Ospreys were not at their best against Lyon and paid the price – Mark Jones

Ospreys head coach Mark Jones was left to reflect on a disappointing EPCR Challenge Cup quarter-final exit after his team suffered a painful 20-18 loss against Lyon.

The Welsh side went toe-to-toe with their French Top 14 opponents, yet ultimately missed out on a possible chance of extra-time when Dan Edwards’ conversion attempt of George McGuigan’s 71st-minute try hit a post.

“It’s disappointing because the effort was there, as you would expect, but we definitely dropped below a level of accuracy that we’ve shown over the last few months,” Jones said.

“Some of that was down to Lyon, in fairness, and the pressure they put on us around the contact area, but also a lot of skill-set stuff there that we are a little bit disappointed with.

“We couldn’t build any back-to-back pressure. They are such a physical team and once you get into that front-door game against them, it becomes quite difficult to out-power them.

“The little errors add up at the end and that’s disappointing because a lot of it was in our control.”

Prevailed

Lyon prevailed through tries from wing Vincent Rattez and replacement lock Mickael Guillard, while fly-half Leo Berdeu kicked two penalties and two conversions.

McGuigan and captain Jac Morgan touched down for Ospreys, with Edwards adding two penalties and a conversion, but they ultimately came up short.

But their quest for a first Challenge Cup semi-final appearance ultimately eluded them as Lyon had just enough in the tank.

Jones added: “We wanted the ball, we wanted to dictate the speed of the game, we wanted to move their big guys around.

“We did move them around, but we just didn’t move them around well enough and accurately enough.

“It is a good lesson for us that the closer you get to the finish line the more accurate you have got to be, and all we can do is learn from it and hopefully we get into future knockout games. We want to build on this one and take the next step forward.”

Injuries

Ospreys lost former Wales flanker Justin Tipuric to injury inside the first 10 minutes, while lock Rhys Davies limped off four minutes from time.

“They are being assessed at the moment,” Jones said. “They are not great. We are probably going to miss them next week (against Cardiff), I would imagine.

“He (Tipuric) felt something in his pec (pectoral muscle) area and he was de-functioning.

“He is a tough cookie, so for him to come off there must have been a serious amount of discomfort that was preventing him from playing.”