Saints coach West insists Ospreys have got plenty to play for

The forwards coach feels the Welsh side will be gunning for a victory that will aid their bid for a place in the Amlin Challenge Cup.

Ospreys have only won one game in the Heineken Cup this season, seeing off Castres at the Liberty Stadium.

They take on a Saints side who know only a win will do as they bid to overhaul Leinster, who are currently four points clear at the top of Pool 1.

But West feels the two sides will be equally keen to claim the win, dismissing notions that Northampton could profit from a demotivated home side.

“I’ve read a few interviews that some of their staff and players have done and they’re thinking they can win a couple of games and have a result go their way in the others games and still qualify for the Amlin,” said the forwards coach.

“They’ll be full on to beat us, that’s certainly how we’re preparing and it will be a really tough challenge.

“(To qualify) we’ll need a few things to go our way and we’ll need to play really well at the Ospreys.

“It’s still up in the air, but we’ll give it everything we’ve got, Ospreys will do the same and we’ll see where we are.”

Saints already have an idea of what Ospreys are all about, having beaten the RaboDirect PRO12 outfit 26-17 at Franklin’s Gardens in October.

And West admits that game came as a bit of a surprise for his team as the opposition cranked up the heat in the physicality stakes.

“It was a very physical game,” he said. “Their players said after it that they were surprised by the physicality we showed and we thought they were similar.

“They’re a very experienced team with good players and it will be a tough challenge.

“The forecast’s pretty dire down there so it’s one of those where we’ll have to play the conditions but we’ve shown during the past month we can play in a variety of different ways based on the opposition and conditions we’re up against.

“We’ll have to wait and see what it’s like on the day to say what sort of performance we can produce.”