Steve Tandy is is challenging his Ospreys youngsters to follow in the footsteps of British & Irish Lion Justin Tipuric and regional colleagues like James King, Hanno Dirksen and Eli Walker while Phil Davies is urging his rookies to emulate Owen Williams and Rhys Patchell who ended last season as fully fledged Welsh internationals.
“The LV= Cup and the concept of a development competition is fantastic,” Tandy said. “We’ve used this competition as a tool to provide younger players with invaluable experience over the last few seasons and we’ve reaped the benefits of it. Players who gained their first exposure with the Ospreys in this competition have since gone on to establish themselves not only as key members of the senior squad, but in some cases as Welsh internationals and test-winning Lions.
“It’s not just about the Tipuric’s and the likes. Look at last season where Jamie Murphy and Sam Williams, two consistent Premiership performers, took their LV= Cup opportunity with both hands and have since been rewarded with professional contracts. We want to see more players stepping up during the LV= period showing us that they potentially have a future as an Osprey.”
Cardiff Blues will open their campaign with a home match against Worcester. Director of Rugby Phil Davies said, “It’s an exciting pool and certainly challenging.
“We play the Ospreys again, on top of our derbies, which is good. Bath have some outstanding world class players and Worcester are a club I know well, they’ve had a change of coaching there and have recruited heavily.
“Harlequins are one of the biggest teams in England and are current champions of the competition, so it’s a massive challenge for us.
“We’ve developed from last season and this year for me the players have to step up and get consistency on the field, using those experiences that we had last year to do well in the completion.
“We have a squad of 43 players with half the squad under 23 years of age. Some have come into this environment for the first time. Players like Ellis Jenkins and Aled Summerhill have stepped up from the Academy to the developing Blues.
“We’ve also got guys like Owen Williams and Rhys Patchell who came through last year for us. We will be utilising the squad throughout the year because you have three competitions and need to manage three teams within one squad.”
Round 1 – 8/9/10 November
London Wasps v Saracens
Northampton Saints v Gloucester Rugby
Newcastle Falcons v London Irish
Scarlets v Newport Gwent Dragons
Exeter Chiefs v Harlequins
Leicester Tigers v Ospreys (Fri Novr 8, KO 19:45, Live on Sky Sports)
Sale Sharks v Bath Rugby
Cardiff Blues v Worcester Warriors
Round 2 – 15/16/17 November
London Irish v Northampton Saints
Newport Gwent Dragons v London Wasps
Saracens v Scarlets
Gloucester Rugby v Newcastle Falcons
Bath Rugby v Exeter Chiefs (Sun Nov 17, KO 15:00 Sky Sports)
Worcester Warriors v Leicester Tigers
Harlequins v Sale Sharks
Ospreys v Cardiff
Round 3 – 24/25/26 January
Scarlets v Gloucester Rugby
London Wasps v London Irish
Saracens v Newcastle Falcons
Newport Gwent Dragons v Northampton Saints
Bath Rugby v Cardiff Blues
Exeter Chiefs v Ospreys
Harlequins v Leicester Tigers
Sale Sharks v Worcester Warriors
Round 4 – 31/1/2 January/February
Gloucester Rugby v London Wasps
London Irish v Scarlets
Newcastle Falcons v Newport Gwent Dragons
Northampton Saints v Saracens
Leicester Tigers v Bath Rugby
Worcester Warriors v Exeter Chiefs
Cardiff Blues v Harlequins
Ospreys v Sale Sharks
Semi Finals – 7/8/9 March
