Jones knows that nothing less than a perfect performance from the Ospreys at Firhill will do for his team and warned Warriors fans to watch out for the fight in the Welsh region.
“We are very proud of our record in the Magners League, winning it twice in the last three years,” he said. “We won’t be giving up the title lightly.”
Jones says his players are looking to build on their recent league form and haul themselves into the top half of the Magners League table. After a pre-Christmas run that saw the defending champions way off the pace and close to the foot of the table, the Ospreys are up to seventh, with twenty-four points. That’s just seven points behind second place but some thirteen points behind Magners League leaders Leinster. A win against ninth-placed Glasgow Warriors is crucial to keep in sight of the Dublin side.
“The players are keen to build on what proved to be a comprehensive victory over Connacht two weeks ago,” he said. “We’ll be preparing for this game in exactly the same way we would any other one, which is to target a win in order to move up the league table. If you look at how it currently stands, we are just five points behind the Blues and seven points behind the Scarlets.
“We are well aware that just a couple of wins could see us leapfrog both sides in the table, so we have to be positive and aim for that. If we can do that, we will find ourselves in a position where we could be hot on the heels of the leading sides, and as we found out last year, if you get into April in that position, anything can happen.
“We welcome back Sonny Parker, Alun-Wyn Jones and Nikki Walker into the set-up from international duty and we are grateful to both Warren Gatland and Frank Hadden for making the trio available to us. Their experience and know-how certainly gives us more options across the field and we will benefit from their inclusion. Our matches up there have always tended to be close run affairs with not a lot between the sides and I’m sure it will be the same this time around.”
Ospreys: Johnny Vaughton; Nikki Walker, Sonny Parker, Jonathan Spratt, Mark Taylor; Shaun Connor, Justin Marshall; Paul James, Richard Hibbard, Cai Griffiths, Lyndon Bateman, Alun-Wyn Jones, Ben Lewis, Marty Holah, Filo Tiatia (capt) Replacements: Ed Shervington, Andrew Millward, Andy Lloyd, Tom Smith, Rhys Webb, Gareth Owen, Aled Brew
