If your dangerman hits hat-trick gold and gets substituted after 50 minutes in an act of preservation it normally tends to be a lethal back - not a front-row forward. Not so in Round 3 against Benetton when Ospreys hooker Sam Parry had his afternoon’s work done and dusted shortly after half-time and a place in the record books - the only forward in Guinness PRO14 history to touch down two trios. The Haverfordwest hat-trick hero banged in his first against Zebre in 2017, and now with his name up in lights is he getting plenty of pats on the back from his teammates? Not a chance. “They’ve actually given me loads of stick for it! Just because of how much it hurts for them mauling away at the front of the moves!” commented Parry, a hooker with 89 Ospreys appearances to his name. “My phone went off after the game and I saw you PRO14 guys had buzzed up on social saying I’d got that record, I liked the post obviously! “It was good to get one back on you guys after the tweet you put up of me running away from the maul a few weeks ago, you did me there! When you throw in a line-out but don't fancy joining the maul.. 👀 We saw you @SamParry2 😂#GuinnessPRO14 @ospreys pic.twitter.com/mk6C8OjLCw — PRO14 RUGBY (@PRO14Official) October 1, 2019 “But to be honest I haven’t thought too much about it, the tries, I was just chuffed to get the win. “Obviously we’ve had a tough start, tough first few games so to come away with five points was huge for us (Ospreys won 24-20 for their first win of the season). “Obviously I’ve had a bit of praise for the hat-trick but if you actually look at the clips you see the work that the boys at the front of the maul are doing and they’ve done an unbelievable job. “But it is something we’ve worked on throughout this pre-season, we’ve had a new forwards coach come in - Carl Hogg - and he’s doing a great job with us. “It’s something we’re looking to build upon this season and get a bit of reputation as a big, strong pack with a strong maul.” The trend of try-scoring hookers is something that’s grown in recent years, you only need look to Rob Herring’s eight scores for Ulster last year, Ronan Kelleher’s hat-trick for Leinster in Round 2 or the fact that Cheetahs’ Joseph Dweba has four for the season already. At the Rugby World Cup Argentina’s Julian Montoya got four while Luke Cowan-Dickie and Bongi Mbonambi have three and counting. But away from tryscoring 27-year-old Parry is just pleased to be playing rugby again, having missed the end of 2017-18 with a chest problem and being curtailed to just five appearances last season due to surgery on his bicep. He continued: “I’m just looking to build on this good start, I’ve had some really bad injuries in the last two years so I just want to play as much as I can every week and look to build on these performances. “I’m hoping for a bit of luck, stay injury free and get better and better. “It has been tough over the last few years but I’m lucky I’ve had a lot of great people around me that have kept me motivated and I’m focusing on getting back and looking to play the best rugby I can.” TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT Here is your Ospreys team to face @Munsterrugby in the @PRO14Official on Friday night at the Independent Park, Cork. K.O 7:35pm 💪🏉#ItsInOurDNA pic.twitter.com/1xRI3QJg0N — Ospreys (@ospreys) October 24, 2019 Back to that maul and new forwards coach Hogg, the former Scotland flanker, under-20s coach and a former head coach at Worcester. Hogg joined Gloucester as forwards coach in 2006, moved to Worcester as head coach in 2013, leading them to promotion to the Premiership in 2015, and joined Ospreys from the Scotland setup this summer. “Hoggy has been very good, he’s got that Premiership experience and they’re used to doing things slightly different to what we are,” added Parry, who also studies personal training at Neath Port Talbot College. “It’s added another layer to our forwards I think. The work of Duncan Jones around the scrum has been great too, we want to make sure we’ve got a good scrum, maul and lineout defence. “You can’t fault the spirit and atmosphere we’ve got around the place this season, I know the scorelines haven’t been too flattering but the boys haven’t given up. “We want to be involved in the quarters and semis at the end of the year, that’s the target for this group and we’ve got world class players who want to win things.” On that subject of winning things, the Welsh regions have an extra incentive this season with the news that Cardiff will host the Guinness PRO14 Final in June 2020. Scarlets memorably won the Championship back in 2016-17 while Ospreys’ last crown came in 2012, a prospective final appearance at Cardiff City Stadium something Parry would clearly relish. “It’s not something we’ve really spoken about to be honest, obviously it’s very early in the season,” added Parry. “But having the final here does give you that extra incentive and it would be awesome to be involved, especially in Wales. “Everyone would agree that Cardiff as a place for a sporting event is unbelievable. “You look at the Wales games where it’s one hell of a spectacle so to have a Welsh team involved this season, hopefully the Ospreys of course, would be just unbelievable.” Cardiff City Stadium will play host to the 2020 Guinness PRO14 Final on June 20 as one of the most exciting days in the club rugby calendar comes to Wales! General sale tickets are available from http://bit.ly/PRO14Cardiff2020 and prices start at just £13 for concessions and £26 for adults (subject to booking fees), that’s a 15% early bird discount. Family ticket (2 adults / 2 children) prices begin at £64 and fans are encouraged to buy early to get the best value tickets.
