SCOTT Johnson delivered a few home truths to the Ospreys players after seeing them fall to a disappointing defeat at the hands of Gloucester in Swansea.

A performance littered with too many errors led to a 24-14 loss and left the region's director of coaching just glad the setback had come before the competitive action starts the weekend after next.

"It's a nice little wake-up call as to where we are in pre-season," said Johnson.

"But I have to be honest: some of the things we saw out there will not be tolerated.

"That's part of breeding pressure within your group. You don't want that kind of play to be accepted.

"So it'll be a nice week of review."

Victors in their two previous pre-season games, the Ospreys were 17-0 down within half-an-hour against the Cherry and Whites and 24-7 adrift at the break, paying the price for some shocking defensive play and careless handling.

Wales international Tom Prydie and new signing Dai Flanagan were replaced at halftime, while Gareth Owen was switched to full-back as the region tried to tighten up.

They played better after the break, benefiting from Dan Biggar's organisational skills, but, overall, the performance was no more than patchy.

Johnson continued: "We had it all out there — the good, the bad and the ugly.

"We were happy with some aspects of the game and some of our personnel, but we were also very disappointed with our completion.

"We were well off song when it came to the ball in hand and it rolled into our defensive work.

"So the things that we pride ourselves on, we were poor at.

"I have a saying that you have an average of seven opportunities in a game to score a try. We must have had 17 out there, but didn't put hardly anything together with our completion and passing.

"Then you look at their tries. While some of them were well-executed, a couple of them were just one-on-one missed tackles from kids who you don't expect to miss the tackles.

"Some of the stuff we did I thought: 'Where are we here?'

"But, in a little way, that's to be expected because we are still in pre-season."

Jamie Nutbrown and Biggar scored the region's tries.

Marty Holah picked up a bang on the head and failed to show for the second half, but Johnson insisted the knock was nothing serious.

Mark Orders