Writing in the Western Mail, Delme Parfitt insists it’s now or never for Wales’ most high-profile team - the Ospreys.
"For most of the season I’ve been backing the Welsh outfit believing this would be the year they would eventually break though the quarter-finals and get to the semis at least. But my faith in the Ospreys has been tested from the start. Their second-half displays against Leicester and Clermont in which they capitulated were worrying, but they got what they needed in the end. Then Clermont tore them apart in France in January, but I remained steadfast.
"The Ospreys, at their strongest, boast a side made up by a majority of Lions and should be able to do something special. They have even discovered an effective position for Hook to show his class. Why then has my optimism all but evaporated?
"Well, defeat against the Dragons is part of it because it wasn’t losing so much as being completely outplayed. A battling win in dreadful conditions against the Scarlets was neither here nor there. It showed the region had a pulse, but that doesn’t mean it’s in rude health."
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