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Neath Swansea Ospreys A New Era

In the summer of 2003 the Ospreys Rugby club was formed by combining Neath RFC and Swansea RFC. This came about when the powers that be decided that Wales top senior rugby teams should amalgamate to form regions.

Shortly after this formation and in the first season this new team was not as succesful as they might have been and had a depressing 10 game losing streak in those early days. They also were locked in battle against the Cardiff blues for a spot in the Heineken Cup. Early troubles were voercome by some great performances beating the Cardiff Blues at St helens and at the end of the season had qualified for a European Cup place for another season.

In the start of the 2004 2005 season the Osreys manage to aquire some quality player from the former Celtic Warriors team further bolstering their squad for the next year. Some of the great players were Sonny Parker, Ryan Jones and David Bishop. The Ospreys fans had high hopes for the team in the upcoming Celtic league matches and more european Cup clashes.

This new young team exceeded many people expectations in the Celtic League in thier second season. Th opsreys won the title away from a close rival the Lanelli Scarlets who won the previous year. Such a great achievement was testament to the strength of the new team and its coaching staff.

While the team had still not make it into a European Quarter finals, things were looking good and players were putting out some strong prefromances and top teams at this level.

Recently the Ospreys have moved into a new stadium costing multi millions of pounds and rivals some of the best venues in europe. With great facilites for athletes and fans a like this new complex was a welcome boost for the local area and welsh rugby as a whole.

The Ospreys are looking in good shape to become one of the premier welsh team, and will no doubt spend a lot of their time at the top of the Celtic League.

This new team has managed to attract some large sopnsorship deals, the primary being npower renewables who are leading renewable energy company. The company operates on and offshore wind farms, hydroelectric plants.

Their second sponsor is thier team Kit sponsor which is Kooga Rugby.
A manchester based company KooGa Rugby specialises in rugby products and rugby teamwear. In business since 1987, the company has grown rapidly to become a leading supplier of rugby kit. Kooga Rugby has always been the Official kit supplier since the amlagamation in July 2003.

At last check the Ospreys Rugby kit was set to become the most sold rugby kit out of all UK teams this year, this can be put donw to some great team performances, a great looking kit and a large amount of support from a huge dedicated welsh fan base and rugby fan base across the United Kingdom.

More recently the Ospreys proudly lifted the EDF Energy Cup. The Ospreys dominated their English rivals and managed to score two tries, the first from centre Andrew Bishop and the other from Alun Wyn Jones. The Leicester Tigers managed just six points from Andy Goode's kicking, making the Ospreys the first Welsh team to win the EDF Cup in its history.

The Leicster Tigers had come into this match on the after a bad defeat at the hands of the London Wasps at home in a league fixture, while the tam had had a weekend of to rest and should have started the game in a strong position. They were however always on the back foot and the Ospreys almost finished with a third try for substitute Gareth Owen which was unfortuntely called back by the referee Alain Rolland because of a forward pass. The game however was already won at this point. A victory to the Ospreys.

The line up for this historic match was..

Leicester Tigers: 15 Johne Murphy, 14 Ollie Smith, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Harry Ellis, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Ben Herring, 6 Martin Corry (c), 5 Ben Kay, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 George Chuter, 1 Boris Stankovich.
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Julian White, 18 Richard Blaze, 19 Tom Croft, 20 Christophe Laussucq, 21 Sam Vesty, 22 Tom Varndell.

Ospreys: 15 Lee Byrne, 14 Johnny Vaughton, 13 Sonny Parker, 12 Andrew Bishop, 11 Shane Williams, 10 James Hook, 9 Justin Marshall, 8 Filo Tiatia, 7 Marty Holah, 6 Ryan Jones (c), 5 Ian Evans, 4 Alun Wyn Jones, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Paul James.
Replacements: 16 Huw Bennett, 17 Duncan Jones, 18 Ian Gough, 19 Jonathan Thomas, 20 Gareth Owen, 21 Jonathan Spratt, 22 Aled Brew.

I wish the Neath Swansea Ospreys the very best of luck for the upcoming seasons and am sure they will be at the top of their game.