Sharks 25-10 Ospreys: Illness-hit Welsh side cruelly come away from Durban with nothing

The Ospreys cruelly came away from Durban with nothing despite once threatening to record a victory over the Sharks in the face of adversity.

Illness has decimated the Ospreys throughout the week, but heading into the final 10 minutes, they were within a point of the South African outfit thanks to tries from Luke Morgan and Morgan Morris. However, two late scores denied them even a losing bonus night in the cruellest of fashion.

For much of the match, we got exactly what you'd expect.

The home side were boosted by the return of several Springboks, but the dearth of confidence and compatibility that brought about a 35-0 home defeat to Cardiff last week, and the subsequent removal of their coach, remained. Some big names returned amongst a raft of changes, but this is still a team considerably less than the sum of its parts.

As for the Ospreys, they travelled to South Africa without Wales internationals and were hit further with an illness doing the rounds in camp. That left them without Rhys Webb, Reuben Morgan-Williams and Michael Collins at late notice, while the likes of Keelan Giles struggled through despite suffering from the effects of the bug in the week.

The result was a scrappy first-half, with both sides unable to find much fluency or even really trouble the scorers. Just two Curwin Bosch penalties was all we saw in terms of scoring action in the first-half.

Things livened up after the break, with the Ospreys getting themselves on the scoreboard shortly after the restart with a flowing team try.

Morgan Morris' initial break was followed up by good carrying and handling skills from the likes of Rhys Henry, Ethan Roots, Huw Sutton and GIles - nearly resulting in late scrum-half call-up Matthew Aubrey getting over