Ospreys climb off foot of URC table after hard-fought win over Edinburgh

Ospreys moved off the bottom of the United Rugby Championship table with a hard-fought 22-13 victory over Edinburgh in Bridgend.

A strong second-half performance from their pack proved decisive as they picked up three tries, all from front-rowers, Dewi Lake, Gareth Thomas and Sam Parry. Owen Williams converted two and added a penalty.

Ben Vellacott replied with a try for Edinburgh with Ross Thompson kicking two penalties and a conversion.

Matt Scott led out Edinburgh on his 100th appearance for the region but they were soon behind when Lake finished off a driving line-out.

The visitors responded with a lively burst from Duhan van der Merwe before Thompson put them on the scoreboard with a penalty.

Owen Williams had the chance to nullify this with a long-range penalty but it was off-target and the score remained at 7-3 to the hosts at the end of a cagey and uninspiring first quarter.

However the Scots soon enlivened proceedings when an alert Vellacott quickly took a tap-penalty to dart over the line.

There remained little between the teams in the opening period but Ospreys were not helped by a couple of loose kicks from Williams, which prevented them from gaining momentum so the second quarter finished scoreless.

Two minutes after the restart, Ospreys suffered a blow when scrum-half Reuben Morgan-Williams was sin-binned for a no-arms tackle but this was the precursor for the Welsh Region to have their best spell of the match.

An elusive run down the left flank from Keelan Giles resulted in a sustained period of pressure from them with Edinburgh’s Jamie Ritchie sin-binned for persistent team infringements as the visitors sought to keep their line intact.

This intensified the onslaught on the Scots’ line and eventually the defence cracked when Thomas finished off a succession of forward drives.

Both players returned from the sin-bin and in time to see Williams and Thompson exchange penalties.

Williams missed for the third time in the match but it mattered little as replacement hooker Sam Parry sealed victory with a close-range try five minutes from the end.