Ospreys are one of the enigmas of the Heineken Cup. They are made up entirely of international players, eight of whom toured South Africa with the Lions last year, yet have not got beyond the quarter-finals and have developed a tendency to blow tight matches.
That was the case at Toulon last weekend. Ospreys were leading in the closing minutes before a cut-out pass by Jonny Wilkinson found Paul Sackey and the England wing had the pace and strength to deny the Welsh region what would have been a significant victory.
"We threw it away," said the centre James Hook, who was making his first start of the season after recovering from a shoulder operation. "It was there for us and we could not close it out. It's been like it for the last few years; we just cannot get over the final hurdle. We have to be more ruthless."
Ospreys entertain London Irish, the Premiership leaders, . If the region's away form in the Heineken Cup has cost them in recent years – they have gone out at the quarter-final stage in the past three seasons after losing away to Saracens, Munster and Biarritz – their last defeat at home in the tournament was five years and 13 matches ago.
"The Heineken Cup is a tournament about history as much as pedigree," the Ospreys forwards coach, Jonathan Humphreys, said. "It is very rare that you get a team coming from nowhere to win it. It is a school of hard knocks and you have to go through them. Munster endured a lot of frustration before winning the trophy and that is the way it is. We know what it's about now, having grown in experience.
"We have talked this week about the way we manage games at the end. We should have come away with the four points at Toulon but we are still in there and a win over London Irish would put us back in the driving seat. We were criticised for not beating Toulon, just as we were last year when we drew at Leicester, but I take that as a back-handed compliment. They are two top sides and it is a tribute to us that people think we should have beaten them both away."
The Ospreys wing forward Jerry Collins believes that failing to beat London Irish would all but end their prospects of topping a pool he feels will yield only one quarter-finalist because of the quality of the four teams in it.
"I think the two runner-up quarter-finalists will come from the groups with Italian teams in them," the 48-cap All Black said. "We know we have to win our three games in Swansea: lose to London Irish and we lose the pool. We did not get enough ball against Toulon and we have to improve on that. To go as close as we did with 30% possession shows what we are capable of: imagine what would have happened if it had been 50%.
"London Irish are the form team in the pool and they like to play rugby. They are probably the opposite of what you would expect from an English side.
"They can beat anyone, anywhere and I know all their South Seas Islands players. There will be texts about me cooking them dinner after the game but during it we will try to smash the crap out of each other."
Wales announce their squad for the autumn internationals on Monday. Attention will be on whether Ryan Jones retains the captaincy and the No8 will make his first start of the season for Ospreys tomorrow night after recovering from a leg injury, but in the second row with the in-form Jonathan Thomas keeping him out of his preferred position.
"Jonathan has done extremely well in Ryan's absence," Scott Johnson, the Ospreys director of rugby, said. "Saying that, we have missed Ryan's contributions, so we wanted him in the team. Putting him in the second row, rather than JT, means we are only changing one position and that is better for the team given the short turn-around this week.
"Ryan is a great team man and he has no issue at all with doing this. I promised JT at the start of the season that once a bloke gets the shirt, it's up to the others to get it off him, and we are supporting his form as a coaching team. Ryan has played in the second row before and I believe that after the World Cup we'll probably see a bit more of him there."
