Gareth Anscombe: Ospreys head coach Toby Booth calls for patience after fly-half's return
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Wales and Ospreys fly-half Gareth Anscombe played his first competitive game for more than two years
Ospreys head coach Toby Booth has called for patience for Wales fly-half Gareth Anscombe following his successful return.
The 30-year-old made his competitive Ospreys debut and first proper match since August 2019 by scoring 12 points in Sunday's 27-23 victory over Dragons.
The Wales 10 looked impressive following his two-year absence.
"We all need to manage our expectations around him, I have seen how this works in Wales," said Booth.
Wales are without English-based fly-halves Dan Biggar and Callum Sheedy for the autumn opener against New Zealand on 30 October because the match falls outside World Rugby's international window.
Cardiff fly-half Jarrod Evans suffered a sternum injury against Connacht on Friday evening, while Rhys Priestland also went off in the same game with a head injury.
Booth is more concerned with Anscombe getting back to full fitness after the he had initially played just under a half of rugby in the pre-season friendly against Northampton earlier this month.
'Psychological barrier'
"Simon Church and Chris Towers should take a lot of praise from a physical side of things to get him right," said Booth.
"We have been very deliberate and careful around what he has done rugby-wise. We have trained pretty tough and we just needed to get him past the psychological barrier of playing, like we did against Northampton.
"He is a class player and will only get better as he spends more time in the saddle, as long as he has the right exposure."
Anscombe's fellow New Zealand-born Ospreys team-mate Michael Collins was also making his competitive debut and picked up the man-of-the-match performance with his two-try display in their United Rugby Championship opener.
Joining from the Highlanders in New Zealand, Wales-qualified utility back Collins has returned to Welsh rugby after a stint with Scarlets in 2015-16.
Booth says he will leave decisions on international honours to others.
"I am sure there is a lot of competition out there and that is not our decision," said Booth.
"If he keeps scoring tries and having an influence on the game that is what any coach wants.
"He has a massive influence on us as a leader and is also a calm head, and has a lot of experience in different positions. He is very methodical and deliberate.
"He has today performed well and come up with a massive contribution to us winning the game."
British and Irish Lions second-row Adam Beard also returned as a replacement. He was expected to miss the opening few weeks of the season after his Lions exploits in South Africa this summer, but is the first Welsh tourist to return.
"I won't expose any player that is not ready to play," said Booth.
"He has done a couple of weeks training; he was not exposed as much in the Lions series at the end of it.
"We have two Lions second-rows [along with Alun Wyn Jones] so that makes it a bit more difficult. I was in conversation with [Wales head coach] Wayne Pivac around that and we want to make sure we get our players back and playing well.
"We will mix and match around this block, but ultimately they have to be good to go and he was good to go."
Booth believes it is unlikely Lions skipper Jones will feature next weekend against Cardiff but did not rule it out.
"It is probably a bit soon, he is full training but we are making sure his shoulder is absolutely perfect," added Booth.
"If need be he could play, but he has to get in the team first."
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