DAN Biggar isn’t giving up on reaching the quarterfinals of the Champions Cup, even though he will have to down his future employers to do so.
The Ospreys’ fly-half, who has been on Wales duty for the past month, is hoping his team’s encouraging performances in defeat to Clermont Auvergne and Saracens can give them the confidence to complete back-to-back wins over Northampton Saints.
Two such results would put Steve Tandy’s men back in the hunt in Pool 2, who sit third having collected three bonus points.
Biggar knows just how tough that is going to be with the first of the two matches coming at what will be his new home,
Franklin’s Gardens, on Saturday. Ospreys have not won on their last 21 away trips in the top-tier of European club rugby and were narrowly beaten away 36-34 at double defending champions Saracens last time out. They lost 26-21 to Clermont in the opening round, but with Saints rooted to the bottom of the pool with no points, Biggar remains upbeat.
“Hopefully the first two weeks will be a bit of a catalyst for us moving forward,” he said. “With the points we have we are one point away from having won one and lost one in Europe,” said Biggar, right.
“Given the start we had that wouldn’t have been the worst result for us. We will know more about where we are after the back-to-back games against Northampton.
“If we can pick up eight or nine points from that, which is going to be hugely difficult against as good a side as Northampton, then we have got a sneaky hope.
“We aren’t getting away from the fact we are facing an uphill battle to get out of this pool given the quality we are up against.
“If we had been in any other pool and hadn’t had to play against the best two teams in Europe over the past three years, then we could have been sitting at the top with eight or nine points. But we aren’t and that’s how it is.”
The Ospreys stretched Saracens to breaking point before losing at Allianz Park.
Two losing bonus points were some consolation, but Biggar is fed up of accepting slaps on the back for brave defeats.
A change in attitude in the last few weeks has seen the Ospreys take more risks, play more open rugby and score more tries. Biggar wants that positive attitude to continue.
“Very rarely are you going to grind teams like Clermont or Saracens down, so we played some positive rugby and put ourselves in situations where we could have won two big games,” added Biggar. “We must not go away from that and we need to keep on playing from deep because we’ve got some fantastically talented and skilled players in the group. We just need a bit of confidence to kick-on.”
