Lake vows to send Booth off with historic season

Wales hooker Dewi Lake says he was shocked at the news head coach Toby Booth will leave Ospreys at the end of the season, but says the squad will try and send him off with an historic campaign.

It was announced last week that Booth will depart at the end of the 2024-25 season and be replaced by current defence coach Mark Jones.

Ex-Wales flanker Justin Tipuric, who retired from international rugby in 2023, will hang up his boots next year to replace Jones as defence coach.

Booth told the squad last Friday with chief executive Lance Bradley stating all parties were agreed on the decision.

"It was probably quite shocking news that we found out on Friday," said Lake.

"Lance has spoken on it as has Toby so everyone has addressed the decision around it and the feeling around it.

"It's a new direction I guess. They've made that decision, it's come from them.

"As a playing group, our only job is to give them a good send-off, make this last season a good one to remember for us, for him and also one we can put down in the history books for this club."

Booth has been at Ospreys since 2020 and Lake admitted the coach had played a major role in his career which saw the hooker captain Wales on the summer tour of Australia in 2024.

"He has given me a chance," said Lake.

"We're very aligned on views and thoughts and the way we see the game.

"We've got along very well throughout the years and he's taught me a lot about the game, leadership and culture.

"He's just given me a chance to be the best I can be."

Booth's legacy will be bringing through young players.

"Toby's always pushed giving young boys an opportunity from when I started under him so that's always been his philosophy," said Lake.

"It's got to a point now where we've got a strong group of young boys that have come through under that regime.

"We've got older boys that are holding us down and doing their job and keeping us accountable and giving us that leadership.

"And younger boys again, just bringing that energy, that want to get on the field, show what they can do and go after everything.

"That pooled all together as a group has created what you saw last season and hopefully what you'll see this season again."

In that 2023-24 campaign, Ospreys won more games than the other three professional sides combined.

They reached the Challenge Cup quarter-final and finished in the top eight of the United Rugby Championship (URC) where they lost in the quarter-finals to Munster.

"Making the top eight was a huge goal of ours, we probably should have done it sooner," said Lake.

"This is a group that should be in that top eight with the squad depth and culture we've built within the group.

"Last year we proved that we could be. It's about getting there again, securing our spot and kicking on further."

Lake, 25, hopes this Ospreys current crop can emulate the success of previous sides that won four league titles and an Anglo-Welsh cup, with the last major silverware coming in 2012.

"That's where we're trying to get to," said Lake.

"This is an historic club with an unbelievable past in terms of winning trophies and producing talent for Wales and outside of it.

"That identity may have been lost over the past couple of years, but it's back now.

"That's our job to do and to keep it going forward, and to not let the outside view that this isn't a good prestigious club, we can't let that come back.

"We've rebuilt this reputation and now we have to keep it and kick on."