British & Irish Lion Alun Wyn Jones believes his Ospreys side have to learn to make the right decision at the right time if they want to bounce back from an opening Heineken Cup defeat at Northampton Saints next weekend.
The Welsh outfit, captained by Jones, suffered a 19-9 home defeat to Leinster as fellow Lion Sean O’Brien scored the only try of the game for the visitors.
Lock Jones, who featured in all three Tests in the Lions’ 2-1 series victory over the Qantas Wallabies in the summer, saw his side make too many errors and elect for the wrong decisions when taking points from the kicking tee would have been a better option.
And he knows all too well they are going to have to up their game as they bid to get their European campaign back on track against the Saints next weekend – a game where Jones may face Lions teammates George North and Alex Corbisiero.
“I think we can probably go there [Franklin’s Gardens] and get a result but probably not if we play like that,” Jones told Ospreys TV.
“You look at the first three games of the season we had, we made a pretty decent start but we never translate our Rabo form to the Heineken Cup and we want to do that next week.
“There were critical moments where we had a few errors in possession around about five minutes in the first-half and 20 minutes before the end where we take a quick tap but we could have taken the points.
“These areas we have to realise it is a case of putting our foot on the ball if you like and taking territory or field position or the three points, and realise we can claw our way back into it.
“We were comfortable to be within seven points the way we were playing in the first-half, it was one error that led to the try but there were some critical moments that compounded the other errors in the game.”
