Strong second half earns Ospreys win over Edinburgh

Sam Davies kicked 17 points as Ospreys came back from a poor first-half performance to seal a crucial Guinness Pro12 win over Edinburgh at the Liberty Stadium.

Sam Underhill and Scott Otten scored tries while Davies added five penalties and a conversion.

Edinburgh's points all came in the first half, with a try for prop Allan Dell and eight points form the boot of full-back Greig Tonks.

Dan Lydiate made his first Ospreys appearance since New Year's Day after being released from the Wales squad along with James King and Aaron Jarvis.

Edinburgh made four changes from the team beaten narrowly by Scarlets last week.

Despite being under pressure at the scrum and outplayed territorially for large periods, Ospreys survived to go in at half-time level at 13-13. Edinburgh were left ruing two Tonks misses from his four penalty attempts.

Ospreys went behind after spending almost all of the first 12 minutes in their own half. They conceded a penalty at a scrum which was kicked by Tonks.

From the restart Davies levelled with his first penalty after wing Jeff Hassler had won the restart.

Tonks missed an easy chance to regain the lead from just outside the 22 but the full-back made up for the miss by kicking a harder 18th-minute chance.

But the home side were back level on 25 minutes through the boot of Davies, who converted his second penalty after Edinburgh had been caught offside.

Two minutes later Edinburgh were celebrating the opening try, with Tonks sending Dell over from five metres after centre Sam Beard had ripped the ball off Lydiate in the Ospreys 22.

Tonks converted but missed the chance to put Edinburgh 10 points ahead when he was wayward with a 32nd-minute penalty.

That miss looked crucial when a speculative Davies kick produced a try for Ospreys. Winger Ben John did well to claim the kick and he put Underhill over down the left. Davies' conversion drew the scores level at 13-13.

But two minutes from the break Ospreys suffered a controversial yellow card for Lydiate, who was adjudged by referee Marius Mitrea to have not used his arms in a tackle on lock Anton Bresler.

Ospreys came out after the break with a much more committed mindset which put Edinburgh on the back foot.

In all Ospreys scored 14 unanswered points in the second period, with Davies kicking penalties on 45, 63 and 72 minutes.

Edinburgh's task was then made all the more difficult when skipper Neil Cochrane was sin-binned on 66 minutes for persistent infringements in the ruck.

And Ospreys sealed victory three minutes from time when Otten crossed out wide although Davies missed the conversion.