The Official Scottish Rugby Thread

[weegie01]

Edinburgh game moved to the big hoose because of Storm Kathleen.

Tickets are also now reduced, which I am not exactly impressed about. Firstly, the system did not recognise that I am a season ticket holder and apply the 20% reduction. I never noticed as I never knew there was one so was in email correspondence with the ticket office about £40 tickets that should have been £32, and are now £27.50. They did offer to cancel, refund and rebook at the correct price but I only picked up that email too late last night to do anything.

Plus seating is now unreserved so we will need to arrive earlier than planned.

Signed
Victor Meldrew

[Tichtheid]

edited out the reputation of info from Weedgie 1's post

I'm out tonight so I'll miss it. I expect it will be another Edinburgh recording I'll bin without watching.

[topofthemoon]

Match preview for Edinburgh v Bayonne:

- the visitors' away day struggles;
- 13 changes for Bayonne, including 8 Tier 1 internationals rested;
- Busby is at back at the Hive (or would have been if not for Storm Kathleen).

https://www.scotlandrugbynews.com/news/ ... lenge-cup/

[charltom]

We are...

[charltom]

... (and I know nobody cares about this, but)...

[charltom]

... within 300 posts of the English rugby thread total, and catching them "fast"!

[Slick]

Healy was very good tonight

[Yr Alban]

Good result for Edinburgh. Where will the QF be played?

[charltom]

Good result for Edinburgh. Where will the QF be played?

Durban if Sharks win; Hive if Zebre do.

Good result, eventually.

[weegie01]

edited out the reputation of info from Weedgie 1's post

I'm out tonight so I'll miss it. I expect it will be another Edinburgh recording I'll bin without watching.

One of the best times I can recall at a rugby game. The Bayonne fans barely stopped singing all night and have a very wide repertoire of songs and chants. There was also much humour between the two sets of fans. I have rarely seen a group of fans for whom what was happening on the pitch was so irrelevant to them having a good time.

[Tichtheid]

edited out the reputation of info from Weedgie 1's post

I'm out tonight so I'll miss it. I expect it will be another Edinburgh recording I'll bin without watching.

One of the best times I can recall at a rugby game. The Bayonne fans barely stopped singing all night and have a very wide repertoire of songs and chants. There was also much humour between the two sets of fans. I have rarely seen a group of fans for whom what was happening on the pitch was so irrelevant to them having a good time.

I'm near the end of watching the game now.

The comms have just said that Bayonne haven't won away from home in any competition since November '22 and in Europe for ten years.

Fair play to their supporters for making the atmosphere they do everywhere they have a game.

[Tichtheid]

Edinburgh look like a rugby team when they don't boot the ball away at every opportunity.

[Tichtheid]

Healy was POTM, even if Mossie gave it to Mish.

Either Big Bill is done and his best games are way behind him, or Everitt has found a way to negate one of the best ball carriers and offloaders in the URC if not world rugby. My suspicion is the second option. Edinburgh have gone from a team which was ridiculous in attack with Blair Kinghorn leading from ten, to being a team that can't buy a try bonus point against anyone.

(five tries tonight against Bayonne B, but there were no BPs available)

[weegie01]

Healy was POTM, even if Mossie gave it to Mish.

Either Big Bill is done and his best games are way behind him, or Everitt has found a way to negate one of the best ball carriers and offloaders in the URC if not world rugby. My suspicion is the second option. Edinburgh have gone from a team which was ridiculous in attack with Blair Kinghorn leading from ten, to being a team that can't buy a try bonus point against anyone.

(five tries tonight against Bayonne B, but there were no BPs available)

The word is that the players think Everitt is an OK head coach, but is being let down by the other coaches. Lawrie is getting there but is still inexperienced, 'meh' was the word used to describe Chrystie and Todd. Apparently they would have Blair back as attack coach in a heartbeat, same for McRae as defence.

The coaches have not lost the dressing room as such, the dressing room thinks they are decent guys doing their best, but they are just not as a coaching team at the required level.

[TheNatalShark]

A reminder in case forgot, Everitt was awful at the Sharks. With ample resources and control to assemble his team over time.

[Yr Alban]

Good result for Edinburgh. Where will the QF be played?

Durban if Sharks win; Hive if Zebre do.

Good result, eventually.

Well, that willl be the end of that, then.

[Slick]

Healy was POTM, even if Mossie gave it to Mish.

Either Big Bill is done and his best games are way behind him, or Everitt has found a way to negate one of the best ball carriers and offloaders in the URC if not world rugby. My suspicion is the second option. Edinburgh have gone from a team which was ridiculous in attack with Blair Kinghorn leading from ten, to being a team that can't buy a try bonus point against anyone.

(five tries tonight against Bayonne B, but there were no BPs available)

But with similar results - that's not a criticism of what you have written, but there is obviously more at work than just style of play. For example, you look at the pack last night and it should be blowing teams like Bayonne apart, it's stuffed with internationals, but they rarely do that to anyone

[Big D]

Healy was POTM, even if Mossie gave it to Mish.

Either Big Bill is done and his best games are way behind him, or Everitt has found a way to negate one of the best ball carriers and offloaders in the URC if not world rugby. My suspicion is the second option. Edinburgh have gone from a team which was ridiculous in attack with Blair Kinghorn leading from ten, to being a team that can't buy a try bonus point against anyone.

(five tries tonight against Bayonne B, but there were no BPs available)

The word is that the players think Everitt is an OK head coach, but is being let down by the other coaches. Lawrie is getting there but is still inexperienced, 'meh' was the word used to describe Chrystie and Todd. Apparently they would have Blair back as attack coach in a heartbeat, same for McRae as defence.

The coaches have not lost the dressing room as such, the dressing room thinks they are decent guys doing their best, but they are just not as a coaching team at the required level.

"OK head coach" isn't a ringing endorsement of the boss either.

I appreciate most on here disagreed but the SRU/Edinburgh senior figures got Everitt tied up.way too quickly.

[Tichtheid]

Healy was POTM, even if Mossie gave it to Mish.

Either Big Bill is done and his best games are way behind him, or Everitt has found a way to negate one of the best ball carriers and offloaders in the URC if not world rugby. My suspicion is the second option. Edinburgh have gone from a team which was ridiculous in attack with Blair Kinghorn leading from ten, to being a team that can't buy a try bonus point against anyone.

(five tries tonight against Bayonne B, but there were no BPs available)

But with similar results - that's not a criticism of what you have written, but there is obviously more at work than just style of play. For example, you look at the pack last night and it should be blowing teams like Bayonne apart, it's stuffed with internationals, but they rarely do that to anyone

The pack is stuffed full of Scottish internationals and Scotland doesn't blow anyone away up front - Schoeman is a big loss when he's not there and Venter too for that matter. Glasgow don't blow anyone away up front either. Although I've seen both get scrum dominance and lineout dominance.

In any event, I honestly don't think the results are similar beyond a superficial glance at league points. Mike Blair's first year in charge brought 10 wins, 8 try bonus points and 4 Losing bonus points. Last season we got 6 wins, 8 TBPs and 6LBPs.

This season we are on 8 wins so far, 1 TBP and 1 LBP. We've got two very winnable games coming up against Scarlets and Zebra at home, a tricky trip to Cardiff given their recent improvement, we have Munster in Edinburgh before travelling to Teviso. I think we'll end up with ten wins and a total of 38 points, same as last year but in a very different way.

Blair's first year garnered 54 points.

I was interesting to read Weegie's and NatalaSharks' posts. I do remember the Sharks fans were happy to see the back of Everitt and I'm usually willing to give a coach a proper go, but at the time I was really hoping we'd keep Mike Blair as attack coach with someone else coming in above him.

BTW, Weegie, do you happen to know the story behind Kitty MacRae's departure? He left quite suddenly, I was fan of his coaching.

[Slick]

Healy was POTM, even if Mossie gave it to Mish.

Either Big Bill is done and his best games are way behind him, or Everitt has found a way to negate one of the best ball carriers and offloaders in the URC if not world rugby. My suspicion is the second option. Edinburgh have gone from a team which was ridiculous in attack with Blair Kinghorn leading from ten, to being a team that can't buy a try bonus point against anyone.

(five tries tonight against Bayonne B, but there were no BPs available)

But with similar results - that's not a criticism of what you have written, but there is obviously more at work than just style of play. For example, you look at the pack last night and it should be blowing teams like Bayonne apart, it's stuffed with internationals, but they rarely do that to anyone

The pack is stuffed full of Scottish internationals and Scotland doesn't blow anyone away up front - Schoeman is a big loss when he's not there and Venter too for that matter. Glasgow don't blow anyone away up front either. Although I've seen both get scrum dominance and lineout dominance.

Yeah, but Scotland are playing against other international packs.

[Tichtheid]

But with similar results - that's not a criticism of what you have written, but there is obviously more at work than just style of play. For example, you look at the pack last night and it should be blowing teams like Bayonne apart, it's stuffed with internationals, but they rarely do that to anyone

The pack is stuffed full of Scottish internationals and Scotland doesn't blow anyone away up front - Schoeman is a big loss when he's not there and Venter too for that matter. Glasgow don't blow anyone away up front either. Although I've seen both get scrum dominance and lineout dominance.

Yeah, but Scotland are playing against other international packs.

Most of the Top 14 packs aren't that much of a step down in power to international packs. Leinster are pretty much an international pack. Munster aren't too far behind. Benetton are stuffed with Italian internationals. Premiership packs are almost by definition powerful beasts, same goes for South African teams.

That leaves only a couple of sides, we hammered Scarlets, toughed it out versus Connacht and embarrassed ourselves against Zebre and Dragons, even though we won those games.

[weegie01]

BTW, Weegie, do you happen to know the story behind Kitty MacRae's departure? He left quite suddenly, I was fan of his coaching.

It was personal / family rather than rugby related. That is all I know.

[Tichtheid]

BTW, Weegie, do you happen to know the story behind Kitty MacRae's departure? He left quite suddenly, I was fan of his coaching.

It was personal / family rather than rugby related. That is all I know.

Thanks.

[KingBlairhorn]

Good to see the 18s beat Italy today given the dominance they have had over our 20s in recent years. They were 17-0 down and won 20-17, so good resilience too. I only saw a little bit of it but the fullback Jamie Thomson looked a great runner and I liked Henry Armstrong at 10. The pack seemed to be getting bullied but Blyth-Lafferty was on the bench for some reason.

I haven’t followed the rest of the tournament, perhaps someone else can say how the other games went?

[weegie01]

Good to see the 18s beat Italy today given the dominance they have had over our 20s in recent years. They were 17-0 down and won 20-17, so good resilience too. I only saw a little bit of it but the fullback Jamie Thomson looked a great runner and I liked Henry Armstrong at 10. The pack seemed to be getting bullied but Blyth-Lafferty was on the bench for some reason.

I haven’t followed the rest of the tournament, perhaps someone else can say how the other games went?

Honestly, I have to do everything!

https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/en/u6n/ ... tches/2024

[KingBlairhorn]

Good to see the 18s beat Italy today given the dominance they have had over our 20s in recent years. They were 17-0 down and won 20-17, so good resilience too. I only saw a little bit of it but the fullback Jamie Thomson looked a great runner and I liked Henry Armstrong at 10. The pack seemed to be getting bullied but Blyth-Lafferty was on the bench for some reason.

I haven’t followed the rest of the tournament, perhaps someone else can say how the other games went?

Honestly, I have to do everything!

https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/en/u6n/ ... tches/2024

Well it’s good for you to know you are making at least *some* contribution ;)

I had seen the scores, I more meant had anyone watched the games and could comment on who went well, whether there was general promise and suchlike.

[westport]

TNT Sports Rugby
·
Our rugby coverage has just gotten bigger
The 2024 Autumn Nations Series is coming 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙡𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙮 to TNT Sports and discovery+ with every single fixture shown for fans in the UK and Ireland

[Biffer]

TNT Sports Rugby
·
Our rugby coverage has just gotten bigger
The 2024 Autumn Nations Series is coming 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙡𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙮 to TNT Sports and discovery+ with every single fixture shown for fans in the UK and Ireland

Hmmm. Doubt I'll be buying. I go to the games anyway, so pub for tghe others I reckon.

[weegie01]

My friend and I had a moment of amusement at the Bayonne game.

My son, and most of his chums, have been quite dismissive of women's rugby.

He confessed his guilty secret at the match. He had been watching the Women's 6 N and enjoyed it. More of his chums are getting into it as well on the basis that it is a higher standard than they thought, and Scotland are no longer hopless.

[KingBlairhorn]

So Hastings back to Glasgow confirmed. I think that’s a good signing but I do fear what it means for Thompson and Richie Simpson.

[inactionman]

So Hastings back to Glasgow confirmed. I think that’s a good signing but I do fear what it means for Thompson and Richie Simpson.

I thought he looked good as a young lad at Bath, he just got caught behind George Ford so only had limited gametime. He was never going to win that battle, given the Head Coach was Mike Ford at the time.

Hope he's over his run of injuries.

[Tichtheid]

So Hastings back to Glasgow confirmed. I think that’s a good signing but I do fear what it means for Thompson and Richie Simpson.

I thought he looked good as a young lad at Bath, he just got caught behind George Ford so only had limited gametime. He was never going to win that battle, given the Head Coach was Mike Ford at the time.

Hope he's over his run of injuries.

I remember watching one of the Bath games that Hastings was playing in and being very impressed that Matt Bananaman had gone from being a pretty one-dimensional flat-track bully into being a very good senior pro who was coaching the young players around him through games.

[Slick]

So Hastings back to Glasgow confirmed. I think that’s a good signing but I do fear what it means for Thompson and Richie Simpson.

I suppose, if being harsh, you could say that it means for Thompson that he hasn't been/isn't good enough and for Simpson he has a very experienced international to learn from

[topofthemoon]

So Hastings back to Glasgow confirmed. I think that’s a good signing but I do fear what it means for Thompson and Richie Simpson.

I think for Thompson it probably means a move to Edinburgh. Simpson will be in the same situation as before - needs to work his way past a veteran in his position (Weir) to get game time, much the same way as Afshar has done to overtake Kennedy at scrum half.

[Slick]

So Hastings back to Glasgow confirmed. I think that’s a good signing but I do fear what it means for Thompson and Richie Simpson.

I think for Thompson it probably means a move to Edinburgh. Simpson will be in the same situation as before - needs to work his way past a veteran in his position (Weir) to get game time, much the same way as Afshar has done to overtake Kennedy at scrum half.

I'd like to see Thompson move. I'm not completely convinced there is a top level player there, as good as he is, but got to give him every chance and a move might do him good.

[Wylie Coyote]

So Hastings back to Glasgow confirmed. I think that’s a good signing but I do fear what it means for Thompson and Richie Simpson.

I think for Thompson it probably means a move to Edinburgh. Simpson will be in the same situation as before - needs to work his way past a veteran in his position (Weir) to get game time, much the same way as Afshar has done to overtake Kennedy at scrum half.

I'd like to see Thompson move. I'm not completely convinced there is a top level player there, as good as he is, but got to give him every chance and a move might do him good.

Yes, that's my sense too. I'd love him to take control of a game and put in a MotM performance, but he just seems at best solid, steady, workmanlike. Weir is in the twilight of his career, was not in great form at all and Thompson still couldn't get past him. I can't put my finger on it as he can kick, run (rarely does) and pass decently but seems to lack confidence or vision maybe? It's frustrating.

[Jock42]

Is anyone aware how quickly games are added to the TNT app after full time? Typically it's not the Embra match that's being shown on the actual channel on Saturday.

[Tichtheid]

Is anyone aware how quickly games are added to the TNT app after full time? Typically it's not the Embra match that's being shown on the actual channel on Saturday.

I've no idea about the app, sorry. I subscribe to TNT through Virgin Media and the match is on their red button - I can't record it and I'm out tomorrow. Pisser.

From the selections, both sides are going full tilt at it.

[Jock42]

Is anyone aware how quickly games are added to the TNT app after full time? Typically it's not the Embra match that's being shown on the actual channel on Saturday.

I've no idea about the app, sorry. I subscribe to TNT through Virgin Media and the match is on their red button - I can't record it and I'm out tomorrow. Pisser.

From the selections, both sides are going full tilt at it.

Thats my issue too, although sky rather than virgin so o get access to the app too.

[topofthemoon]

Match preview for Sharks v Edinburgh in the Challenge Cup:

- significant stats from Sharks v Edinburgh in the URC;
- WP, the try-scoring prop;
- Edinburgh's quarter-finals.

https://www.scotlandrugbynews.com/news/ ... ead-clash/