A man-of-the-match performance from Wales co-captain Dewi Lake who scored an astonishing four tries in the bonus-point victory will take the plaudits in a fantastic watch for the neutral.
It would be a good team performance from the Ospreys who added further scores from Gareth Thomas and captain Morgan Morris to seal the victory in the ten-try contest to deny the Italian side a losing bonus point.
Booth’s side were defeated 18-13 by the Italians in the United Rugby Championship last weekend, however, this time with many of their regulars back in the starting line-up were not going to let this game slip out of their reach with their pack strengthened by Wales internationals Jac Morgan, Adam Beard and Lake.
The Ospreys driving maul from the line-out once again proved a valuable weapon playing a major part in all six Ospreys tries in a physical back-and-forth contest. Benetton also played their part with Fijian wing Onisi Ratave impressing, scoring two well-worked tries in the corner for the Italians, whilst flanker Sebastian Negri also crossed the line as six tries were shared at the break with the Italians edging the scoreline 24-21.
The second period traded punches like the first with Lake completing his hattrick and fourth try between winger Paolo Odogwu’s reply for the visitors.
The game though would fall nicely into the Ospreys hands with Benetton reduced to 14 men late on when replacement loose-head Mirco Spagnolo would be shown a yellow card for being off his feet while competing in the ruck.
With the numerical advantage and brave decision making the Ospreys would kick to touch and would be rewarded with Morris scoring from the resulting line-out. A factor that would deny the visitors a bonus point and please Booth.
“I’m really pleased for the guys to perform like they did to respond to the disappointment of last week,” said Booth.
“It was a different side, but we win, lose and improve as a group. It is important to try and manage the opposition. If you win and deny them it can be a crucial thing. It used to be win at home, lose away and try and get losing bonus points, those things are still a factor.
“To take a point away from them is pleasing and it shows a little bit of ruthless mentality that they can think about that and not just be euphoric about just winning. They could have easily just kicked it, to have that thought bodes well for us.
“We’ve put a lot of work into that [driving maul]. Since I have come here it’s been about getting the fundamentals of the game right like the scrum, the line-out, the kicking game and the defense. Once you get them right you can start to work on the pretty stuff.
“You have to stretch defenses to get into those line-out opportunities. Whether that is forcing them to make mistakes, set-piece scrum power, or your attack phase with a lot of penalties.
“The mentality is encouraging. We’ve talked about cup rugby; Europe is basically that because there are only four games. It used to be more but now it’s like a cup final every week to get to the knockout stages.
“To see it function well against a big physical team is something to be pleased about, but we go to Montpellier next week where they don’t get any bigger.
“They have their own things to deal with like where they are in the league and with different coaches coming in. We also don’t know what their focus is around this competition.
“All we can do is control ourselves, make sure we take some confidence from the performance. We will prepare properly like we always do to give ourselves the best chance, but if we don’t match the energy, we won’t match the physicality and won’t execute well and then you’ll come off second best.
“We will see how they go against Newcastle and see what we can get from that, but the big thing with French rugby is the physicality you have to match that.
“The crowd is hostile. We found that when we went there last year, it’s going to be a challenge and we need to keep embracing that.”
[Lead image: Ospreys Rugby]
