Dan Lydiate has questioned the desire of his Ospreys teammates as they rake over the ashes of their Guinness Pro12 campaign.
The Wales flanker has admitted the Scarlets showed more fight in the weekend derby at the Liberty Stadium – enabling them to make off with a 25-16 victory that all but snuffs out the dying flames of the Ospreys’ European Champions Cup hopes.
While the Scarlets look assured of Euro qualification for the premier tournament, their neighbours look destined for the Challenge Cup next season for their first time in their history.
With only four games remaining, the four-times Pro12 champions have dropped to ninth in the table, 12 points behind Glasgow and Ulster, who currently sit joint-sixth.
Lydiate – who will face his old club the Newport Gwent Dragons on Saturday – confessed: “The Scarlets probably wanted it a little bit more than us in the second-half.
“The performance wasn’t good enough, so the boys who are lucky enough to wear the Ospreys jersey next time need to put in a really big shift and we’ll use this display to fuel the fire. It’s only us who are going to fix it.
“The boys are bitterly disappointed. You never want to lose at home, especially in a derby. But we have only ourselves to look at. There’s no help going to come from elsewhere. We have to put it right in-house.”
Lydiate was not one of those players rested after his Six Nations efforts, but he was replaced after 57 minutes by youngster Olly Cracknell.
He insists, however, that the demands of international rugby is no excuse for the Ospreys’ subdued derby display.
Dan Lydiate of Ospreys takes on Morgan Allen of Scarlets.
“It’s been a long season, but it’s the same for everyone. Whenever you put that jersey on you have to make sure you represent yourself and the club well. So I don’t think that’s the case. You just have to make sure that when you are selected you just have to rock up.
“We’ll have time off when the Champions Cup is on. First and foremost our focus is on the next game and trying to get a result at the Dragons, which will be a tough test.
“I’ve played for the Dragons in these derbies and come out on top a few times. They’ll definitely be up for it and the crowd is always brilliant down there.
“All credit to the Scarlets. To win away from home, they proved where they are in the table this year. But it wasn’t a good enough performance by ourselves.
“At times in the first half it felt like we were playing some really good stuff, we felt like we had a bit of momentum, but the Scarlets stuck to us, kept the scoreboard ticking over and took their chances when they had them.
“We probably came off it a little in the second half and the Scarlets came straight back into the game.”
