The Liberty Stadium side trailed 48-0 in the second-half, before they rallied to score five tries and take a losing bonus-point from the Brewery Field battle. And despite their late fight-back, Rees pulled no punches in his assessment of his side’s performance.
He said: “It was one of the most bizarre games I have been involved in, certainly at professional level. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that there were aspects of that first half that were borderline unacceptable and cringeworthy. We don’t have any excuses.”
Lyn Jones decided to field 11 PRO12 regulars to Ospreys’ five in preparation for their crunch clash with Munster at Rodney Parade on Friday.
But Rees has urged his young Ospreys to grow up fast and fill the void left by the departure of several senior stars over the summer.
He said: “We can refer to the Dragons as being strong on the night, with their front-five selection being close to first choice and Lewis Evans being included, with 150 regional caps, while we had a back row with barely three regional caps to their names.
“But there’s reality about how raw we are as a group. The first half was not what we have come to expect from any Ospreys side.”
There was one shining light for Rees however, with Hanno Dirksen showing up well after a dip in form.
He said: “I have to give Hanno some credit, because he had been in a hole in terms of where his game was at, but he’s reacted really well.
“So he’s a positive, as was Aisea Natoga, who looked for work and gave us some things there. But in terms of the team as a whole, there’s borderline frustration and anger.”
