The Ospreys travelled without nine players due to their involvement in Saturday’s Wales v Australia Test – the newly-crowned IRB World Player of the Year Shane Williams being one of them
The Welsh region also currently have twelve players on their injury list, but with Jonathan Thomas, Sonny Parker, Cai Griffiths and Kristian Phillips back after spells on the sidelines and Tommy Bowe and Filo Tiatia both included, Sean Holley’s matchday selection was still a very competitive one.Â
But Andy Robinson’s Edinburgh outfit pulled off their fourth win in five games against Welsh opposition, closing it out with two late kicks from Chris Paterson.Â
They also started the scoring in the early stages, centre Nick De Luca charging over for a try which handed his side the advantage.
Full-back Paterson converted from the touchline and it was all kicks until tighthead prop Geoff Cross grabbed the game’s second try, seven minutes before half-time.
Paterson and Ospreys fly-half Matthew Jarvis swapped penalty before the latter cut the gap to 10-6.
Godman increased his influence with a well-taken drop goal and another testing kick into space from the number 10 led to 22nd-minute penalty success for Paterson.
Jarvis missed an immediate chance to reply and with the Ospreys struggling for territory, Paterson punished them further with a pinpoint penalty for 19-6.
And Cross was able to muscle his way over for a try before the break. It came from a five-metre scrum which was held up inches from the line before the Edinburgh number 3 piled over.
A third Jarvis penalty settled the Ospreys on the restart and in the 56th minute, Jarvis sidestepped his way through the Scots’ defence and a neat interchange between centre David Bishop and Nikki Walker resulted in an excellent try for the big Scotland winger.
Walker’s effort was converted by Jarvis for a 26-16 score-line and with Cross sin-binned by Magners League debutant referee John Lacey for being offside at a ruck, it really was ‘game on’ for the final quarter.
Both sides unloaded their benches and in what was a scrappy finale, Edinburgh pulled through thanks to Paterson’s 100% kicking return. He landed two more penalties after 69 and 76 minutes to hand the Ospreys their fourth straight away defeat in all competitions.
