Hook puts boot into Irish hopes as Ospreys advance

The Welsh glitterati are still considerably less than the sum of their parts, but one part is very definitely working for them. When their EDF Energy title came under threat at the Madejski Stadium yesterday – and the threat posed by a well-coached and wildly energetic London Irish side was very serious indeed – Ospreys defended as though their livelihoods, if not their lives, depended on it. If it is never wholly satisfying to lose a battle in the process of winning the war, the visitors would have felt a whole lot worse had they lost both.

A bonus point for finishing within a converted try of their hosts was hardly the stuff of glory, but it saw them through to the last four at the expense of an Exiles side who, on any other day, would have extended the 20-6 lead they held in the early stages of the second half. When Seilala Mapusua is serenely smashing seven bells out of people in midfield – try not to be there when he gets angry – and Sailosi Tagicakibau is in one of his adventurous moods, Irish can score from anywhere. There were moments here when the odds about the visitors being humiliated were a lot shorter than those about them progressing to the knock-out stage.

If the Ospreys went a long way towards humiliating themselves by wearing a startlingly garish strip that made Van Gogh's sunflowers look bland – Gavin Henson aggravated this assault on the eyeballs by wearing what appeared to be two satsumas on his feet – their sense of unity was far greater than their sense of fashion.

Marty Holah and Filo Tiatia, their All Black back-rowers, were instrumental in plugging whatever gaps the London Irish runners had exploited in the opening period, while Adam Jones, who looks increasingly like a Lions prop, set out his stall for selection next summer with another fine performance in all departments.

And then there was James Hook. Or rather, James Hook's right boot. The outside-half did not have the best of games with ball in hand, but when the ball was on the kicking tee – hell, he was good. He nailed a long-range penalty to breathe some life into his side just after the interval, converted Nikki Walker's try with a wide-angled strike that bordered on perfection, and then, when his team really needed him to, smacked over a priceless three-pointer from a couple of metres inside his own half. As a consequence of that last intervention, the Exiles found themselves in need of a late try, rather than a late drop goal. For all their efforts, the try was not forthcoming.

"James has been a little disappointed with his kicking of late, because he's gone from being an 85 per cent kicker to a 75 per cent kicker," reported Jonathan Humphreys, who, given his front-rower's view of the world and his role as Ospreys forwards coach, was never likely to shed much light on how things had reached such a pretty pass on the marksmanship front. "It can prey on a player's mind, but the performance he produced out there was pretty special." An understatement? You could say.

Humphreys was more illuminating on his team's state of mind when confronted by the prospect of surrendering the one trophy currently in their possession. "What did we talk about at half-time, when we were in trouble? We talked about our resilience, about the fact that in every game this season, we've come away with something," he said. "I like the way we keep going when we're not on song. There was some real spirit out there."

Strange to relate, the London Irish coach Toby Booth was as satisfied with the way his team slipped out of the tournament as Humphreys was with the way his team lost the game. "The buck stops with me, because I made the selections earlier in the competition," he confessed. "We had a very demanding start to the Premiership campaign, and as I didn't feel it was realistic for us to fight on three fronts and saw the European Challenge Cup as a slightly better means of winning a trophy, I chose not to prioritise this tournament.

"At least I've had some of my questions answered. Are we good enough to be a Heineken Cup side? Yes we are. Can we survive at the top table? Yes, we can."

Irish showed that much in the space of nine golden minutes in the second quarter, when their Samoan runners, Mapusua and Tagicakibau, crossed for converted tries and their Australian full-back, Peter Hewat, hit the spot with a penalty. When Hewat added a second three-pointer from the best part of 50 metres, there was only one team in it. Enter Shane Williams, the twinkle-toed maestro from the Amman Valley. Not for the first time – perhaps not for the 100th time, either – everyone's favourite wing changed the balance of a contest with a flash of inspiration.

It started deep in the Ospreys' half with a fumble on the retreat, but Williams turned on the proverbial sixpence to give two would-be tacklers the slip and scurry upfield before punting to within a couple of feet of the Exiles' line. Thirty seconds later, Henson was floating a long ball to Andrew Bishop going left, and the replacement centre found Walker with the scoring pass.

Even then, the home side might have pulled away – certainly, they were not helped by some refereeing decisions at the last knockings. But equally, Ospreys might have snatched victory had Holah not been pulled up for the most marginal of knock-ons as he burrowed his way over the Exiles' line. The fact that the visitors snatched a semi-final tie against Gloucester anyway, more than made up for the disappointment.

London Irish: Tries Mapusua, Tagicakibau; Conversions Hewat 2; Penalties Hewat 3. Ospreys: Try Walker; Conversion Hook; Penalties Hook 4.

London Irish: P Hewat; T Ojo, E Seveali'i, S Mapusua, S Tagicakibau; S Geraghty (M Catt, 60), P Hodgson (P Richards, 75); C Dermody, D Paice (J Buckland, 75), F Rautenbach (T Lea'aetoa, 75), J Hudson (K Roche, 57), R Casey (capt), R Thorpe (D Danaher, 55), S Armitage, C Hala'ufia.

Ospreys: J Vaughton (A Bishop, 40); S Williams, T Bowe, G Henson, N Walker; J Hook, J Nutbrown; P James (capt), H Bennett (R Hibbard, 55), A Jones, I Gough, L Bateman (A W Jones, 52), T Smith (R Jones, 52), M Holah, F Tiatia.

Referee: A Small (England).

EDF Energy Cup Semi-final draw

Gloucester v Ospreys
Cardiff v Northampton

Ties to be played at Ricoh Arena, Coventry, on Saturday 28 March 2009