The Ospreys survived a mighty scare at the hands of Italian side Zebre as they held off their visitors 16-15 at Liberty Stadium in Swansea on Friday.
Despite having not won a game all season, the visitors went into the interval in front as scrum-half Alberto Chillon knocked over an early penalty and followed that up with a close range try just before the half-hour mark.
The Ospreys, who were on a run of eight straight home wins, were surprisingly lacklustre in comparison and could only muster two penalties from the boot of Dan Biggar in response before the break.
The home side would have fancied their chances at the start of the second half after Zebre had South African number eight Dries van Schalkwyk sin-binned three minutes before half-time but they failed to capitalise on having an extra man.
Biggar did edge them ahead with another three points going into the final quarter of an hour of the match and the Welsh international fly-half made the crucial breakthrough moments later as he finished off a flowing move to score the hosts' only try of the night.
Tito Tebaldi made it a very nervous last ten minutes for the Ospreys as he responded with a try of his own almost immediately to narrow the gap to just a solitary point but the Welshmen held on to move into the top four places in the table.
The scorers:
For Ospreys:
Try: Biggar
Con: Biggar
Pen: Biggar 3
For Zebre:
Tries: Chillon, Tebaldi
Pen: Chillon, Halangahu
Ospreys: 15 Matthew Morgan, 14 Ross Jones, 13 Tom Issacs, 12 Andrew Bishop, 11 Eli Walker, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Rhys Webb, 8 Jonathan Thomas, 7 Sam Lewis, 6 Jamies King, 5 Lloyd Peers, 4 Ian Gough, 3 Adam Jones (c), 2 Scott Baldwin, 1 Duncan Jones.
Replacements: 16 Richard Hibbard, 17 Ryan Bevington, 18 Campbell Johnstone, 19 George Stowers, 20 Morgan Allen, 21 Kahn Fotuali'i, 22 Jonathan Spratt, 23 Richard Fussell.
Zebre: 15 Alberto Benettin, 14 Giovanbattista Venditti, 13 Roberto Quartaroli, 12 Gonzalo Garcia (capt) 11 Samuele Pace, 10 Paolo Buso, 9 Alberto Chillon, 8 Andries Van Schalkwyk, 7 Nicola Belardo, 6 Filippo Ferrarini, 5 Michael Van Vuren, 4 Quintin Geldenhuys, 3 David Ryan, 2 Davide Giazzon, 1 Andrea De Marchi.
Replacements: 16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Carlo Fazzari, 18 Luciano Leibson, 19 Emiliano Caffini, 20 Daniel Halangahu, 21 Tito Tebaldi, 22 Alberto Chiesa, 23 Ruggero Trevisan.
Referee: Neil Paterson
Assistant Referees: Neil Hennessy, Neil Perkins
Citing Commissioner: Russell Howard (WRU)
Comments
jimbosim says...
Ospreys lifted themselves for the Scarlets game, now back to their usual average team at best?
Posted 12:56 05th January 2013
jontheref says...
Patterson allowed the Zebre prop to tie his shoe laces for 90 seconds without stopping the clock!
After 5 scrums, two penalties, O's held up, end of half!
O's did not play well, missed Ryan in the forwards, and Bishop/Beck in the backs.
Patterson was even starnger than usual, penalising gough for a diving hand tackle, player got up and ran on, but this was a PK and a talking to in the mind of Belfast Scottish ref Patterson.
What a clown he is.
o's lucky to win with him in charge.
Zebre scored two good tries, and were a knock on away from a win.
Too close for supporters, but the management obviously wanted to rest players.
Just got away with it.
Briefly 4th in league, but can expect to drop to 5th tomorrow.
Scarlets will have dropped from 2nd to 5th!
Posted 00:16 05th January 2013
makemehappy says...
Ospreys badly need a cutting edge in the backs. Should be hammering a team like the Zebra at home!
Posted 23:15 04th January 2013