Head Coach Filo Tiatia has praised forward Barny Langton-Cryer for taking every opportunity this season - and backing up his call-ups with some stunning stats.
Langton-Cryer will move from the second row to the six jersey as the Men of Gwent head to Swansea and St Helen’s to face Osperys in a BKT United Rugby Championship derby on Saturday evening (kick-off 7pm).
And ahead of the game, Tiatia has spoken about the progress of former Cardiff Met student Langton-Cryer and the way he has grasped his chance.
“Barny's played really well for us,” said Tiatia. “Every opportunity he's had, whether that is coming off the bench or starting.
“What I love about Barny is his numbers. His output and numbers, both sides of the ball, in terms of attack, ball carry, clean out, tackle, assist tackles, even some assist tries.
“The Ospreys team is like the team they picked when we first played. I'm expecting nothing less around set piece stuff, mauling, and trying to grind penalties,” he added.
“The pack we've got, we're confident around the challenge, but we're clear around the things that we need to achieve as a group and then put our best foot forward.
“Last time we came away with two points; they came away with more. We’re looking forward to going down there for another game.”
Tiatia has also explained his reasoning around the move to put Rio Dyer at full back after his impressive spell operating at 15 in Europe last weekend.
“We had Rio at full back last week against Perpignan, and there was a lot of good things around his game. His aerial game was outstanding,” said Tiatia.
“We wanted to get him an opportunity in that position, and we’ve got Jared (Rosser) and Anzelo (Tuitavuki), who are big men, ball in hand, and we want to try and get the ball to them too.
“There's a lot of talk that the weather's not going to be great (at Swansea). But with their new artificial ground, I think we can still move, and we'll just adjust to the conditions.
“We want to play in the right areas of the field, apply pressure and come away with points.”
What I love about Barny is his numbers. His output and numbers, both sides of the ball, in terms of attack, ball carry, clean out, tackle, assist tackles, even some assist tries...
