Edinburgh beaten in Bridgend

Ospreys had won on their three previous visits to the Brewery Field and were desperate to make it a fourth after a poor run of results.

They got off to a perfect start but Edinburgh hit back through Ben Vellacott, with the skipper cancelling out Dewi Lake’s early effort.

Ospreys turned the screw in the second half with Lake’s fellow front rowers Gareth Thomas and Sam Parry crossing from close range to secure the win and deny the visitors a losing bonus-point.

Ospreys welcomed back Wales trio Dewi Lake, Jac Morgan and Adam Beard for the clash in Bridgend.

Matt Scott led out Edinburgh on his 100th appearance but Ospreys started brightly, something they had not done so far this season, and were rewarded with an early try.

They won a penalty deep in Edinburgh territory and instead of an attempt at posts, they backed their driving lineout and kicked to touch.

Lake, named Wales captain for the autumn internationals, found target man Justin Tipuric and once the maul gained momentum, there was little Edinburgh could do and Lake touched down.

But for all their initial good work, Ospreys’ inaccuracy let them down.

Duhan van der Merwe showed his threat with a storming run after a loose kick from Reuben Morgan-Williams, and while Ospreys survived, their penalty count crept up and Ross Thompson kicked three points.

The capital side took the lead on 20 minutes after Beard was penalised for offside when skipper Vellacott took a quick-tap penalty and dived under the posts.

Ospreys’ attack was easily defended and they were not helped when fly-half Williams twice missed touch – as well as three efforts at goal – while Edinburgh looked comfortable at 10-7 ahead at the break.

Ospreys had to tidy up their discipline but lost scrum-half Morgan-Williams to a yellow card for a no arms tackle just two minutes in.

Jamie Ritchie followed the Ospreys scrum-half to the sin bin as Ospreys pressed but captain Jac Morgan’s effort was ruled out for a knock on.

They were eventually rewarded for their patience with Thomas wrestling his way over, as Ospreys edged into the lead.

Williams missed the conversion, but was on target with a penalty after good work by full-back Jack Walsh.

The final 20 minutes saw an exchange of penalties before Ospreys replacement hooker Parry crossed on the blindside to settle the win though neither side could muster a final score to clinch a bonus point.

Edinburgh Head Coach Sean Everitt said: “Very disappointing, there was a lot of promise shown in the first half, [we] went down early and then came back nicely and had ascendancy, but then the discipline let us down in the second half.

“We win games when we give away nine or less penalties and that’s the trend for winning teams at the moment, but we gave away 16 today so you do not have to look too far away from that figure to see why we did not get into a position to score more.

“We felt we had turned a corner with the two home wins. Ospreys gave us what we expected, so we will have to look at our discipline and if we improve there, we know we will win.”