The Ospreys will bring their season to an end dreaming of what might have been when they face the Lions in Johannesburg in what is a dead rubber match in Round 18 of the BKT United Rugby Championship.
But scrum half Reuben Morgan-Williams says his teammates are still in good heart and very much up for ending the season on a high with another win in South Africa. Last season they beat the Lions at Ellis Park in a EPCR Challenge Cup game and overcame the Stormers 27-21 in Cape Town.
The only Welsh pro-club to make the top eight last season, the Ospreys needed to win against the Sharks last weekend to stand any chance of making in back-to-back quarter finals. They fell 29-10 to leave Cardiff Rugby and Scarlets chasing play-off glory in the final round.
Morgan-Williams believes the poor start to the season, when they lost five of their first seven games, was at the heart of their difficulties this season. He wants greater consistency from the side next winter.
“We’re obviously disappointed that we haven’t been able to qualify for the top eight. But that’s how it goes, this is a tough competition,” said Morgan-Williams.
“These days, you have to get at least 48 to 50 points to get into the top eight, which is a tough ask for any team considering most teams are beating each other.
“It means you’ve probably got to go to South Africa and pick up a win to push you forward to get up there. That’s a tough ask out here because they are all dangerous teams.
“The URC is probably getting harder every year, to be honest. This has been one of the most competitive seasons yet.”
As well as losing to Dragons, Munster, Bulls, Ulster and Zebre in the first three months of the season, they were also beaten in four other games. There may have been some notable scalps among their seven wins, but they needed 10 victories to get to 50 points last season to just edge out the Lions for a play-off place.
“We probably haven’t been as consistent as we would have wanted to be. We have put in some good performances, but then there were ones that we weren’t happy with,” added Morgan-Williams.
“There are definitely games that we feel like we should have won, but we just didn’t get over the line.”