Ospreys captain Jones calls for the ‘extra man’

Ospreys captain Ryan Jones has called on their fans to pack the Liberty Stadium for the must-win Heineken Cup encounter against Leicester Tigers so that it will feel like they have an extra man on the field.

The Guinness Premiership giants arrive in Ospreylia on Saturday 23rd January (KO 1.35pm) in the final Pool 3 fixture, for a match that both teams will need to win to keep alive their hopes of reaching the knockout stages.

A repeat of last season’s group decider which saw the Ospreys clinch a Quarter-Final place after securing a 15-9 win last January in front of more than 18,000 fans, it follows on from a pulsating 32-all draw at a packed Welford Road on the opening weekend of this season’s competition, and promises to be another nail-biter.

The Ospreys currently sit on top of Pool 3 after four games, holding a four point lead over both Leicester and French side Clermont Auvergne, who provide the next European challenge for the region when they travel to the Stade Marcel Michelin the week prior to the Leicester game, and skipper Jones says that with the Heineken Cup  now reaching ‘crunch-time’, he hopes to see a full-house when he leads the side to face the reigning Guinness Premiership champions:

“If we don’t hit the right performance levels in the final two fixtures this month then the results we secured in October and December won’t count for anything.

“It’s fantastic to be involved in big games like these for the region, and everyone in the squad is looking forward to them. “

“We realise that we face a tough challenge, but we have been working hard to build towards January as we always knew that this was the decisive month in terms of progression to the next stage.

“It’s going to be a fantastic occasion when we face Leicester, just as it was last season at the same stage. We go out to Clermont Auvergne first, knowing that we have to be professional out there and do our job properly to ensure that we bring something back with us.”

“If we can do that, it will then set up the Leicester game to be something special. There’ll be a big crowd, just as there was up in Welford Road, and with it, there should be a great atmosphere.

“We’ve played Leicester Tigers quite a few times now, in some really big matches, and the intensity and the atmosphere is always right up there.

“It’s going to be another great occasion in the short lifetime of the Ospreys.”