Biggar was outstanding in the first of those three mouth-watering fixtures on Friday night as the tournament’s most successful side battled to a 22-19 success at Cardiff Blues that saw them jump back into the PRO12 play-off places.
The Wales fly-half kicked 17 points and marshalled the Ospreys brilliantly in difficult conditions in the capital and now he is hoping for more of the same in the back-to-back clashes with the Scarlets on Boxing Day and January 3.
“These derby games tend to shape your season. There are a lot of games in a short space of time and there’s a lot of points on offer,” man of the match Biggar told his team’s website.
“Steve (head coach Steve Tandy) summed it up in the changing room: if you are going to get a top four finish it’s about coming to a place like the Arms Park on a Friday night and winning when you’re not playing overly well.
“We knew that coming to the Blues after they’ve had two good wins in the Heineken was always going to be tough. The conditions made it a little but tougher as well, with the wind, but I thought we managed it pretty well in the first half.
“I thought we played some pretty decent rugby in the first half, but we couldn’t quite find that killer touch. I’ve knocked one on just on the line which would have turned it into seven points instead of just three – we felt like we should have been ahead by more at half time.
“We managed to dig in during the second half. It wasn’t about playing perfect rugby by any stretch of the imagination, it was about trying to play as good a kicking game as we possibly could playing into the wind. We were a little bit cautious of long range penalties in the end so it was a case of just put it down there and defend from there, in their territory, rather than our own. The boys dug in exceptionally well.
“We’re hoping to build on this, we’ve played some decent stuff, but now I think it’s about taking our game to another level. If we start finishing try-scoring opportunities off then we won’t be far away at all.”
Next on the agenda for the four-times Celtic champions is a trip to Llanelli in three days’ time.
Scarlets versus Ospreys encounters are always of huge importance to players, coaches and supporters alike and a victory at Parc-y-Scarlets would give Steve Tandy and co plenty to celebrate heading into the New Year.
“Back to back games against the Scarlets is going to test our squad but we’re excited about it. Hopefully we are going to have one or two more available to us, and we are going to need our squad if we are going to get what we want out of this Christmas,” added Tandy, who should welcome back prop Duncan Jones on Thursday.
“I’ve been proud of the way we’ve ground out results over the past two weekends against Castres and now the Blues. It wasn’t our best performance but we got the job done and, in a derby situation, that is always key.
“It’s always great to win and particularly in a derby match that means so much to players, supporters and everyone connected with the Ospreys. But this is a busy period and we now have to roll our sleeves up for what is a huge game against the Scarlets on Boxing Day. The boys don’t need me to tell them that.”
