Wales’s two regions in this season’s European Champions Cup were not expected to make much of an impact, but while the Scarlets have lived up to the billing, bottom of their group and shipping 64 points to Racing 92 last weekend, the fledglings at Ospreys go into Sunday’s encounter with Exeter at Sandy Park in sight of a first quarter-final since 2010.
Back then, the region attracted leading players from all over the world and had the bulk of Wales’s starting lineup. The goal of investing in the squad to deliver success and thereby larger crowds at the Liberty Stadium fell victim to the recession and the start of what was a lengthy battle with the Welsh Rugby Union and the four regions over funding.
The galácticos have flown, replaced by players such as the 19-year old flanker Sam Underhill whose performances for Ospreys have been noted on the other side of the Severn, where he lived before starting university in Cardiff. England cannot pick him at any level as long as he is part of another union’s system and ways are being examined of bringing back a player who was born in the United States and has Scottish grandparents.
“There is a big difference between our squad now and the last time we made the quarters when we had a number of superstars,” says the prop Paul James, who returned to Ospreys from Bath last summer. “The thought then was we underachieved given the players we had, but now we have a squad made up of a number of boys from within the region who want to play for it and wear the Ospreys jersey.
“I am not saying it was not there before, but these boys want to make an impression. They are willing to front up in all conditions in training and when fingers are pointed in review, they take it on the chin and learn.
“There is a good vibe here and then there are the likes of Alun Wyn [Jones], Bigs [Dan Biggar] and me who point the young ones in the right direction and help drive the sessions. We have a good balance and that has put us in this position, although we have said repeatedly this week that we have not achieved anything yet. Money is not everything.”
His former club can bear witness to that. Money is no object at the Recreation Ground, but they are already out of the Champions Cup and are languishing in the bottom half of the table having made the Premiership final last May.
“They are going through a bit of a phase,” says James. “They have been building for two years and you reach a point where you have to alter one or two little things. You do not go from a good team to a bad one overnight and I am sure they will work it out. I thought about staying there, but I looked at the bigger picture and my family. I had kept in touch with Ospreys and it was right to come home.
“I could see what Ospreys were looking to do, bring on a young squad that needed a couple of extra older heads. I had three years at Bath and it freshened me up. I loved it at the club and I thank them a lot because they developed me as a player and I got better. I have tried to bring here some of what I learned there.”
James is one of three survivors from Ospreys’ last appearance in the quarter-final when they dominated Biarritz in San Sebastián but lost to some individual brilliance. Exeter may have left Bordeaux-Bègles last weekend with only a small chance of qualifying for the last eight themselves, but they have not lost at home for more than a year, 10 wins in the Premiership and 14 in the Challenge and Champions Cups, and their last six European matches at Sandy Park have all yielded bonus point wins.
“I played there a couple of times for Bath and know what a tough place it is,” said James. “They are a good team that tend to rise to the occasion and they will be dangerous. Everyone in the squad has been switched on since the win over Clermont Auvergne because we know we have to turn up at Sandy Park. We are in a good position in the group, but we need to win what is a big game for us.
“We are in with a chance because we always play the full 80 minutes; when teams think they have buried us, we keep going and scoring. We have a number of young players, but their mindset is good and it means we can offset the extra experience or strength in depth of other teams.”
After Sunday, James will be joining the Wales squad to start preparing for the Six Nations, along with the Exeter tighthead prop Tomas Francis. “The squad is similar to the World Cup and we will be looking to keep the momentum we generated in the tournament,” said James.
“We had an unbelievable number of freak injuries, but a number of young boys were blooded and we now have strength in depth. The foundations are there for us.”
