Commenting on the result, Ospreys Managing Director, Roger Blyth: ”We will be reinvesting our profit both on the pitch and on making sure we have a strong structure to underpin the Ospreys. Paul Thorburn has come in to strengthen the commercial side of our operation. He is a quality person and we are convinced he will produce quality results. Last term we brought in an extra coach, Jonathan Humphreys, and he has made his mark.
“Our overriding aim is to develop this region and ensure that it achieves its potential. Some people have had a few negative things to say about our recruitment of overseas players, but we are absolutely committed to developing Welsh youngsters. Ian Evans and Alun Wyn Jones came through with us last year, along with Richard Hibbard, and James Hook is going to have his chance next term.
“We recognise the role we have in nurturing talent – it is integral to what we are about. There are occasions when it is necessary to bring in overseas players, to cover for our Wales boys when they are away or to help provide top-level experience and direction in certain positions if there is a need. It is a fact of life that the more successful you are in bringing through outstanding youngsters the more demands there will be from the Welsh Rugby Union for your players, so we have to allow for that.
“It costs money, too, to secure individuals such as Ryan Jones, Jonathan Thomas, Gavin Henson and Shane Williams on long-term contracts. It is not a question of throwing all our money at overseas stars. We have ambitious plans for our training facilities and we are looking to broaden our development and make it even better. We are looking to be the most professional rugby organisation there is, on and off the field
“We are very pleased with our figures for the last financial year. They are the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of people. We lost money in the first two years of our existence, which was understandable given that we were playing out of two old grounds which, while having fantastic histories, were not conducive to modern sport, now everything is coming together. Our gates are up, so is our membership. Our shirt sales among rugby sides in the UK are surpassed only by Munster and Leicester and we think we are the first Welsh region to record a profit and possibly the first Welsh side to do so since the game went professional.
“The challenge now is to keep building and make sure we are about continuous improvement on and off the field. We know we are not getting everything right. We are a growing organisation and we will make mistakes but we will also learn from them. What we need is continued support from the public. When this region started it up I said it had huge potential, and that is still my belief. Everything is in place for us to go forward.”
