The Official Scottish Rugby Thread

[Slick]

Melrose 7's tomorrow
A charity match taster tonight - followed by Knights v Boroughmuir pre season warm up

For the 7's tonight
Doddie’s three sons will be captaining the teams in a 7-a-side charity match this Friday night.

The match to be played at the Greenyards will see Hamish, Angus and Ben joining the likes of Freddie Tuilagi,Sam Tui`tupau, Iwan Tukalo, Tom Varndell, David Hilton, Fergus Thompson, Scott Lawson, Rob Vickers, Opeta Palapoi, Ally Hogg, Allan Bateman, Rowen Shepherd, Craig Joiner & Adam Roxburgh just to name a few.

My good mates young son (17) has been picked in the Watsonians squad. The 4th generation of the family to play for Watsonians at Melrose. Very proud and that's a great stat.

[weegie01]

Got here, and beginning to wish I hadn't.

Bonus point after 34 mins, poor game of rugby with loads of stoppages.

Edinburgh have them on toast, just a matter of how much.

Try 5 after a breenge by WP.

But Ben Whitehouse chalks it off, still don't know why.

[weegie01]

Half time, 33 nil.

Maggie carrying like a tank, scrum and lineout dominating, if the backs were less greedy it would be ugly.

Young playing a blinder at 6.

[robmatic]

But Ben Whitehouse chalks it off, still don't know why.

TMO spotted Jaco clearing someone out too enthusiastically behind the ruck. The kind of thing certain Irish teams get away with.

[robmatic]

Half time, 33 nil.

Maggie carrying like a tank, scrum and lineout dominating, if the backs were less greedy it would be ugly.

Young playing a blinder at 6.

Young can really shift for a lock.

[Jock42]

Got here, and beginning to wish I hadn't.

Bonus point after 34 mins, poor game of rugby with loads of stoppages.

Edinburgh have them on toast, just a matter of how much.

Try 5 after a breenge by WP.

But Ben Whitehouse chalks it off, still don't know why.

Nels stood. Moyanos was chalked off due to VDW clearing the man out about half a K passed the ruck.

[Tichtheid]

Was the Nel try chalked off?

The Embra site has the HT score at 33 - 0 with the Nel try standing

[Tichtheid]

Got here, and beginning to wish I hadn't.

Bonus point after 34 mins, poor game of rugby with loads of stoppages.

Edinburgh have them on toast, just a matter of how much.

Try 5 after a breenge by WP.

But Ben Whitehouse chalks it off, still don't know why.

Nels stood. Moyanos was chalked off due to VDW clearing the man out about half a K passed the ruck.

cross posted - cheers Jock

[Jock42]

Got here, and beginning to wish I hadn't.

Bonus point after 34 mins, poor game of rugby with loads of stoppages.

Edinburgh have them on toast, just a matter of how much.

Try 5 after a breenge by WP.

But Ben Whitehouse chalks it off, still don't know why.

Nels stood. Moyanos was chalked off due to VDW clearing the man out about half a K passed the ruck.

cross posted - cheers Jock

No bother. Was beaten by Rob though.

[mos_eisely_]

Completely agree with this - they are trying to sell it to you twice. They are, somewhat topically, acting immorally if not illegally.

Apart from most Challenge Cup games were never broadcast anyway, BT on showed one a round, so it does provide a way to watch games that would otherwise not be seen except for limited highlights.

Yeh, but the ones that weren't picked were shown for free on the EPCR website. They sold the games to BT for a fee and people subscribed to the service that was supposed to show them in good faith expecting them to be there or otherwise free on the EPCR website, they did not expect an additional charge to be added to watch those that BT decided not to broadcast. It is dishonest and as a result I (and clearly others) have no interest in paying.

Well that's a revelation to me, and I apologise. I've never ever known of any free streams of games especially Edinburgh ones on the EPCR site

[weegie01]

I am not sure I have ever left a game when the team I was supporting won 54-5 as disappointed as that.

Stop start all the way through, and thought there was some good stuff (and some very good stuff at that) there was so much dross as well. Got totally on the wrong side of the ref in the second half and also seemed to lose their way.

Loads of gaps in season ticket holder seats and the crowd were dead. I felt sorry for the lone Pau supporter in front of us. I saw him walking up towards Bruntsfield after so possibly lives here, but the poor soul got himself down beside the Pau replacements and management, who ignored him all night.

The prop situation may have just become very problematic as well.

[westport]

Some excellent play in-between the long periods of boredom of trying to get the scrums set and other delays, one scrum must have taken around 6 minutes. Some very good youngsters coming through.

Still onward and upward.

[Blackmac]

Melrose 7's tomorrow
A charity match taster tonight - followed by Knights v Boroughmuir pre season warm up

For the 7's tonight
Doddie’s three sons will be captaining the teams in a 7-a-side charity match this Friday night.

The match to be played at the Greenyards will see Hamish, Angus and Ben joining the likes of Freddie Tuilagi,Sam Tui`tupau, Iwan Tukalo, Tom Varndell, David Hilton, Fergus Thompson, Scott Lawson, Rob Vickers, Opeta Palapoi, Ally Hogg, Allan Bateman, Rowen Shepherd, Craig Joiner & Adam Roxburgh just to name a few.

That's brilliant. Hope they get a good crowd.

[Slick]

Melrose 7's tomorrow
A charity match taster tonight - followed by Knights v Boroughmuir pre season warm up

For the 7's tonight
Doddie’s three sons will be captaining the teams in a 7-a-side charity match this Friday night.

The match to be played at the Greenyards will see Hamish, Angus and Ben joining the likes of Freddie Tuilagi,Sam Tui`tupau, Iwan Tukalo, Tom Varndell, David Hilton, Fergus Thompson, Scott Lawson, Rob Vickers, Opeta Palapoi, Ally Hogg, Allan Bateman, Rowen Shepherd, Craig Joiner & Adam Roxburgh just to name a few.

My good mates young son (17) has been picked in the Watsonians squad. The 4th generation of the family to play for Watsonians at Melrose. Very proud and that's a great stat.

Scored the winning try in the first round game! So chuffed for him

[Big D]

Watching the Exeter game and one thing that stands out other than Exeters 13 and wing making horrible defensive decisions when down to 13 men, is Gray has regressed something rotten. Weak in contact, very few dominant tackles too. A high tackle count isn't enough.

[Big D]

Hogg scored a belting drop goal too.

[Big D]

Gray has two carries in the last sequence and they were so weak, the second leading to him being held up and game over.

[Jock42]

Hogg scored a belting drop goal too.

That was clever play and a cracker.

Gray has been like that for a while now.

[westport]

In the Challenge Cup Edinburgh play Bath at home and Glasgow travel to Newcastle next weekend< times TBC

[robmatic]

I am not sure I have ever left a game when the team I was supporting won 54-5 as disappointed as that.

Stop start all the way through, and thought there was some good stuff (and some very good stuff at that) there was so much dross as well. Got totally on the wrong side of the ref in the second half and also seemed to lose their way.

Loads of gaps in season ticket holder seats and the crowd were dead. I felt sorry for the lone Pau supporter in front of us. I saw him walking up towards Bruntsfield after so possibly lives here, but the poor soul got himself down beside the Pau replacements and management, who ignored him all night.

The prop situation may have just become very problematic as well.

It was practically a dead rubber, so I'm not surprised there was a lack of excitement.

It's not a great competition with this pool setup. In our group you only needed to win 2 of the 4 matches to get a home tie in the next round. Worcester qualified from their pool after winning one game.

[JM2K6]

Gray has two carries in the last sequence and they were so weak, the second leading to him being held up and game over.

It was also such a dumb decision to go for the line. Really unlikely he was going to ground it and being held up meant game over as you say.

[Big D]

Gray has two carries in the last sequence and they were so weak, the second leading to him being held up and game over.

It was also such a dumb decision to go for the line. Really unlikely he was going to ground it and being held up meant game over as you say.

Was woeful.

[Big D]

So Freddie Owsley was sent off in the 7s:


Few things to unpick on this one. Why didn't the TJ call in sooner rather than wasting time. In 7s this is important, lots of time was lost.

Secondly, either why hasn't the ref penalised it at the time or stood up to his TJ? He had the best view in the house.

Thirdly, Owlsey could go lower, but in 7s it is often more important to target the ball. Risk taken by the player.

Fourthly because I am on a roll, the player showed no sign of a head knock, head didn't snap back and he didn't get up showing any effects of the hit. So arguably not at force.

I am all for player protection, but I find that call very harsh.

[Wylie Coyote]

So Freddie Owsley was sent off in the 7s:


Few things to unpick on this one. Why didn't the TJ call in sooner rather than wasting time. In 7s this is important, lots of time was lost.

Secondly, either why hasn't the ref penalised it at the time or stood up to his TJ? He had the best view in the house.

Thirdly, Owlsey could go lower, but in 7s it is often more important to target the ball. Risk taken by the player.

Fourthly because I am on a roll, the player showed no sign of a head knock, head didn't snap back and he didn't get up showing any effects of the hit. So arguably not at force.

I am all for player protection, but I find that call very harsh.

And also Owsley should be playing 7s for Scotland if Edinburgh don't need him. They could use his ridiculous pace and it could develop him further.

[Biffer]

So Freddie Owsley was sent off in the 7s:


Few things to unpick on this one. Why didn't the TJ call in sooner rather than wasting time. In 7s this is important, lots of time was lost.

Secondly, either why hasn't the ref penalised it at the time or stood up to his TJ? He had the best view in the house.

Thirdly, Owlsey could go lower, but in 7s it is often more important to target the ball. Risk taken by the player.

Fourthly because I am on a roll, the player showed no sign of a head knock, head didn't snap back and he didn't get up showing any effects of the hit. So arguably not at force.

I am all for player protection, but I find that call very harsh.

Yeah, bit of an odd one that. Several phases, ball into touch, line out taken and then up the other end for a try before being called back. Tackled player seemed to go down into the tackle so significant mitigation for me.

[robmatic]

So Freddie Owsley was sent off in the 7s:


Few things to unpick on this one. Why didn't the TJ call in sooner rather than wasting time. In 7s this is important, lots of time was lost.

Secondly, either why hasn't the ref penalised it at the time or stood up to his TJ? He had the best view in the house.

Thirdly, Owlsey could go lower, but in 7s it is often more important to target the ball. Risk taken by the player.

Fourthly because I am on a roll, the player showed no sign of a head knock, head didn't snap back and he didn't get up showing any effects of the hit. So arguably not at force.

I am all for player protection, but I find that call very harsh.

Hard to tell from the camera angle but looked like the head contact was marginal at best. Were they just evening things up against the big team?

The subsequent 'try' in that clip had nice gas from Owlsey to get around the outside. He could probably do quite well in the Scotland 7s setup.

[Slick]

So Freddie Owsley was sent off in the 7s:


Few things to unpick on this one. Why didn't the TJ call in sooner rather than wasting time. In 7s this is important, lots of time was lost.

Secondly, either why hasn't the ref penalised it at the time or stood up to his TJ? He had the best view in the house.

Thirdly, Owlsey could go lower, but in 7s it is often more important to target the ball. Risk taken by the player.

Fourthly because I am on a roll, the player showed no sign of a head knock, head didn't snap back and he didn't get up showing any effects of the hit. So arguably not at force.

I am all for player protection, but I find that call very harsh.

And also Owsley should be playing 7s for Scotland if Edinburgh don't need him. They could use his ridiculous pace and it could develop him further.

That was incredible pace, he wasn’t even trying

[Biffer]

So Freddie Owsley was sent off in the 7s:


Few things to unpick on this one. Why didn't the TJ call in sooner rather than wasting time. In 7s this is important, lots of time was lost.

Secondly, either why hasn't the ref penalised it at the time or stood up to his TJ? He had the best view in the house.

Thirdly, Owlsey could go lower, but in 7s it is often more important to target the ball. Risk taken by the player.

Fourthly because I am on a roll, the player showed no sign of a head knock, head didn't snap back and he didn't get up showing any effects of the hit. So arguably not at force.

I am all for player protection, but I find that call very harsh.

And also Owsley should be playing 7s for Scotland if Edinburgh don't need him. They could use his ridiculous pace and it could develop him further.

That was incredible pace, he wasn’t even trying

He is astonishingly fast. The one game he's played for Edinburgh, he was easily a good bit faster than anyone on the pitch from either side.

[Slick]

Biffer, weggie, do you think the Bath game will be sold out? Not going to be able to make a decision on going until the last minute

Anyone, has anyone streamed from the ERPC website? Can you cast it from the phone?

[Jock42]

Biffer, weggie, do you think the Bath game will be sold out? Not going to be able to make a decision on going until the last minute

Anyone, has anyone streamed from the ERPC website? Can you cast it from the phone?

You could if you use screen share. If you've got a smart TV you could log in through the browser on the TV

[Slick]

Biffer, weggie, do you think the Bath game will be sold out? Not going to be able to make a decision on going until the last minute

Anyone, has anyone streamed from the ERPC website? Can you cast it from the phone?

You could if you use screen share. If you've got a smart TV you could log in through the browser on the TV

Neither my TV or I are smart enough for that

[Biffer]

Biffer, weggie, do you think the Bath game will be sold out? Not going to be able to make a decision on going until the last minute

Anyone, has anyone streamed from the ERPC website? Can you cast it from the phone?

I don’t think it will. Probably a big crowd though

[robmatic]

Biffer, weggie, do you think the Bath game will be sold out? Not going to be able to make a decision on going until the last minute

Anyone, has anyone streamed from the ERPC website? Can you cast it from the phone?

I don’t think it will. Probably a big crowd though

It's a big ask to market and sell a round-of-16 game in 6 days. It will be a good sign if they get a big crowd.

[I like neeps]

I was lucky enough to be at the Melrose 7s and what a fantastic event it is. Was on the bucket list and didn't disappoint at all.

As a country we have a rich rugby culture. Surely we can build the game further.

Clubs should only play summer rugby I think. When I played turning up to -3 frosted pitches or a big was no fun.

[Tichtheid]

I was lucky enough to be at the Melrose 7s and what a fantastic event it is. Was on the bucket list and didn't disappoint at all.

As a country we have a rich rugby culture. Surely we can build the game further.

Clubs should only play summer rugby I think. When I played turning up to -3 frosted pitches or a big was no fun.

Getting skint knees and spraining an ankle on the frozen, rutted back pitches at Netherdale was a right of passage for youngsters of my generation.

[I like neeps]

I was lucky enough to be at the Melrose 7s and what a fantastic event it is. Was on the bucket list and didn't disappoint at all.

As a country we have a rich rugby culture. Surely we can build the game further.

Clubs should only play summer rugby I think. When I played turning up to -3 frosted pitches or a big was no fun.

Getting skint knees and spraining an ankle on the frozen, rutted back pitches at Netherdale was a right of passage for youngsters of my generation.

No doubt. When I was growing up you'd play sports on the frozen pitches with mates. I enjoyed a freezing cold schools game before getting a hot chocolate and warm pie post match.

But with participation numbers falling at younger age groups in most sports. Maybe thinking it might be more fun to chuck a ball around in nice weather is the way to go?

[Tichtheid]

But with participation numbers falling at younger age groups in most sports. Maybe thinking it might be more fun to chuck a ball around in nice weather is the way to go?

I completely agree, but the athletics and other summer sports enthusiasts objected whenever I've suggested the move.

[Slick]

I was lucky enough to be at the Melrose 7s and what a fantastic event it is. Was on the bucket list and didn't disappoint at all.

As a country we have a rich rugby culture. Surely we can build the game further.

Clubs should only play summer rugby I think. When I played turning up to -3 frosted pitches or a big was no fun.

Getting skint knees and spraining an ankle on the frozen, rutted back pitches at Netherdale was a right of passage for youngsters of my generation.

No doubt. When I was growing up you'd play sports on the frozen pitches with mates. I enjoyed a freezing cold schools game before getting a hot chocolate and warm pie post match.

But with participation numbers falling at younger age groups in most sports. Maybe thinking it might be more fun to chuck a ball around in nice weather is the way to go?

Couldn't agree more. It rarely gets warm enough here to have a massive impact on a game and imagine a Saturday with 2 or 3 consecutive games on the 1st XV pitch, BBQ going, kids running around etc.

[dpedin]

But with participation numbers falling at younger age groups in most sports. Maybe thinking it might be more fun to chuck a ball around in nice weather is the way to go?

I completely agree, but the athletics and other summer sports enthusiasts objected whenever I've suggested the move.

Problem is that rugby in u18s is predominately based around schools, and in particular private fee paying schools. Many clubs are attached to schools and use same pitches. So any shift to summer rugby will not happen in these schools where summer term is athletics and cricket based. In many of these schools rugby pitches get used for cricket and athletics in the summer term so are not available. these schools will not change and would continue as is, so we might lose a lot of the efforts been made to have a more integrated rugby calendar across all schools and clubs? There could be a separate/additional summer competition based around non-schools attached clubs but this would mean some kids playing rugby all year round which may or may not be a good idea? There are already some touch and 7s rugby comps played across the summer, perhaps that is the route to encourage more participation, particularly amongst girls, in the summer months.

[I like neeps]

But with participation numbers falling at younger age groups in most sports. Maybe thinking it might be more fun to chuck a ball around in nice weather is the way to go?

I completely agree, but the athletics and other summer sports enthusiasts objected whenever I've suggested the move.

Problem is that rugby in u18s is predominately based around schools, and in particular private fee paying schools. Many clubs are attached to schools and use same pitches. So any shift to summer rugby will not happen in these schools where summer term is athletics and cricket based. In many of these schools rugby pitches get used for cricket and athletics in the summer term so are not available. these schools will not change and would continue as is, so we might lose a lot of the efforts been made to have a more integrated rugby calendar across all schools and clubs? There could be a separate/additional summer competition based around non-schools attached clubs but this would mean some kids playing rugby all year round which may or may not be a good idea? There are already some touch and 7s rugby comps played across the summer, perhaps that is the route to encourage more participation, particularly amongst girls, in the summer months.

Don't think too many clubs do use private school pitches unless that club is linked to the school in some way. I played schools and club rugby in Dundee and I can count on one hand the number of pitches that had both schools and clubs. Dundee being one. Also think most schools have separate cricket and rugby pitches too. And cricket is a much smaller sport in Scotland than rugby.

Good point about the calendar being disjointed if schools and clubs did switch. However, the schools already run rugby camps all summer anyway.

I think that rugby is more appealing if you can play a more expansive game and not throw a wet ball through freezing hands in miserable conditions. Bit of sun, less rain, dry ball. A club should try it I think.