Toby Booth: Player development the key for the Ospreys this season 

Booth’s side start their United Rugby Championship in Ireland at the Galway Sportsground against Connacht on Saturday afternoon looking for a positive start to proceedings after finishing in a lowly 13^th position last season. 

After a disruptive pre-season due to the Rugby World Cup and many changes in personnel at the club, Booth feels this summer has been one of the hardest he has encountered in 20 years of professional rugby.  

The Ospreys will be without many of their star names for the trip to Galway with the likes of Jac Morgan, George North and Dewi Lake all unavailable for the first few weeks of the season. But like many other regions not just in Wales, but Scotland and Ireland too will also be feeling the effect.  

Whilst those factors are outside of the Englishman’s hands, Booth believes his talented young side can show the resilience and performance standards to remain competitive. 

“For our competition, there is always a bit of a hangover in World Cup years, that is why people have time off because they need it mentally, even though they are physically fit apart from knocks and niggles,” explained Booth. 

“There is an opportunity to gain momentum, but we’re all depleted, it is often a test in the first few weeks about your strength in depth.  

“Ours comes from blooding our youth players and that brings excitement. The one thing they bring you is relentless energy and a desire to do well because it is their first time in that arena. 

“We’ve had 18 out and a few in, that is quite significant for sure and with having the World Cup on top of that it’s been challenging. The most I have been involved in 20 years in terms of uncontrollable logistics. 

“We went on the road because we wanted to find opposition. 15 v 15 in the right positions. We trained against Swansea University regularly, the Dragons, Cardiff and Bath because we needed to prepare a team to play against URC sides. From that point of view, you have to find a way. 

“It has broken what is a fairly long pre-season up and given us the opportunity to learn about this new group and them about each other. We will see how far we are down the track on Saturday. 

“We know where Welsh Rugby is, and it will be interesting to see how that transpires over this season and the coming seasons.  

“It isn’t going to be easy for sure with the depleting and diminished squad size and the competition itself, it will be tough but we’re up for the challenge and we’ll see where it gets us.” 

Saturday’s opponents Connacht excelled in the competition last season reaching the semi-final stage after finishing within the top seven before losing to South African side Stormers. Booth feels the Irish side will once again be a tough proposition on their own patch. 

“We know that Connacht is a very difficult place to go for lots of reasons. Conditions can be challenging there. The pitch is artificial which brings different challenges, and we also know they are a very committed bunch,” continued Booth. 

“Their style of play is really positive, and they will want to impose themselves onto us as we want to do to them. 

“I’m more focused on how we do and if we can transfer the stuff we’ve been working onto the pitch. If we can do that, I’m sure we can give a good account of ourselves. 

“We have continued to evolve the parts of the game that in my time here we have spent developing around the attack side. 

“We do understand that with young players and with large changes in the group there is quite often a fluctuation in performance standard, certainly from an outcome point-of-view learning how to get yourself mentally prepared week in and week out. 

“What we do is tough, everyone sees the 80-minute final, but what goes on takes a massive amount of resilience and determination. That is often the most difficult thing. 

“I’m confident though that we can maintain performance standards so we can remain competitive.” 

Booth also revealed that he is excited by the performances of a few of the region’s young stars who will feature in the upcoming season with back-row Morgan Morse’s singled out in particular as a breakthrough star.  

“Morgan Morse has carried on his under-20’s form in relation to visibility. It’s the first time I have had to work with him and in pre-season he was very good,” enthused Booth. 

“He is a very driven young man. He has a lot of rough edges that will require some attention in the more subtle elements of the game. From a physical capacity of intent and competitiveness, it’s rare you see that at such a young age. 

“That is what makes him visible because he won’t take no for an answer and will drive himself hard. Watching him, Harri Deaves and Justin Tipuric enjoy themselves in pre-season has been very energising for us all. 

“The young props Rhys Henry and Ben Warren I’m excited about for sure. James Fender has come back from a loan spell in the English Championship and looks a different player through that experience. 

“We have started this core group since I arrived, and we are lucky that we put time and effort into that situation. There’s not too much to complain about in that respect. 

“For the players who have had a taste of it, it’s important to see how hungry they are to kick on and keep improving, the signs have been impressive so far.” 

[Lead image: Ospreys Rugby]