Johnson laments Ospreys execution

Johnson has a lot of time for young Osprey Gareth Owen

Ospreys boss Scott Johnson hailed the effort of his side in their 9-9 draw with Glasgow as "fantastic".

But he said their execution was poor and was "bitterly" disappointed not to have won at Liberty Stadium.

"The effort was fantastic. As a coach sometimes you've just got to admire the effort, but the execution was very poor," said Johnson.

However, Johnson was also pleased with the displays of youngsters such as Gareth Owen and Nicky Thomas.

He added: "We got a young group of kids playing and we couldn't get control of the ball.

"So I thought the effort was great, but I think we'll look at it bitterly disappointed that we lost the two [points] but comfortable that we're still moving up the chart. So we'll take that.

"Our attitude is to play the footie and we tried to play it with the players that we've got.

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I thought the game was awful... the lack of skills showed by all players was sad

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"You looked at the boy who's hardly trained with us all week, Gary [Gareth Owen] at 10 and he comes in and guys were shaking hands for the first time to have a run-out together.

"So the effort was fantastic. As a coach sometimes you've just got to admire the effort, but the execution was very poor.

"Nicky Thomas did terrific coming on. He's a premiership player of the month and I've been watching him now for a little while and he's got beautiful football awareness and we wanted to have a look at him with 24 players not available for selection.

"I've got a lot of time for Gareth Owen. I think Gareth's a quality young player so I'm really happy with him.

"[Prop] Ryan Bevington - now we've exposed him. We've got four or five front-row out and he's a young, explosive kid and whilst we got 80 minutes out of him today [Friday], he'll be better for the experience."

Johnson says the absence of so many senior players - either injured or in the Wales squad - gives fresh faces the chance to develop, not just for the region, but also with Wales' future in mind.