Spratt calls on Ospreys to hit the ground running

The Welsh region conceded two early tries against Gloucester last weekend and despite try-scoring contributions from Ben John, Richard Fussell and Tom Grabham, they were unable to fully recover from a half-time deficit, losing 32-25.

And centre Spratt admits a lack of focus from kick-off proved the decisive factor in Ospreys' third successive Anglo-Welsh Cup defeat this season.

"I suppose we were feeling our way into the game that first 20 minutes, by which time we've already cost ourselves too many points," he told the club website. "We have to climb right back up the mountain just to get ourselves to anything like equal terms.

"That's something we need to work on before we go to Bath, starting games with a bang and making sure we are ready to fire from the first whistle.

"Hopefully with this game behind us, we can take that learning into Saturday."

The GUINNESS PRO12 leaders' cause was not helped by two sin-bin punishments, with half-backs Tom Habberfield and Sam Davies both seeing yellow at Kingsholm.

But the resilience and determination shown by a young Ospreys outfit, which included seven starters aged 21 or under, impressed the Wales centre.

"The way we rallied in adversity, going down to 14 men and then 13, we rolled our sleeves up and dug in, scoring some very nice tries to bring us back into the game," Spratt added.

"We had the momentum at the end but the final whistle came too early for us. If we had another five minutes I think we could have sneaked it.

"We suffered a lot of injuries which didn't help, and we adapted well to the changes.

"There were a lot of young boys getting some good experience out there, discovering what it's like to play at this level and they'll learn from that."

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