Heineken Cup
Jones returns prior to Biarritz tie
Scrum.com
April 1, 2010
Ospreys lock Alun-Wyn Jones, Ospreys v Leicester, Heineken Cup, Liberty Stadium, January 23, 2010
Alun-Wyn Jones will make his return on Friday © Getty Images
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Alun Wyn-Jones is on course to bolster the Ospreys' ranks for their Heineken Cup quarter-final showdown with Biarritz in San Sebastian on April 10.

The Wales lock will make his comeback from elbow surgery against the Scarlets in their Magners League derby at the Liberty Stadium on Friday night after battling back from the injury that ruled him out of the latter stages of the Six Nations. His return for their crunch tie will be a huge boost, with Ospreys physio Chris Towers cautious over his chances after confirming the injury in February.

The Ospreys are in desperate need of a morale-boosting win prior to the game, having slipped to a disappointing defeat to the Dragons last weekend. Head coach Sean Holley is sure that the return of so many international players will soon shine through, however.

"We're another week down the line now since the players returned from international duty, we've had more time to work together as a group and for the players to get used to the way we do things again, and I'd expect to see improvements in our performance right across the field on Friday," he said. "We were a little bit disjointed last weekend, and that's something we'd anticipated, it's something that experience over the last few seasons tells us will always be a challenge when we get such a large group back after eight or nine weeks elsewhere.

"Are we concerned about it? Well, the last time we sent a full team out to represent the Ospreys was the Leicester Tigers match, and that was possibly the best Ospreys performance you would have seen, so the challenge now is to make sure that we can get to that standard over the next couple of weeks. We've got the ability in the group, we know what we want to do, and the players know that we won't accept excuses, they are professional players and they must get up to speed."

Meanwhile, Biarritz have suffered a second-row setback prior to the game with Samoan lock Pelu Taele unavailable due to medial ligament damage.

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