The smile on George North’s face after the final whistle of the Ospreys v Scarlets game on Saturday evening said it all — the big man was delighted to be back.
The Ospreys had run in 50 points against their arch rivals and pretty much all had gone well for North in his comeback game after 12 months out. Had a writer handed the 30-year-old that as a script for the day before kick-off, doubtless he would have taken it with both hands.
He won’t get carried away, not least because he knows how quickly things can change in Welsh rugby. It wasn’t so long ago, after all, that North had been omitted by Wales and sent back to the Ospreys with Wayne Pivac’s words, that it had been easy to drop him, ringing in his ears.
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North will also know one match counts for only so much. But he performed encouragingly against the Scarlets. His effort may have gone slightly under the radar amid the torrent of tries by team-mates and opponents in a hugely entertaining United Rugby Championship encounter, but North was a significant player for the Ospreys in their win in Swansea.
When he arrived on the pitch in the 39th minute his team were 24-14 down. When the game finished, the scoreboard read Ospreys 54, Scarlets 36, with the home No. 23 having contributed fully across the board.
What did North actually do in his 41 minutes on the field?
MARK ORDERS has been trawling through the match tape...
39 minutes: North appears off the bench as a replacement for the injured Mat Protheroe
Let’s begin at the beginning, so to speak. Applause reverberated around the Swansea.com Stadium when North was spotted adjusting his gum-shield and preparing to take the field as a substitute. On social media, it is later described as the biggest cheer of the night.
It had been expected he might feature as a wing rather than as a centre, with Ospreys coach Toby Booth saying in the south-west Wales region’s pre-game press conference: “George is a good player who can have an influence on the game. He’s played in both positions, but we want to be in a situation where he gets confidence from what he knows.”
Given that North has spent much of his career out wide, the assumption was that’s where he would figure if he came on against the Scarlets. But a reshuffle saw Michael Collins switched to 15 and North take the outside-centre role.
“A year out with a knee injury…big George is back,” flagged up Eddie Butler in his Premier Sports TV commentary as the 102-cap Wales international readied himself for his first on-pitch action since he mangled his right knee playing for the Ospreys against Cardiff 371 days earlier.
The Ospreys went into a team huddle after North came onto the field, with Collins putting a reassuring arm on his team-mate’s back.
41 minutes : Reassuring physicality
North doesn’t take long to get involved, hurrying in to help out Gareth Anscombe as Sam Lousi tries to hold up the Ospreys fly-half. North clears out the Tonga international and deposits him on the ground with a friendly pat on the chest as play moves on.
It’s not a Hollywood moment — far from it, but over the years North has developed his game to the point where he views unglamorous jobs, such as cleaning out opponents and competing for ball at the breakdown, as important parts of his brief.
And the way he wrestled the 6ft 5in, 19st 1lb Lousi to the ground, in the manner of a baggage handler falling to the floor with a huge trunk hitting the deck with him, underlined the Wales international’s physicality. Team-mates tend to enjoy stuff like that.
45 minutes: Explosive impact
The closest North came to marking his return with a try saw him take a short ball at pace early in the second half. The Test Lion hit the gain-line like a clap of thunder.
A reception party awaited him, however, and an incredibly brave tackle from Josh Macleod, helped by Ryan Elias, managed to keep North out. It's not enough to prevent the Ospreys from scoring, though. With another defender sucked in, the ball was spread wide for Keelan Giles to cross.
51 minutes: Willing worker at restarts
The Scarlets managed to find North more than once with restarts and he proved up to the job of taking them and ensuring smooth exits. When others did the catching, he responded positively, too, with one such occasion seeing Will Griffiths gather the ball and send the ball out to the Test Lion from 2013. Confronted by a scarlet wall of players, with Jon Davies, Ryan Conbeer, Tomas Lezana, Lousi and Javan Sebastian blocking his way, North attempted a soft-shoe shuffle before realising it wasn't going to get him far.
Contact was thus taken, with a charge into Lezana and across the gain-line duly unfolding. Later, North would make it to ground from a restart despite the best efforts of Lezana to hold him up.
53 mins: Potent in attack
The crowd are on their feet as North takes a high pass from Anscombe and steps off his right foot when travelling quickly. A clean line-bust looks on the cards as the Osprey tries to go outside Johnny Williams, but the ball-carrier has to settle for a half-break as his opponent does supremely well to recover and haul him down with Sam Costelow offering support.
74 minutes: Hitman (and leader) in black
Rhys Patchell sends out a pass which, all things considered, may not earn him a Christmas card this year from Ryan Conbeer. The wing takes the ball, only to find himself engulfed by North.
The Osprey wheelbarrows Conbeer back three yards, showing impressive strength while doing so. He then resumes an organising role in the home midfield, directing team-mates to areas where the Ospreys’ defensive line is thin.
A side can never have too many leaders and on Saturday evening North, Michael Collins, Owen Watkin, Anscombe and Rhys Webb were key in that respect behind the scrum for Booth’s team as they piled up 40 second-half points.
75 minutes: Conbeer’s revenge
Credit to Conbeer, the Scarlets’ top performer on the night: After being sent backwards by North, he dusted himself down and responded emphatically, collecting the ball out wide despite the attentions of North, Owen Watkin and Ethan Roots. Really, the young Scarlet had no right to score, but he somehow found a way. The missed tackle is the one blemish on North’s performance.
78 minutes: Gain-line presence
North again launches himself at the advantage line. He is stopped by his old Wales and Scarlets mate Jonathan Davies. But the comeback man once more makes ground post-contact, twisting his way forward, helped by the powerful Watkin, before presenting the ball for team-mates. Barely a minute later, after a line-out, the Ospreys score their eighth and final try.
Should North tour South Africa with Wales this summer?
It’s hard to say definitively on the basis of 41 minutes behind a pack on the front foot. North had been out for a long time and will need to bank game-minutes and move up the gears. The next step should be a start against the Dragons in Swansea next Sunday.
If he comes through that unscathed, the case for North travelling to South Africa will be strengthened again. But Saturday evening’s effort deserved applause in its own right.
“The big thing is just to see him get through the game uninjured,” said Tom Shanklin from the Premier Sports commentary box.
“But he did make an impact. He carried hard, made a couple of big tackles and could have scored. It’s great to see him back fit, looking hungry.”
Doubtless, the Ospreys will want North to ease his forward, with Booth a coach who doesn't just talk the talk about player welfare. He also walks the walk on that front. But let’s return to North looking happy as the players mingled on the pitch after the final whistle after the win over the Scarlets. It was a look that told a story.
