NPR

KingBlairhorn wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 11:13 am Also this shit, from the BBC article, annoys the hell out of me:

"Debutants McDowall and Henderson, who was born in Hong Kong but qualifies to play for Scotland through his Scottish dad, both previously featured for national age-grade teams."

Henderson is Scottish. His dad is Scottish, he lived in Scotland from age 12 I think and he was schooled at Strathallan. It's completely deliberate to make it look like another poach when it clearly is nothing of the sort. The BBC do this in almost every article.

KingBlairhorn wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 11:09 am Hang on, I thought McInally retired? Is someone injured?

Slick wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 11:27 am Quite like that team in a warm up game, should be fun.

Chuffed for Stafford

westport wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 12:12 pm Interesting bit from Jim Mallinder about the U20's

https://www.theoffsideline.com/junior-w ... LFQWORt1t0

Tichtheid wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 11:40 am

Slick wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 11:27 am Quite like that team in a warm up game, should be fun.

Chuffed for Stafford

He had a really good season, he deserves his chance to stake a claim for the RWC.

There are a few head to heads in that team, Walker and Sebastian, Crosbie and Bayliss plus the two hooker spots behind Turner are not set, nor is the starting fullback or the second fly half (depending on Hastings' fitness)

Slick wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 11:27 am Quite like that team in a warm up game, should be fun.

Chuffed for Stafford

KingBlairhorn wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 11:13 am Also this shit, from the BBC article, annoys the hell out of me:

"Debutants McDowall and Henderson, who was born in Hong Kong but qualifies to play for Scotland through his Scottish dad, both previously featured for national age-grade teams."

Henderson is Scottish. His dad is Scottish, he lived in Scotland from age 12 I think and he was schooled at Strathallan. It's completely deliberate to make it look like another poach when it clearly is nothing of the sort. The BBC do this in almost every article.

KingBlairhorn wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 7:54 am It's incredibly difficult to say what has suddenly gone wrong to be honest. Nothing much has changed in the pathways since our record best finish just six years ago in the main competition. It seems the SRU have pinpointed insufficient access to a good enough level rugby as the main issue and the inclusion of these boys in Super6 teams plus the addition of an U20 team in that competition is to help bridge that gap. Certainly some of those heavily involved (Corey Tait, Liam McConnell) seem to be a level above the rest, but others don't.

One thing that occurs to me is that World Rugby should be doing more to help us. We are and clearly have been struggling in youth development for a long time and if it continues we could slide off the face of the rugby map. I don't think World Rugby can really afford to lose a Tier 1 team but I don't see any efforts from them to help support us in developing those structures. We could do with additional money for sure, but I think that is unlikely with so many other nations trying hard to break into the top tier, but what we do need is expertise. We just don't seem to have the ideas needed to make it really work and to capitalise on what should be a firm base across the Public Schools and the borders. They should be helping us to implement programmes in the council schools to increase the number of kids playing the game in the same way Ireland have.

Finally, and I bang this drum all the time, the SRU should be opening 'Performance Schools' the same as the SFA did which is now looking to be hugely successful. These are specialist schools that can give the extra coaching, nutrition, strength and conditioning etc. to those not lucky enough to be in the Public Schools to allow them to keep pace with the privately educated kids. There is probably a very nice partnership to be done with the SFA on these schools which would make the cost really very minimal.

Biffer wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 8:41 am I have a feeling these warm up games are going to go very badly.

Biffer wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 8:41 am I have a feeling these warm up games are going to go very badly.

I like neeps wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 11:06 am

Biffer wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 8:41 am I have a feeling these warm up games are going to go very badly.

As long as a core player doesn't get injured I don't mind. Warm up games are never a spectacle

Big D wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 5:31 pm I think I've said it before on here when I said JGray and Watson shouldn't go to the RWC and I still think Watson shouldn't.

KingBlairhorn wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 12:46 pm The Future15 squad for the super6 was announced this afternoon.

There are a few familiar faces in there and a good few I don’t really know. All aligned to Edinburgh or Glasgow:

Slick wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 12:57 pm Is there 2 or 3 of our new Fijian lads coming through on that list?

Going to be pretty tough for them, I'm sure a few old pro's will be out to make points.

Tichtheid wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 1:36 pm I thought Fin Thomson was one of a (very) few bright lights in the Trophy competition, I wonder why he hasn't made the cut for the Futures squad?

Tichtheid wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 1:36 pm I thought Fin Thomson was one of a (very) few bright lights in the Trophy competition, I wonder why he hasn't made the cut for the Futures squad?

KingBlairhorn wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 12:46 pm The Future15 squad for the super6 was announced this afternoon.

There are a few familiar faces in there and a good few I don’t really know. All aligned to Edinburgh or Glasgow:

Biffer wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 3:00 pm

Tichtheid wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 1:36 pm I thought Fin Thomson was one of a (very) few bright lights in the Trophy competition, I wonder why he hasn't made the cut for the Futures squad?

He's in the Watsons squad.

Jock42 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 8:47 pm Are these matches being streamed by the SRU? Haven't seen anything on viaplay or BBC.

Jock42 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 8:47 pm Are these matches being streamed by the SRU? Haven't seen anything on viaplay or BBC.

KingBlairhorn wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 11:13 am Also this shit, from the BBC article, annoys the hell out of me:

"Debutants McDowall and Henderson, who was born in Hong Kong but qualifies to play for Scotland through his Scottish dad, both previously featured for national age-grade teams."

Henderson is Scottish. His dad is Scottish, he lived in Scotland from age 12 I think and he was schooled at Strathallan. It's completely deliberate to make it look like another poach when it clearly is nothing of the sort. The BBC do this in almost every article.

Yr Alban wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 9:51 pm

KingBlairhorn wrote: ↑Wed Jul 26, 2023 11:13 am Also this shit, from the BBC article, annoys the hell out of me:

"Debutants McDowall and Henderson, who was born in Hong Kong but qualifies to play for Scotland through his Scottish dad, both previously featured for national age-grade teams."

Henderson is Scottish. His dad is Scottish, he lived in Scotland from age 12 I think and he was schooled at Strathallan. It's completely deliberate to make it look like another poach when it clearly is nothing of the sort. The BBC do this in almost every article.

You always get this when it’s our players. They are desperate to paint us as a team full of poaches. This is really stretching it - are they making out that he is ethnically Chinese?

Big D wrote: ↑Sat Jul 29, 2023 4:52 pm Trying to give the benefit of the doubt as it was the first game and effectively pre season but felt Price was poor when considering he needed a big game to put pressure on White.