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United Rugby Championship
Ospreys (3) 10
Try: Morris Cons: Edwards Pens: Edwards
Munster (19) 26
Tries: Daly, Barron, Crowley, Haley Cons: Crowley 3
Munster heaped more misery on Ospreys as their United Rugby Championship (URC) bonus-point win in Bridgend lifted the Irish province to second in the table.
Tries from wing Shane Daly, hooker Lee Barron, full-back Mike Haley and fly-half Jack Crowley, who finished with 11 points, gave Munster a comfortable victory with only Stormers above them in the table.
Ospreys responded with a Morgan Morris try and five points from Dan Edwards’ boot.
The hosts had managed Challenge Cup victories against Connacht and Montauban, but now lie 15th in the URC table with only one win in seven league games as a trio of three Welsh sides fill the bottom three places.
The loss completed a tumultuous week for Ospreys with Wales captains Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan announcing they will join Gloucester at the end of the 2025-26 campaign, something coach Mark Jones described as a “hammer blow”.
Gloucester-bound Lake back to lead Ospreys
Lake had returned to captain Ospreys with while fellow Wales Wales internationals Edwards, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Rhys Davies, James Ratti and Harri Deaves also started.
Munster made six personnel changes and two positional switches to the side which secured a Champions Cup bonus-point win against Gloucester.
Jeremy Loughman, Fineen Wycherley, Alex Kendellen, Paddy Patterson, Tom Farrell and Calvin Nash came in for the visitors.
Ospreys enjoyed the upper hand in the early exchanges with Edwards slotting over a penalty.
But home full-back Max Nagy was shown a yellow card for a needless trip on Daly, with the wing making the extra man tell with the opening try in the left corner after a fine pass from number eight Gavin Coombes.
Both sides were struggling with the heavy surface, while Lake was guilty of not finding his line-out jumpers.
Munster’s replacement hooker Barron was driven over for the second score, before scrum-half Patterson created the chance for Crowley to flop over to give the visitors a 19-3 half-time lead.
Haley secured the attacking bonus-point fourth try early in the second half before Ospreys rallied with Morris crossing with a clever finish as Munster captain Jack O’Donoghue was shown a yellow card.
There was a scoreless final quarter as the game petered out.
Ospreys operating in Welsh rugby uncertainty
While there had been a vibrancy about Scarlets’ Friday night 21-17 Welsh derby win against Cardiff that was played in front of just under 12,000, this was a more low-key affair that attracted a crowd of 4,715.
Not surprising given the shambolic situation the Ospreys squad and supporters have been put in.
The crushing uncertainty is affecting the organisation with nobody knowing what the future holds for the crisis-ridden and directionless Welsh rugby system.
Lake says the main reason for his move was because of the unknown future of the domestic game in Wales, with the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) proposing to cut one of its four men’s professional sides.
Welsh rugby’s governing body has said it proposes to grant three licences for men’s professional clubs. There will be one in Cardiff, one in the east and one in the west, which could result in a survival fight between Swansea-based Ospreys and Scarlets in Llanelli.
After temporarily going into administration in April, Cardiff were taken over by the WRU with the governing body expecting to sell the organisation to fresh investors in the new year.
Ospreys’ owners, Y11 Sport & Media, have been linked with taking over Cardiff, which is another way the WRU could get its wish of losing a men’s professional side.
Ospreys, or the club’s owners, have not commented about the Cardiff rumours, fuelling concern among supporters surrounding the future of their side.
On the field, Ospreys will have to try to remain focussed as they travel to face Scarlets in the west Wales derby on 26 December, while Munster host Leinster a day later.
How they lined up
Ospreys: Nagy; Kasende, Boshoff, Watkin, Giles; Edwards, Morgan-Williams: S Thomas, Lake (capt), Henry, R Davies, Smith, Ratti, Deaves, M Morris.
Replacements: Parry, C Jones, Botha, Sutton, Morse, Hardy, K Williams, Walsh.
Sin-bin: Nagy 15
Munster: Haley; Nash, T Farrell, Nankivell, Daly; Crowley, Patterson; Loughman, Scannell, Ala’alatoa, Kleyn, Wycherley, O’Donoghue (capt), Kendellen, Coombes.
Replacements: Barron, Milne, Bartley, Edogbo, Ahern, Coughlan, Hanrahan, Hodnett.
Sin-bin: O’Donoghue 54
Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU)
Assistant referees: Craig Evans & Andrew Moule (WRU)
TMO: Andrew McMenemy (SRU).
