Brewery Field

 

Ospreys 22-13 Edinburgh

26th October 2024

Edinburgh's on-the-road (one away win in the last seven, now) woes continued this afternoon, as they tamely capitulated to an Ospreys side which began the day at the foot of the United Rugby Championship table.

I actually felt Edinburgh did reasonably well in the first-half, looking the more dangerous of the two sides.  The visitors held a narrow 10-7 advantage at the break; Ross Thompson's 16th minute penalty being the difference between the sides.  Ben VELLACOT having cancelled out an early touchdown by Ospreys'  Dewi LAKE.

The second half, in contrast, was pretty much all Ospreys.  Edinburgh were fortunate a knock-on by Jac Morgan wiped out a home try by Jac Morgan minutes after the break.  Undaunted, the Ospreys then camped out on the Edinburgh line for what seemed like at least ten minutes, before Gareth THOMAS finally heaved the ball over the line to put his side back in front.

Edinburgh barely threatened the Osprey's line thereafter, indeed choosing to kick a penalty when 15-10 down, with a full fifteen minutes left to play.  This may have been a correct decision in light of how the game was going, but it just appeared to me that the players lacked the self-belief to kick for the corner, and go for a try from the resultant lineout.

That was as close as Edinburgh got to adding to their tally, and the home lads sealed the win with a third try - through Sam PARRY - in the 75th minute.  And that was sort of that.  

Once the clock went red, we had an odd six minutes of additional play where neither side wanted the match to stop; as the Ospreys went hunting for a fourth-try bonus point, whilst Edinburgh looked for an (unlikely) score which would have given them a losing bonus point.  Eventually a pair of knock-ons ended the encounter.  

The Ospreys certainly deserved their win, but this truly had been a dreadful Edinburgh display.

The Brewery Field is the home ground of Welsh club rugby side Bridgend Ravens, and has a capacity of 8,000,  The ground is generally used by the Ospreys to play a couple of matches per season away from the 21,000 capacity Swansea Stadium.  This afternoon's win over , I learned, was the Osprey's fourth consecutive success at the Brewery Field. 

 

A view from the castle ruins above the ground.

 

 

The ruins of Newcastle look down over the ground.

One bod clambered up onto the remains of a tower to get a better view.

Before deciding it was safer just to stand on the wall.

  

As I had a few hours to kill in Bridgend before the match, I drove a few miles south to the little community of Ogmore-by-Sea, for no other reason that I thought it was a great name.  I pottered around on the beach for about 45 minutes or so, before driving to the match via the long ruined Ogmore Castle.