Booth’s side were defeated 18-13 by the Italians in the United Rugby Championship last weekend, however, put up a strong performance with a youthful line-up, narrowly losing to Benetton’s first-choice side at the Stadio Monigo.
This weekend is likely to see many of his side’s first-teamers restored after a combination of players had been rested, whilst lingering knocks and fatigue were taken into consideration for the start of the competition.
The Ospreys have been drawn in pool two of the competition with the Italians, two French sides in Montpellier who Booth’s side will travel to next weekend and USA Perpignan, whilst the pool campaign will finish in the new year with a trip to South Africa to face the Emirates Lions.
Newcastle Falcons are also in the pool but with the new format of the competition will not be faced as each of the six teams will only play four fixtures with the top four teams qualifying for the last-16 joining four teams dropping down from the Investec Champions Cup.
Excited by the challenge, Booth feels the competition provides a great opportunity for a cup run.
“We’re really looking forward to the game. We enjoyed our European exploits last year all be it in a different competition, said Booth.
“It’s an exciting part of the season with Christmas Welsh derbies and Europe sandwiched either side of it.
“We talk about what we would like to do at the start of the year and what is realistic. It is an opportunity to show us in a good light to other people and that’s exciting. We certainly will start the competition with a strong team and see where it takes us.
“It’s a good chance to pit your wits against different teams you don’t usually play, although we’ve had an ordinary draw in relation to getting URC teams.
“Apart from that, we get a couple of different opposition and different venues. It is a freshness to what we do so there is lots of added value.
“The format of the competition means you have to try and get up and running as quickly as you can. The other side is that there are fewer games to get into the knockout stages.
“That’s what we will try and do as we did last year and managed to achieve that in the Champions Cup against all odds.
“It is a different group, a different opportunity, but the same attitude. Let’s go and roll the dice and see where it can get us.”
Whilst Benetton had the better of the Ospreys in the URC last weekend Booth revealed that he will have many of his first-team regulars available after a combination of rest and injury knocks. However, the Ospreys will be without Max Nagy after the winger underwent surgery on an ankle problem picked up in Treviso.
“Max [Nagy] has just had an operation on a dislocated ankle which is really sad because he has been one of our form players of the year,” continued Booth.
“Until you open it up and see what it is you don’t know. There’s no bone injury, it is ligament damage so will not be quick and at least a few weeks for sure.
“He has done exceptionally well but now it is a case of the glass half full and an opportunity and chance for other people.
“It’s going to be a very tough game. We obviously let a few boys recover last week and they will come back in. As a result, we hope to be that much more competitive to get over the line.
“People naturally assumed we rested a lot of people, but we still pick up bumps and bruises as we go so some of those were rests and some were injuries.
“Dan [Edwards] has bounced back, Owen Williams did well in his first game back and Jack Walsh is fit after injury and is there and thereabouts.
“We have concerns around Kieran Williams from an injury point of view, hopefully, it is nothing too serious, but we’ll see how that goes.
“They played how we previewed them, and we weren’t good enough to get the result even though we were competitive with a young group of players.
“We know what is coming just we need to be more resilient and resistant to that and impose ourselves.
“We had plenty of opportunities and felt we left a bit out there last week and didn’t convert the pressure we had into enough points earlier in the game.
“I think that is our challenge for this week. The conditions don’t look any more favorable than they are now. They kick the ball a ridiculous number of times and get the ball as far away from their goal line as possible. The challenge for us is to get it there and convert it.
“They are a good team. You don’t win the games that they have won otherwise. Everyone has a pre-conceived idea about Italian teams and that is old news now. Both teams are very competitive.”
[Lead image: Ospreys Rugby]
