Ospreys beat Newcastle to keep Europe dream alive

European Challenge Cup

Ospreys (21) 35

Tries: Walsh 2, Parry, Kasende, Hardy Cons: Edwards 5

Newcastle (10) 15

With a bonus-point win over Newcastle in Swansea, Ospreys increased their chances of making it to the Challenge Cup last-16.

In front of a crowd of only 3,198, Jack Walsh scored two tries, and Sam Parry, Daniel Kasende, and Kieran Hardy added more scores secured the victory.

Before Warren Gatland names his Six Nations squad on Monday, fly-half Dan Edwards scored 10 points and kicked well in a player-of-the-match performance in front of Wales’ coaches.

After a third Challenge Cup defeat, Steve Diamond’s side cannot reach the knockout stages despite scoring tries from full-back Louis Brown and wing Max Pepper.

The top four teams will advance to the last 16 when the group stages of the group stage wrap up next weekend, leaving Ospreys in Pool 2 behind leaders Montpellier.

With Connor Doherty the only player to survive from the team that started against Harlequins, Newcastle faced a novice side.

Steve Diamond, a consultant director of rugby, announced that he would rotate his side, which is currently bottom of the English Premiership and has already lost to Pau and Dragons in Europe.

Ospreys’ Challenge Cup campaign got off to a 31-14 victory at home against Lions before losing 59-15 to Montpellier, which was quickly followed by Jones’ appointment as head coach.

Newcastle opened the scoring with a skillful try thanks to Brown’s clever cross from Kieran Wilkinson.

When Keelan Giles gave Walsh a present on his 25th birthday by giving the clever kick that the full-back could latch on, Ospreys responded with a similar effort.

Before Ospreys took the lead for the first time when Wales hooker Parry was pushed over from an attacking line-out maul, Wilkinson added a penalty to give Newcastle a second lead.

As the hosts led 21-10 at halftime, Ospreys lock Will Spencer received a yellow card for a high tackle that involved head contact with Newcastle number eight Ollie Leatherbarrow.

The skilled kicking of scrum-half James Elliott kept Newcastle in the game despite having an extra man.

Walsh swooned over for his second score to earn the crucial bonus point as Ospreys woke up from a second-half slump.

The hosts added a fifth try, this time for Wales scrum-half Hardy, who completed a flowing move.

Ospreys head coach Mark Jones: “We knew it was a very important game for our aspirations, particularly with it being a home game.

We wanted to make sure there weren’t any mistakes in the selection of the team.

“This competition is tough. I believed Newcastle had a strong performance because they put pressure on us, but ultimately it was our performance that put us in the lead.

Steve Diamond, a consultant at Newcastle for rugby, said: “Ospreys were about 15 or 20 points better than us on the night, and I can’t dispute that, but I am pleased with our effort.”

When they might have believed we had sent cannon fodder, Ospreys knew they had a game on their hands, we proved that was not the case.

Replacements: L Lloyd, Phillips, Warren, Ratti, Morse, Hardy, Boshoff, Houston.

Sin-bin: Spencer 38

Newcastle Falcons: Brown, Pepper, Spencer, Doherty, Greenwood, Wilkinson, Elliott, Rewcastle, Fletcher, Hancock, Hawkins, Scott, van der Walt (capt), Bainbridge, Leatherbarrow.

Replacements: Byrne, Hancock, McCallum, Baker, Parsons, O’Sullivan, Metcalf, Beeckmans.

Referee: Kevin Bralley (FFR)

Assistant referees: Flavien Hourquet (FFR) &amp, Benoit Albert (FFR)