OSPREYS: ‘I’ll never make an apology’: Jones stands by Lions rotation but admits he’s still finding his best side

Mark Jones says he will “never make an apology” for giving players their chance in South Africa, despite the second-half collapse against the Lions.

The Ospreys head coach made 12 changes for Ellis Park, where his side led 12-10 at half-time before losing 35-19.

He said: “I’ll never make an apology for trying to culturally give the guys an opportunity to show us what they’re about and give them an opportunity to stake their claim.”

He added: “But clearly now, we need to start putting in better 80-minute performances and hopefully start that winning trend. When that starts, everybody’s a lot happier.”

“We were up at half-time”: Jones on the 12 changes

Jones rejects the idea that the changes cost his side cohesion. “I think if we hadn’t started the Lions game, then you could make an argument that the cohesion bit was a problem because we’d made 12 changes, but actually we were up at half-time,” he said.

“I think it was more around our execution of what we needed to do and the responsibility of us as a group to get it right in that particular half.”

He takes the blame himself. “I’ll always accept the responsibility around the team’s performance, that’s absolutely on me, but I felt like giving players an opportunity to show us what they’ve got after pre-season is the right thing to do,” he said.

How the Lions picked the Ospreys apart

Jones admitted the second-half drop-off at Ellis Park still hurts. “I’m not happy with the drop-off really in the performance in the second half of the Lions game. I’m pretty disappointed with that, as are the players,” he said.

He said the Lions’ plan was simple: “They kicked and won the aerial battle, forced knock-ons and scrums, and they had dominance there, which then led to red zone entries. It wasn’t a complicated game plan.”

“They worked out what was strong for them and weak for us and exploited it. So, we’re disappointed with that. Nobody’s hiding away from that.”

“Not 100% sure in some positions”

Jones admits he is still working out his strongest side. “Everybody wants you to play your best team in their eyes, but what is your best team? It takes a while when you have new players in to actually work that out,” he said.

“Your best team on paper looks different to the team that actually gels together and the combinations that gel together, so I think you’ve got to give yourself and the players an opportunity to work it out for themselves and you have to experiment a little bit.”

He went further: “We’ve got to work out who it is first because I’m probably not 100% sure in some positions if I’m being brutally honest.”

Pre-season was disrupted, and he gave one example: “Lawson Creighton for example went home for 7-10 days because he got married and he took Ryan Smith with him because he’s part of the wedding party.”

His message to the squad is simple. “You’ll get an opportunity, but whoever takes it and grabs it will play ultimately,” he said.

Ospreys positives from South Africa

Jones still found positives in a trip that also brought a 41-24 defeat by the Sharks in Durban. “There’s some good stuff to come out of it, particularly around our conversion rate in and around the red zone. I think that was a real positive,” he said.

He added: “We were at a one-score game in the Sharks game at one point, and then we were winning at half-time in the other game. So, it wasn’t like we were never in the games.”

The Ospreys face the Dragons at Rodney Parade on Friday (7.45pm), and Jones has made six changes from Ellis Park.