Booth outlines 'horrific' unavailable Ospreys list

Ospreys head coach Toby Booth has outlined his "horrific" unavailability list as he prepares to send a depleted squad to face Ulster in the United Rugby Championship (URC) on Friday night.

Booth has 40% of his squad unavailable for the away fixture in Belfast, either through injury or Wales internationals being rested.

The usual squad figure is about 22%.

The players missing include Rhys Henry, Dewi Lake, Tom Botha, Huw Sutton, Rhys Davies, Adam Beard, James Fender, James Ratti, Will Griffiths, Harri Deaves, Trystan Davies, Morgan Morse, Jac Morgan, Ryan Conbeer, Keiran Williams, Owen Watkin, Phil Cokanasiga and Iestyn Hopkins.

The major injury concern comes at lock with six players absent, while back row and centre positions are also presenting problems.

It means Booth will have to field players out of position and rely on feeder teams in the Super Rygbi Cymru (SRC).

The squads of the four Welsh professional sides have been cut this season with budgets reducing to £4.5m.

The squeeze is being felt just four games into the campaign with Dragons and Cardiff bosses Dai Flanagan and Matt Sherratt also expressing concerns.

"I'm guessing here, we have roughly around 55%-60% players (fit) which is horrific," said Booth.

"It is not just in number, but in quality.

"So from that point of view it provides the opportunity for other people to put their hands up, but we'll do our best to find a way, like we always do and we won't be lacking in effort, that's for sure.

"With depleting wage caps and smaller squad numbers, it's always going to be difficult if you get injuries or unavailable players in the same place.

"We've got a lot of people [out] in similar positions which makes it challenging.

"You've got to try and balance it with enough quality and enough numbers and that's always a difficult thing.

"So you do your best, you need a high functioning academy in order to fill the gaps.

"We're having to bring people in and that's not necessarily the right thing to do, but needs must and we will do our best to find the way we can."

Relying on smaller numbers

Booth says he has 36 senior professional players in his squad, while some opposition have more than 60 at their disposal.

"If you get injuries in the same position then you're going to struggle," said Booth.

"The other side of it is, if you've got smaller numbers, you put more load through the same people.

"So it not just injury and unavailability. You're putting lots more minutes into the same people because you have a reliance on them.

"That doesn't allow you to freshen people as much as you'd like."

Booth will have to use young players in certain games but is wary about over-exposing them.

"Our job is to make them ready for the load," said Booth.

"I'm not going to put a player out there that I don't think is physically able to be out there.

"So you have a duty of care as a coach to make sure that's not happening.

"We use the Super rugby stuff and we have got youngsters playing out in that.

"That's the bridge into the URC teams but sometimes those things get accelerated and that is not perfect.

"It's not a perfect world we are operating in but you're always going to put the health and safety of the player first."