Preview: Ospreys v Leeds

Andy Key and Neil Back have made six changes to Leeds' starting XV for Thursday's trip to the Ospreys in the LV= Cup.

Leeds Carnegie coaching duo Andy Key and Neil Back have made six changes to their starting XV for Thursday's trip to the Ospreys in the LV= Cup.

In the backs, Leigh Hinton comes in for Jon Goodridge at full back whilst Scott Barrow makes his first appearance in the starting line up since the defeat to Harlequins at the beginning of December.

Lee Blackett is the other change in the backline as he replaces Scott Armstrong on the wing.

There is a new second row this week with Erik Lund – apparently on his way to Biarritz at the end of the season – and captain Marco Wentzel returning to replace Phil Murphy and Tom Denton whilst Calum Clark replaces Jacob Rowan in the back row. Rowan is away with the England U20 squad this week.

The Ospreys welcome back Welsh Six Nations squad member Tom Prydie, and Marc Breeze and Hanno Dirksen make their first starts for the region, while replacements Will Taylor, Conor McInerney and Ben John will make their Ospreys debuts if used as replacements.

Ospreys youngster Ashley Beck insists the Welsh region are desperate to end a disappointing LV= Cup campaign on a high with victory over Leeds.

Defeats against Northampton, Bath and Newport Gwent Dragons mean the Ospreys cannot progress to the semi-finals of the revamped Anglo-Welsh tournament.

They suffered a heavy 40-19 defeat against the Dragons last weekend, with the Gwent side's fly-half Jason Tovey knocking over seven penalties in a game where both sides scored three tries.

Beck admits there needs to be an improvement from Scott Johnson's side, particularly in terms of their discipline.

“After the first three games, we're determined to go out and get a win, we don't want to finish on four losses,” the centre told the club website.
“It was tough out there last week against the Dragons, particularly in the contact area, and we gave away a lot of penalties.
“We've all got to get over that for this week, we've got to be squeaky-clean when it comes to our discipline.”

Leeds Director of rugby Andy Key is expecting a tough examination in south Wales,

“It is great to play at the Liberty Stadium. We enjoyed playing there in pre-season and it was a good experience for some of our guys when we went there at the start of the season,” he said.

“But things have moved on now and we go there knowing we need to put in a good performance.
“They will be without their international guys but they still have a very good squad including a number of Test players.”

Form: Ospreys only loss in their last eight encounters at Liberty Stadium since September was 17-19 to Northampton Saints in round one of this season's LV= Cup. The Welshmen have now lost their last five matches in the LV= Cup. Leeds Carnegie have won only one of their last four games: 38-16 at Parma in the European Challenge Cup on 16 January. Leeds have actually won their last three away matches in all competitions. Leeds have never won in five previous visits to Wales in all tournaments. The two teams have met twice before; in the European Cup: in season 2003-04 when each team won its respective home game. Neither team can progress to the semi-finals of the LV= Cup.

Ospreys: 15 Tom Prydie, 14 Hanno Dirksen, 13 Sonny Parker, 12 Ashley Beck, 11 Jonny Vaughton, 10 Gareth Owen, 9 Jamie Nutbrown, 8 Tom Smith, 7 Steve Tandy, 6 Jerry Collins (c), 5 Ian Evans, 4 Andy Lloyd, 3 Craig Mitchell, 2 Marc Breeze, 1 Ryan Bevington.
Replacements: 16 Ed Shervington, 17 Cai Griffiths, 18 Will Taylor, 19 Richard Kelly, 20 Conor McInerney, 21 Ben Lewis, 22 Rhys Webb, 23 Ben John.

Leeds: 15 Leigh Hinton, 14 Peter Wackett, 13 Henry Fa'afili, 12 Scott Barrow, 11 Lee Blackett, 10 Joe Ford, 9 Joe Bedford, 8 Rhys Oakley, 7 Calum Clark, 6 Jon Pendlebury, 5 Marco Wentzel (c), 4 Erik Lund, 3 Peter Bucknall, 2 Andy Titterrell, 1 Gareth Hardy.
Replacements: 16 Vili Ma'asi, 17 Mike MacDonald, 18 Juan Gomez, 19 Phil Murphy, 20 Kearnan Myall, 21 Andy Gomarsall, 22 Ceiron Thomas, 23 Richard Welding.

Date: Thursday, February 4
Venue: Liberty Stadium
Kick-off: 19.30 GMT
Referee: Gwyn Morris (Wales)