Having fought admirably in the defeats to Bulls and Stormers in South Africa, the Ospreys got off the mark for the season with a hard-fought and disciplined win against a Zebre side who had come into the match with back-to-back URC victories over Edinburgh and Lions.
Whilst the Italian’s were far from the best and kept up their miserable record of just two wins in 41 attempts travelling to south Wales, Jones’ side were flowing at times and thouroughly deserved their victory.
The Ospreys went into the break two tries to the good with both centre Phil Cokanasiga and number eight Morgan Morse going over, before in the second 40 a score from lock James Ratti and nine points from the boot of Wales fly-half Dan Edwards halted any thoughts of a Zebre comeback.
Replacement centre Tom Florence would be guilty of spurning a good chance to score a crucial fourth try late on putting a slight blemish on the afternoon’s efforts as Ospreys failed to secure an attacking bonus point.
For Jones, however, it would be the positives on the pitch the Ospreys boss would rather focus on.
“I’m very happy. Obviously, when you get your first home game you want to get off to a good start,” said Jones after the match.
“In all areas of our game today we showed high quality at different times. The only slight down is that we didn’t get the five points and only got the four.
“We talked about improving in the second half in both our defense stuff and continuing with the good attacking play. I think we took another step forward in those areas, which I’m very happy for the players.
“It is always important to get out of the blocks well. You certainly want to try to impose yourself on the game and the opposition. We found out in South Africa that you have to gain momentum back at certain times and I thought we did well at that.
“There were a few times they nearly caught us out with some counter opportunities off loose balls and turnovers. The way we reacted to that was good by gaining momentum back, surviving attacks and then getting back on the front-foot and up the other end. That was real growth from us and our set-piece finished strong.
“We have come up against two very good set-piece teams in South Africa although there were things we thought we could have problem-solved better.
“We felt [at times] there were some tough calls with how people interoperate the laws. Today, we felt the referee gave us a good opportunity to scrum.”
Ospreys would suffer a blow with Wales centre Kieran Hardy having to leave the field to injury, but Jones confirms although the former Scarlets player took a heavy knock, the change was more precautionary.
“He [Kieran Hardy] took a nasty bump to the ribs and took a knee, so he felt that pretty badly,” explained Jones.
“With someone like Reuban [Morgan-Williams] on the bench we didn’t want to take any risks, as we have such a high performer to come on.
“It gave us a good opportunity to make sure Kieran was ok and give Reuban a chance with the team.”
Next up for the Ospreys come champions Glasgow Warriors on Friday night to the Brewery Field. Having started strongly once again with a hefty contingent of British Lions in their ranks, Jones is under no illusions to the 2024 champions quality.
“You expect a champion team,” continued Jones. They have got one of the best all-round games in the URC and have been competitive for a number of years.
“They have endless amounts of British Lions in their team which are back around it now, so we are expecting a top side.
“We know the challenge with that is a difficult one, but one we will relish. We love playing here [at the Brewery Field] and the opportunity of going up against the best.”
[Lead image: Ospreys Rugby]
