Ryan Jones has yet to lose a game of rugby this year (his last defeat was at Llanelli two days after Christmas), which is, in itself, a warning for Saracens. More to the point, Jones, fresh from leading Wales to their grand slam, sees this as the time when the Ospreys can make the same kind of mark in a regional context that his country has already made on international rugby in the northern hemisphere.

The No. 8 has yet to descend from the exalted level that Wales reached in the RBS Six Nations Championship; the next weekend brought a return to the Millennium Stadium for the EDF Energy Cup semi-finals, this Sunday the Ospreys advance on Europe when they play Saracens in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals and the weekend after brings the EDF final against Leicester at Twickenham.

It is more than enough to be going on with, never mind the forthcoming international encounters with South Africa, the world champions, in June and the speculation that links Jones with the captaincy of the Lions against the Springboks next year. But his win-loss ratio this season is a reminder, too, of the hard times through which he has journeyed to arrive at a place where, with the Six Nations trophy packed away, he could lead his region to two more cups.

That defeat by Llanelli Scarlets came after seven months out of rugby for Jones, 27, because of a cartilage problem in the same shoulder that required reconstruction two years earlier. His absence included the World Cup, “a pretty dark time” is how he describes it, a time when he was grateful for the support of friends and his colleagues at the Ospreys, the conglomerate of those inveterate rivals, Swansea and Neath.

“I can start to repay, I hope, the faith they have had in me,” Jones said yesterday at Llandarcy, the Ospreys training base. There is a warmth in his voice as he talks of the excitement, the happiness he has found in West Wales and the bright future he believes exists for the organisation who won the Magners League last season and now seek to show that one title should lead to more if the Ospreys are to be spoken of in the same breath as Europe's aristocrats, Toulouse and Munster, Leicester and London Wasps.

There is, of course, a close-knit relationship between the Ospreys and Wales, given that the grand slam was squarely based on players from the region. “Now's the time to achieve something for this jersey, too,” he said of the black-and-white regional strip as opposed to the red of Wales.“ These are the guys you train with month after month, not all of them play international rugby. There's the fans, too. We need to put ourselves on the rugby map for them. This is my home now, I've signed my future away here and I'm happy. I can't imagine playing anywhere else.

“I'm proud of what we've got here and what we're trying to achieve. As players we have bought into the regional concept, we don't have an allegiance to a single identity, and I think it's the players and management that have made this a club that people want to be part of. It would be fantastic for us and for Welsh rugby if we could go all the way in Europe.

“The good thing is that we are figuring, that people don't like coming to play us. We, as a team, dictate what happens in the matches we play. If we get what we're doing right, we invariably come out on top. The clubs that win silverware feature annually, it's the same group of clubs, and you need the experience of winning big games to do that.

“A trophy now would give us added impetus. We have broken our duck, as it were, by reaching the quarter-finals of the Heineken for the first time. That was almost a psychological thing but it's not enough for us, we're desperate to go further and I believe this group of players is capable of doing that.”

Were Jones and his Ospreys to win at a sold-out Vicarage Road on Sunday, they could play host, at the Millennium Stadium in the semi-finals, to that most knowledgeable of sides, Munster, who have shown time and again what it takes to grind out victory. Yesterday's semi-final draw will take Saracens, should they win, to Coventry's Ricoh Arena against either Gloucester or Munster over the weekend of April 26-27, while London Irish, should they beat Perpignan, will host Toulouse or Cardiff at Twickenham (a Perpignan win would mean a semi-final played in Montpellier).

Geraghty set to boost Irish against Perpignan

After eight weeks on the sidelines with a knee injury, Shane Geraghty is expected to make his comeback for London Irish in their Heineken Cup quarter-final against Perpignan on Saturday at the Madejski Stadium (Mark Souster writes). Geraghty trained yesterday for the first time since being hurt in a collision with Faan Rautenbach, his team-mate, in January. Geraghty is likely to be on the bench, with Mike Catt starting at fly half.

Brian Smith, the director of rugby, is hoping that Peter Richards, the scrum half, will be fit to be on the bench after tearing his bicep against Treviso on January 19. Delon Armitage could also return having missed the past four weeks with a knee ligament strain.

Smith is upbeat about the club’s prospects. “This is is a great opportunity,” he said. “We have got to be taken seriously. We are seeded two for a reason.”