Accuracy key for Booth as Ospreys prepare for difficult Leinster test 

Booth’s side face a daunting trip to Ireland against a Leinster team that the former London Irish and Harlequins coach calls the ‘powerhouse of URC rugby’. 

With a squad size of 60 players of equal merit Booth will know the Ospreys will have to be at their best to get anything out of the match to re-ignite their play-off hopes. 

Smarting from losing top spot in the table after a 42-12 defeat against the Stormers, Leo Cullen’s Leinster team will be able to call upon a host of international players left behind from the clash in South Africa two weeks ago.

Lying in 10^th place in the table with just three games to go, the Ospreys, however, are very much in the fight and are currently only four points behind a cluster of teams locked in a battle for the final top-eight placings. 

The likelihood is that bonus points will be a decisive factor in the Welsh region’s fate over their remaining fixtures but with four from seven teams competing for an away tie in the end-of-season knockouts there is still plenty up for grabs. 

“I think we will probably have to win two [of the three games left],” said Booth. 

“It is an unprecedented year though and I think people will take points off each other. 

“Every coach will want people to be more accurate because that is what matters.  

“The difference is when you’re playing against the very top sides, and you are inaccurate you either spurn a really good chance or you don’t get as many, or they captilise on them. 

“In the Bulls game that was certainly the case but in the Stormers game we applied the pressure to them and created the same situation. 

“The disappointing thing is that we didn’t get anything from the game because we played positively apart from a couple of interceptions. 

“If we had got four tries there and come home from South Africa with six points everyone would have taken that. 

“We fell a point short and considering where we have been and our record against South African opposition, we can’t be too upset. 

“We have learned a lot from that. There were a lot of people carrying residual from the week before which took a massive physical effort. 

“Rugby is a game of pressure and dealing with physicality. We are going into play a team that are extremely good. You don’t do what they have done to La Rochelle by accident. 

“Leinster are the super-power of the URC, and it will be difficult to match them. 

“They are obviously physically fit coming off a World Cup campaign where Ireland are a formidable team and you look at Leinster and there are a lot of the Irish make-up in that team. 

“We need to control our own environment the best we can. That starts with turning up with the right mindset and then secondly the work ethic and effort. 

“Thirdly then we must be accurate in parts of the game that we have chances in because you won’t get as many of them to apply pressure. 

“We know what we have to do. We will have a specific plan built on strong principles and foundations that we deliver every week. If we can do that as you’ve seen this year we will be in with a shout. 

“They are the juggernaut. They have sixty players of similar caliber. From that point of view, it doesn’t matter who wears the shirt.  

“They have a lot to play for and are a very good team, but we have competed there before, and we will again and see where it takes us.” 

[Lead image: Ospreys Rugby]