“With any team that goes there [to Brewery Field], Ospreys are a tough team to play against, because it’s one of those grounds where they make it very uncomfortable for you. So, for us, it’s about trying to take our game that we play at Scotstoun on the road.

“We thought we could do that the week before against Benetton, and we did for 40 minutes, but we just didn’t get scoreboard pressure and the second half became a real dogfight. So, it’s the same with going to Ospreys this weekend, I believe that we have a game that can do a lot of damage but you need to back it up, you need to be consistent and you need to stay on it for 80 minutes.

“40 minutes is not enough to play a game and be out of sight, so it’ll be important to start well, and hopefully with all those chances that we can create, we take something from that and create that pressure on the scoreboard.”

After a tough start to the season in South Africa, when they were competitive but came up short against Bulls in Pretoria and Stormers in Cape Town, Ospreys extended their winning run at Brewery Field to five matches on the bounce stretching with a 24-0 scoreline versus Zebre last weekend. Their last win there before that was against Edinburgh back in October 2024, with the proximity of the crowd to the touchline undoubtedly contributing to an lively atmosphere despite attendances consistently well south of the 5,000 mark. The official capacity is 8,000 (1,100 seated).

“For Ospreys that’s their home, so they’re going to have that home team feel that they’re going to be dogged, but for us it’s just having that mindset that we can beat anyone on our day,” said Carolan.  “So, we’ve got to show up and we’ve got to overcome all the little obstacles that are thrown in our way.

“There’s an old coach in football called Bill Beswick who used to be a psychologist with Man United back in the day, and he was a big believer in mindset. He believed that if you change how you think about it, [then] that changes how you feel about a situation, and depending on how you feel, that’s where you get your energy from.

“So, when we go away from home, we need energy, we need to create energy either by what we’re doing on the field or how we reward each other for good actions, but it’s that energy that gives you performance, and performance leads to opportunity.

“It’s how you think about these things, so when you go to a ground and maybe the dressing rooms are smaller than normal, maybe the pitch is grass as opposed to the synthetic surface we’re used to, it’s different. But you don’t want to think about it too hard, you don’t want to be saying ‘all these things could go wrong’. You need to be really clear about what you control and not be put off by the things you can’t control.

“We know we’ve got a game that can do damage, but it’s just about being consistent and how we back that up, so the focus on ourselves is usually what it comes back to.”

Another dimension to this game – and all games against Welsh opposition at the moment – is that the turbulent political and financial landscape in that proud rugby nation at the moment means that these players have nothing to lose, and in many ways are playing to justify their careers, which Carolan believes can have a galvanising rather than demoralising impact on the way they go about their business.

“They’re fighting for their lives and I thought we saw that in the Dragons even last week, even though we beat them well, because they asked a lot of really good questions,” he said. “I thought they were a lot stickier than sometimes when we’ve played them in the past, certainly in our place, and Osprey’s will be no different.

“They went to South Africa in their first two games and they stuck in it. They played Stormers and Bulls down there and they were in the games right through, they never lay down and went away, so I don’t expect anything different from them this weekend.

“They’re a gritty team, they’ve some quality players and, as I said, they’re fighting for their lives and they want to make sure that whatever happens in Welsh Rugby, they’re a team that people are going to back, and they’re players that people are going to back.”

Carolan also delivered a fairly positive medical update following last weekend’s big 49-0 home win over Dragons.

“We had a couple of HIAs, and Alex Craig is fine, he’s passed everything, while Fin Richardson is still working through his protocols every day,” he said.

“Jack Dempsey’s back in full training again [following a groin injury he suffered just over a fortnight ago], which is fantastic, and whether he features this weekend or against the Bulls next week, we’ll see, but he’s very close,

“Apart from that, it’s just trying to manage the international players that we have and there’s great competition within the squad so it’s about taking the best team down there that we feel like can put a performance in first, and then get a result.”