The Ospreys welcome back four current Wales internationals as they face up to the formidable challenge of reigning United Rugby Championship title holders the Stormers in Swansea on Friday (7.35pm).
Toby Booth are going up against a side who have won 14 matches in a row and who have started the league season with three bonus-point wins. They have been blast-furnace hot, then.
Booth makes eight changes from the team that lost against Ulster, welcoming back the quartet of 2022 Test men in George North, Tomas Francis, Adam Beard and Alun Wyn Jones.
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Stephen Myler, Rhys Webb, Nicky Smith and Ethan Roots also return to the starting line-up.
Webb leads the side from scrum-half as the Ospreys chase their first win over South African opposition in the URC.
A key challenge for the Welsh team will be to deal with the Stormers’ physicality, with John Dobson’s team boasting the joint-highest gainline success in the competition this season at 66.7 percent.
By contrast, the Ospreys have displayed the weakest gainline threat over the four rounds played so far, crossing the advantage border with only 44 percent of their carries.
Booth’s team will look to the likes of North and Roots to improve that statistic, with the challenge being to get North onto the ball. Although he plays on the wing against the Stormer, the Swansea.com Stadium team will want to involve the 6ft 4in, 17st 4lb player as much as possible, knowing that when he’s on song he can pose a threat to any defence. You can read here about North's quiet moment of class.
As an aside, the hosts will go into the match in the knowledge that some don’t rate them in South Africa. Indeed, the IOL website this week carried an article where the writer described the Welsh side as “a team even a weakened Stormers outfit should beat”.
That should give Booth the basis of a team-talk. But the Ospreys then still have to go out and prove the author of those words wrong.
A fascinating contest awaits.
Ospreys: Max Nagy; George North, Owen Watkin, Michael Collins, Keelan Giles; Stephen Myler, Rhys Webb (capt); Nicky Smith, Dewi Lake, Tomas Francis, Adam Beard, Alun Wyn Jones, Ethan Roots, Jac Morgan, Morgan Morris.
Replacements: Scott Baldwin, Rhys Henry, Tom Botha, Rhys Davies, Dan Lydiate, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Jack Walsh, Luke Morgan. The following players were unavailable due to injury:
Alex Cuthbert, Dan Evans, Will Griffiths, Sam Cross, Gareth Anscombe, Bradley Davies, Will Hickey, Harri Morgan, Sam Moore, Mat Protheroe, Garyn Phillips, Gareth Thomas, Justin Tipuric.
DHL Stormers: Clayton Blommetjies; Angelo Davids, Alapati Leuia, Dan du Plessis, Leolin Zas; Manie Libbok, Paul de Wet; Ali Vermaak, Andre-Hugo Venter, Neethling Fouche, Salmaan Moerat (capt), Marvin Orie, Nama Xaba, Hacjivah Dayimani, Evan Roos.
Replacements: Joseph Dweba, Steven Kitshoff, Brok Harris, Ernst van Rhyn, Marcel Theunissen, Willie Engelbrecht, Godlen Masimla, Sacha Mngomezulu
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