Steve Tandy’s team kicked off their RaboDirect PRO12 campaign with a hard-fought win at Treviso before sharing the spoils with reigning champions Leinster at the RDS in Round 2.
With the Ospreys losing both corresponding fixtures last season as they missed out on a play-off place, Rees says the squad are happy enough with their increased points tally this time around, but he admits that will all change if they don’t back things up by beating the Scots in Swansea in their first home game of the term.
“In respect to the opposition we’ve played and in comparison to last year, we’d be pretty pleased so far. There’s a bit of frustration with the process but, in the grand scheme of things, we’re not going to quibble too much,” said Rees.
“We lost four of the five games (against the first five teams they play this term) last season so we’ve looked at it as a block of games where we’ve got to put more points on the board. Edinburgh’s the one we won last year at the Liberty so we’ve got to back that up and consolidate.
“My take on draws in general is that they are only as good as your next game. I know that might sound odd, but if you can back a draw up with a good win, you often look at it as two points gained.
“If we have a poor evening at the Liberty this week and we get nothing, suddenly you look at a bad result on the back of a game you could have won. If we can back it up with something solid, though, we’ll be looking at it thinking, ‘a win there plus two points away from home the previous week and suddenly the points tally is adding up’.”
Edinburgh will arrive in Wales after a deeply disappointing season last year but Rees insists there will be no sense of complacency whatsoever within the Ospreys camp.
New head coach Alan Solomons has added an obvious enthusiasm to an Edinburgh outfit who defeated the Dragons at Murrayfield last week and Rees expects a tough test, even though the Ospreys have all five of their British & Irish Lions contingent available for selection.
“We’re not taking anything for granted. We feel that we’ve got to hammer home what have been a couple of satisfying results with something more at the Liberty this weekend,” added Rees.
“Edinburgh are generating a toughness about them now, which will probably make them a tighter side defensively coming down to the Liberty. But they’ve also got the likes of Tim Visser and Nikki Walker, the second and fourth highest all-time try scorers in the Rabo, so that’s some great fire power, especially with Matt Scott on the field and Greig Tonks, who has really stepped up over the last year or so.
“There’s a livewire pack there as well which is getting better around the setpiece and has got a new focus defensively. They’ll have a freshness about them and we are really wary of them – we’ve been burnt by them in the past.
“Our Lions are all available. There’s a few different conundrums we’re looking at at the moment. The boys who have been on the bench have been excellent in their impact in both games. There’s a possibility that they may get a starting berth. You have to manage what’s best for the group, with the impact you want for this week but also with a mind for the next few weeks as well.”
