Ospreys silence Lions to keep play-off bid on track

Ospreys kept alive their hopes of an end of season play-off spot with an impressive 36-21 bonus-point win over Emirates Lions in Swansea.

The hard-fought victory saw them move up to seventh and firmly back into the play-off mix but some difficult tasks await them with a trip to Leinster and two back-to-back games in South Africa.

Tom Botha, Sam Parry, Morgan Morris, Lewis Lloyd and Keiran Williams scored their tries with Owen Williams kicking three conversions and a penalty. Jack Walsh added a conversion.

Lions could not repeat last week’s notable 38-14 success in Connacht but managed three tries from P.J.Botha, Quan Horn and Richard Kriel all of which Jordan Hendrikse converted.

Ospreys made a quick start by building up a sustained period of pressure and were rewarded when Botha forced his way over from close-range.

Williams missed the conversion but the hosts soon extended their advantage with an excellent second try.

From a ruck 30 metres out, Reuben Morgan-Williams sailed through a huge gap in the visitors’ defence to send Parry over for the hooker to celebrate his 150th appearance for the region.

Williams converted and Ospreys held a 12-0 lead at the end of a competitive first quarter.

Lions then showed their first real attacking intent but resilient defence led by home skipper Justin Tipuric kept the try-line intact.

Still the South Africans had much the better of the second quarter, aided by the yellow card dished out to Parry for repeated team infringements, but Hendrikse missed the resulting penalty.

However, relentless pressure had to count and it came when Botha finished off a driving line-out but Ospreys soon responded with a penalty from Williams to give them a 15-7 half-time lead.

Seven minutes after the restart, Lions suffered a blow when their replacement prop Morgan Naude was sin-binned for a tip tackle on Tipuric and the home side soon capitalised when Morris crashed over.

Naude returned from the sin-bin in time to see Lloyd finish off a driving line-out for the bonus-point try.

Lions staged a determined rally and were rewarded with tries from Horn and Kriel but they finished the game pointless as Williams scored a late try for the hosts to seal victory.