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Jones eyeing cup double with Ospreys

Monday 24th March 2008

Double trouble: Jones is eyeing a cup double with the Ospreys

Not content with a Grand Slam winners medal Ospreys captain Ryan Jones has his sights set on a historic cup double.

Jones, who led Wales to their Grand Slam success, is confident the Ospreys can lift the EDF Energy Cup and the Heineken Cup this season. Saturday's semi-final win against Saracens has set up a repeat of last season's EDF Cup final against Leicester.

In the Heineken Cup the Ospreys face a quarter-final against Saracens, only this time it will be away from Wales, and they will travel to Vicarage Road brim full of confidence after Saturday's 30-3 victory at the Millennium Stadium.

With so much to look forward too Jones believes opportunity is knocking for the Ospreys and they intend making the most of it.

"Throughout your career you get very few opportunities to win silverware in your club colours," Jones told The Western Mail.

"I'm extremely proud of where we've come from as a region.

"A lot of us have been together a long time and we've really grown as a team and matured from the experiences we've had, both in this jersey and the red one. We are using those to move the Ospreys forward.

"We believe we can go one step further in the EDF competition than last year and we believe we can win Europe. I'm extremely confident in this group of individuals.

"It was hugely disappointing 12 months ago to lose to Leicester in the final, but we learned from it. We've come a long way and I'm really happy for the boys that we are off to Twickenham again.

"That's fantastic. It's another great day out and hopefully we'll set the record book straight because we owe Leicester one after last year.

"We aim to go one better this time as over the last 12 months, we've worked extremely hard.

"We believe we are good enough to figure in these major competitions year in, year out and that's what our target is."

Looking ahead to the rematch with Saracens in two weeks time Jones believes the Ospreys struck a significant psychological blow with such a resounding victory over the Guinness Premiership outfit on Saturday.

"We will take a lot of confidence out of that going into the Heineken Cup game," he said.

"It's just a huge marker for two weeks time. It was a great win.

"We had a huge high last week with Wales, but we came back in on Tuesday and refocused.

"The motivation was to go out in front of all our fans, who have been superb all year, and wear the Ospreys jersey with pride and try and put on a performance for them.

"The way the players managed themselves in the build-up to the game was fantastic and, as a captain, I couldn't have asked any more of the guys.

"I thought we were extremely professional and to only concede three points was great. But by no means is the work done. We have got two weeks of hard work ahead of us to iron out a few areas."

Another Grand Slam winner, Gavin Henson, proved to be a constant problem for Saracens and his performance did not go unnoticed.

"It was brilliant. We worked hard and carried on from Wales," said Henson.

"It was just enjoyable and great to keep them scoreless at the end and not to let them in for a try.

"The boys are really happy, but we know there's a return game up at Saracens in a couple of weeks time, so we can't get too ahead of ourselves. We've got a big day out at Twickenham as well, which will be good.

"It was Wales last week and it's Ospreys now. There are a lot of players in the squad who weren't part of the Welsh team and they played their part as well.

"Obviously it's given confidence to the camp what has happened with Wales, but there's always confidence and belief here."