But Steve Tandy's men rose to the occasion in a scintillating Welsh derby with late tries from second-half replacement Ryan Jones and Hanno Dirksen punishing Rhys Priestland's poor kicking to seal the win at Parc y Scarlets.
Although Ospreys are now up and running in the league, man-of-the-match Jones admits there is still work to be done.
"We know we're not the finished article but we are heading the right way. Hopefully we'll kick on from this," said Jones.
"It's been a tough opener. We have had couple of difficult games and it hasn't been the start we wanted but this was a local derby and it was all the boys, not just the 23 here but also those in training, who stepped up.
"We set our own standards in training and we let ourselves down especially last week.
"It's what we needed. These local derbies are why people still play rugby and it was a great spectacle for Welsh rugby.
"Maybe it wasn't a flowing game but if you like rugby, surely you would have enjoyed that."
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