Ospreys hooker Richard Hibbard will make his 100th league appearance for the region when they take on Munster at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday.
Hibbard starts alongside Aaron Jarvis and Ryan Bevington while there is reward for Welsh back-row Ryan Jones following his try off the bench against Scarlets last week as he is in the XV.
That 23-16 win pleased backs coach Gruff Rees, who wants more from his team this weekend.
"We were delighted with the win last Friday but that's forgotten about now, we've had to put that one to bed and move on. There's still a lot of work to be done, it was a better performance against the Scarlets but there's still a lot of room for improvement needed," he said.
"We've said all along that these opening weeks of the season would see us looking at the wider squad, giving people a chance, and despite some disappointing results we believe it's been the right thing to do as we've learned a lot about the group moving forward.
"What you'll see from selection now though is a far more settled group starting to come together as we move into what is a crucial month of the season. We've got some big games coming up, starting this weekend, and we need big performances to match."
More to follow...
Form: Ospreys got off the mark with a first victory of the RaboDirect PRO12 season at Scarlets on Friday. The defending champions have lost their two games at Liberty Stadium so far this campaign but have never lost three successive home matches in the history of the tournament. Munster's only defeat this season was a narrow 19-20 at Ulster on 7 September. The Munstermen have won just one of their last four away games: 23-18 at Edinburgh on 1 September. Ospreys achieved a treble over Munster in the PRO12 last season having also met them in the Play-Offs, whilst the Irishmen's only win at Liberty Stadium since 2009 was 22-20 on 23 April 2011.
The teams:
Ospreys: 15 Richard Fussell, 14 Hanno Dirksen, 13 Andrew Bishop, 12 Ashley Beck, 11 Tom Isaacs, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 Joe Bearman, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Ryan Jones, 5 Ian Evans, 4 Alun Wyn Jones (capt), 3 Aaron Jarvis, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Ryan Bevington.
Replacements: 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Duncan Jones, 18 Adam Jones, 19 Jonathan Thomas, 20 George Stowers, 21 Rhys Webb, 22 Matthew Morgan, 23 Ross Jones.
Munster: tbc
Date: Saturday, September 29
Kick-off: 18:30 BST
Venue: Liberty Stadium
Referee: Dudley Phillips (Italy)
Assistant referees: Rhys Thomas (Wales), Greg Morgan (Wales)
Television match official: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Comments
Sincero says...
Their history, etc.? Munster 1879. Ospreys 2003.
AND it ET cetera, not EC tetera. Bleeding taffs know nothing.
Posted 17:27 29th September 2012
melkdave says...
Without knowing the Munster team ,you can really make a call as to winner,All i know is it should be one of the games of the Pro12 so far,given the relative strengths of the 2 clubs and their history ect..
Posted 17:32 28th September 2012