Alun Wyn Jones has been hailed as a father figure at the Ospreys after guiding the region towards ending their seven-match losing streak.
The Wales captain was given rich praise by his grateful coach Steve Tandy after the second row’s man-of-the-match performance in his team’s 28-14 victory over the Dragons on Friday night.
The Ospreys scored four tries to earn a Guinness Pro14 bonus point as the Dragons’ limitations were exposed in spite of a defiant defensive showing.
It was vital victory for the home side, who still looked scratchy for the most part but found in 32-year-old Jones a leader capable of making his own will and influence the decisive factor in the contest.
A relieved Tandy said: “He has been phenomenal in the way he leads the team. He’s a British Lion, but he just gets better and better.
“The time and effort he puts in – on and off the field – it’s hard to imagine it. He sometimes carries the burden of losing a little too much, but that just shows what an unbelievable Osprey he is.
“He is definitely a father figure to some of our guys and they feed off him. The way he leads the team is just unbelievable.
“If someone is going to play on until he’s 40, then it will be that guy. He is always one of the last to leave and he never leaves any stone unturned.”
The Dragons scored two tries and for a spell it appeared their ability to make the most of limited possession and territory might even give them their first away win in the competition for two-and-a-half years.
They trailed only 16-14 at one stage, but too much aimless kicking handed the Ospreys the initiative and Tandy’s side ended as comfortable winners.
The home tries came from fly-half Dan Biggar, hooker Sam Parry, replacement scrum-half Jason Leonard and replacement prop Ma’afu Fia. Biggar also kicked two penalties and a conversion.
Dragons’ two tries came from prop Leon Brown and Elliot Dee, while Gavin Henson – who was one of six changes in the away side’s line-up – supplied two conversions.
Tandy added: “No-one wants to go on a run of losing games like we did. But we had Champions Cup games and that can happen to you. Munster at home was the game I found really hard to stomach.
“I see the group and I don’t think there has been a lack of confidence. If there was then it would have been easy to fold against teams like Saracens and Clermont and we didn’t do that.
“It was great to get the five points and, hopefully, we can now reserve the recent run.”
Dragons coach Bernard Jackman said : “We could have got a losing bonus point but credit to the players, a young team, showed how brave they were at the end to go chasing that.
“But for me the kicking game was really poor, the execution of the kicks just let Ospreys come back at us time and time again.
“It was something we worked hard on the past three weeks but obviously we’ve got to spend more time on it.
“I am disappointed for the players because they put in an unbelievable shift – after 20 minutes we’d made 120 tackles but that took a huge amount of effort out of us.
“The positives are our work rate and our fitness levels, which are showing signs of improving, and our attack at times made ground easier than they did.
“We left some opportunities behind and it’s a game that, although we certainly didn’t deserve to win because we weren’t accurate enough, we could’ve got one point out of and possibly two.
“I like the way that we hung in there and I like the way that we were chasing that losing bonus point at the end through Angus O’Brien.
“That’s a very young team and I think we showed we are not a million miles away, but to win away from home you need to work incredibly hard but also you need to be accurate.”