factors. We were going in on our own, we became pretty much one up, allowing them to outnumber us in that area. We could look at some of the ball presentation, perhaps we went to ground a bit early. It’s a part of the game that we pride ourselves on, it’s part of the game that we feel we are pretty competitive, and tonight, in fairness to the Blues, they beat us hands down there."