Gloucester and Ospreys to battle in hope of finding consistency

If, at the turn of the new year, you thought Gloucester would win one of the three competitions they were competing in, many would have laughed.

They were on a rotten run in the Premiership but unbeaten in the domestic and European cup competitions. A season of inconsistency.

That has continued, in part, through until April. The club won at Leicester Tigers’ Welford Road for the first time in over 16 years before losing at home to Bristol Bears to leave them further away from the Champions Cup spots than before their East Midlands win.

But a week prior to that victory they triumphed over the Tigers again, in the Premiership Rugby Cup final, to win their first piece of silverware in nine years.

Banishing the tag of inconsistency, though, will require them to prove themselves across a number of competitions.

And tonight when they take on the Ospreys in an Anglo-Welsh affair in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup, they can prove they’re capable of that feat.

Gloucester want stability

The Ospreys are no easy competitor, despite the competition still housing the likes of Clermont, Ulster and Connacht, but the club have a number of crossovers.

Ospreys No10 Owen Williams was once of Gloucester colours, while chief executive of the Swansea-based club Lance Bradley last held a sports post when he was in the same position at the Cherry and Whites.

Since his move, Bradley has returned to being active on social media – having left the platform for a period in his previous role – and has called out media outlets for their headlines and reporting on the club.

The crossovers don’t end there, though. Neither club sells out their stadium with too much frequency, Ospreys struggle to sell tickets more than Gloucester (at the time of writing there were around 5,000 unsold tickets for the quarter-final). Both clubs have been hit with key injuries this season, Ospreys much more so than Gloucester. And both sides have struggled in recent seasons to challenge domestically, Gloucester more so. 

So in some respects this is the perfect tie for both sides, where focus can purely be on silverware – albeit the Ospreys have an outside shot at winning the United Rugby Championship.

Gloucester need to prove they can offer consistency in front of baying fans demanding success. The Ospreys are looking to rebuild off the pitch – mostly with a new stadium – and that means attracting punters by how they play on it.

Europe always brings up Anglo-Welsh ties – they’re brilliant when they come around – so expect this Friday night humdinger to challenge the Champions Cup ties for the game of the weekend.