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Ospreys not up to standard

Forwards coach Chris Gibbes did not pull any punches in his blunt assessment of the Ospreys' defeat in Italy.

 

The Ospreys ended their European campaign with a disappointing 20-23 defeat to Benetton Treviso.

 

The Welsh side appeared to have won the game but Treviso were awarded a penalty try at the scrum in the dying moments of the game.

 

"It's pretty poor," said forwards coach Chris Gibbes.

 

"It's a pretty quiet dressing room to be fair.

 

"The guys know they didn't play well, they know they didn't represent the Ospreys to the standard we expect, and at the end of the day, it's just not good enough."

 

The Ospreys crossed for three tries, with James King, Eli Walker and Richard Fussell all crossing the whitewash.

 

But Gibbes claimed a young and new-look Ospreys side, which was already out of Europe before this defeat, lacked discipline against the Italians.

 

"I thought we created a lot in the game, we had a lot of line breaks, a hell of a lot more than usual, but I think we lacked discipline, we lacked that relentless ability to hold onto the ball and put teams away," he said.

 

"Too often we were putting them under pressure and ended up back defending, because of our own mistakes.

 

"Our work at the breakdown was poor, we got pushed off the ball. We didn't look after the ball, respect possession, and that's the fundamentals of rugby.

 

"We clearly didn't do that today.

 

"Scrum wise as well, we got pumped, and it's really disappointing. We've got to look at ourselves.

 

"Fair play to them, they've done well, but you've got to hold your hands up. I thought we've done enough to win it but it's our mistakes, again, our errors, that are costing us."

 

"We lacked physicality in certain areas and that's not the Ospreys way.

 

"That's something we've spoken about after the game in the changing room, every time you pull an Ospreys jersey on there's an expectation on you, and we didn't fulfil that today.

 

"The pressure that we found ourselves under was of our own doing.

 

@EPCRugby

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