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Humphreys wants ruthless Ospreys

Wednesday 20th August 2008

Learning from the All Blacks: Jonathan Humphreys

Ospreys forwards coach Jonathan Humphreys has called for his side to develop a ruthless streak after returning from a fact-finding mission to New Zealand.

Humphreys admitted the Welsh region have lacked the killer instinct at times in the past and says that needs to change if the Ospreys are to be a force in European rugby.

"We have lacked ruthlessness in tight Heineken Cup games and how many times have we failed to get a bonus point try in the Magners League?" Humphreys told the BBC.

"We want to be a little bit more adventurous and be ruthless when it comes to taking our opportunities."

"You can relate some of this back to the age of our squad," he added.

"Every year they are learning. We scraped through from our Heineken Cup pool last season and then we were unbelievably disappointing in the quarter-final at Saracens.

"Hopefully this season we'll learn from that experience, but generally we have failed to really be ruthless in these games.

"That's something we really want to change and focus on.

"But you can talk about being ruthless and it becomes pretty wishy-washy, but it's about how you become ruthless in terms of what we do as forwards, how we complement what our backs are doing in attack.

"Under pressure, do we deliver the skills? Are our core skills good enough to be able to be ruthless? These are all the things we've been working on.

"We intend to go out there and be true to ourselves. These are the things we've worked on and hopefully that's what people will see from us this season."

Humphreys was accompanied by veteran Ospreys prop Andy Millward during a visit to All Blacks coaches Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith as well as scrum expert Mike Kron and Chiefs boss Ian Foster while Down Under. Millward will cut his coaching teeth in charge of the forwards at Bridgend RFC in the coming season.

He and Humphreys watched behind the scenes as Smith and ex-Wales coaches Henry and Hansen prepared for their successful Auckland revenge mission against Australia during the Tri-Nations.

"I think seeing what went on behind the scenes with the All Blacks coaches will help in dealing with the pressures of being part of the Ospreys management,"said Humphreys.

"We want to create the same sort of environment. We want to create an environment or values that we can go back to and to ask ourselves if we are living them.

"You win, you lose - that's fine, but you have to know why you won and why you lost.

"That's difficult and sometimes it's not about what you do on the field; it's about what happens off it and hopefully the experience in New Zealand will stand us in good stead."