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come on shire

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Posts posted by come on shire

  1. That's a strong team.  Hogg has passed the HIA after the Wales game to be fit.

    Harsh on Luke Crosbie however perhaps Hamish Watson's experience gives him the nod as we're away to the No2 side in the world who won the grand slam last season.  

    I'm surprised that there's no place for Luke Crosbie or George Horne but it show's the talent and the competition that's there now.  Having said that, it'll be a tough ask in Paris.

  2. 7 hours ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

    Unrest aside that Wales team looks pretty honking for Saturday, getting pumped imo. Would have brought Faletau and Jones back, and if you're replacing Biggar after his display/behaviour then Williams is the only replacement, but it looks like he has no idea what the best combo of youth and experience is at the moment.

    The game's in Cardiff and the Wales team have reached a settlement. However their training and prep has been affected. It's the game between the 2 new head coaches but England's issues is just getting the national team playing better. With Wales the issue is down at the grassroots with an ageing squad.

  3. 5 hours ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

    Surprised it hadn't been posted already but happened across the back page of the Daily Mail (I know) in Morrisons earlier and the headline was something about the SRU being in talks with someone. Had a quick look (without buying it!) and they are reporting it's Auckland Blues coach Leon MacDonald. There would be no compensation due as he's out of contract in September so could join up after the World Cup. Know nothing about him, so do any of the more knowledge or well travelled folks here know anything about him or the possibility of his joining?

    He had a lot of success at Crusaders but he was an assistant to Scott Robertson.

    In his own right he's not won silverware but credit's due as he was head coach of Tasman in the NZ domestic league. 2 finals in a row then SF in his 3rd year. All 3 times losing to Canterbury who feed the traditionally successful Crusaders so he must have impressed Robertson to get onto his coaching team. "If you can't beat them, join them".

    Poor in his first season with the Blues in 2019 Super Rugby.  Then Covid got in the way. However in the 2022 he got them to the final. Lost to Crusaders.

  4. 1 hour ago, Self-raising Lazarus said:

    Munster tanking ospreys 58 (58) to 3..... Welsh rugby reminiscent of Scotland going into the 00s?

    I wonder if the Wales players will really strike? Their game's in the doldrums ATM...

  5. 1 hour ago, Mark Connolly said:

    It was Jordan, and f**k knows.

    Price has actually kicked really well

     

    1 hour ago, GAD said:

    Do you mean the one that went straight out the dead ball area? I thought it was Jordan, but no idea.

    Yes. However I stand corrected. I thought it was Price. I'm in the West stand so I was at the other end of the ground.

    I'll take that win with a weakened side and poor weather though there may be disappointment that we gave them a losing bonus point.

    It's maybe not a great sign for Irish rugby that the Ireland squad is mainly Leinster players in green shirts and Ulster were able to field such depth during the 6N. Ulster and Munster seem to be well behind Leinster.

  6. Lots of Wales fans stay around the central belt and elsewhere when Wales play at Murrayfield. I thought it's because Edinburgh was too expensive but a lot of the time it's Welsh clubs who play Scottish clubs on the Friday. In my local area Grangemouth beat Llandbyie and New Maesteg beat Falkirk.

    Any other games where the regular posters live?

  7. I'm still nervous about Italy coming to Murrayfield. If the ref that day doesn't penalise them off the park and Capuozzo is on form...

    Still, we SHOULD be ok...

    However I could see Italy beating Wales in Rome this year.

  8. 1 hour ago, honestly united said:

    May be an image of 1 person and text that says "SCOTLAND VWALES TEAM T11EBRUARY 4.45PM GMT BTMURRAY EDINBURGH GU UINNESS SIXNATIONS STUART HOGG KYLE STEYN HUW JONES SIONE TUIPULOTU DUHAN VAN DER MERWE FINN RUSSELL BEN WHITE SCOTLAND WRU PIERRE SCHOEMAN GEORGE TURNER ZANDER FAGERSON RICHIE GRAY GRANT GILCHRIST (VC) JAMIE RITCHIE (C) LUKE CROSBIE MATT FAGERSON EE Peter Vardy REPLACEMENTS One As FRASER BROWN JAMIE BHATTI EL JONNYGRAY JACKDEMPSEY GEORGEHORNE HORNE BLAIRKINGHORN CHRIS HARRIS"

    Just the one change from last week

    Strong team. The only change is Nel on the bench with Fagerson starting. I thought it would be the other way about as Zander's just back from long term injury and Nel has credit in the bank after Twickenham. However Nel is mid 30's...

  9. 5 hours ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

    What is the consensus on here regarding international selection of players who play club rugby outside of their domestic league?

    Have seen a bit of debate around it and the All Blacks’ refusal to change tact on it and being happy to give up on players who’ve moved abroad. Seems mental to me to potentially exclude your best players, but I guess they can get away with it due to their depth more than most. I hadn’t thought about it much as SRU allow it, but I’d be a seething mess if Russell for example was blacklisted because he’d gone onto a higher level. 

    Rugby is the 2nd sport in Scotland which wouldn't be an issue but we're not a big country so we need to be open to our national players wanting to play outside Scotland or the URC. 

    Other countries probably choose to have an internal selection as it makes it easier for coaches to keep track of players form and injury. Also, they'll have sway in managing game time ahead of international games. NZ could probably afford to select overseas players as rugby competes with cricket to be the first sport there...

  10. 4 hours ago, honestly united said:

    Italy have improved greatly over the last few years, however a long way to go until the final weekend. If we can build on the Calcutta game, and get a win and a good performance vs Wales that set us up for  Ireland and France which could see us going into the Italy game looking for a grand slam.

    On the other hand we could lose vs wales, get hammered in hte next 2 games and be facing Italy for 6th place

    It'll be tricky. However if we keep Capuozzo quiet we should be ok at home.

    3 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

    That article, despite its intended focus, really shows up Smith.  
     

    On another note, I bought the Sunday Times for the first time in ages last weekend. Their two main rugby writers Stephen (?) Jones and Stuart Barnes can’t write for shit.  

    I subscribe to Rugby World magazine. They're regular contributors and Jones has his own column.

    What's annoyed me in the media is what an improving England got wrong. Not much about what Scotland did right apart from Tom English's BBC piece...

  11. What's pleasing is we went toe to toe with them all game long. Attack was on point. Townsend wasn't happy with aspects of the performance. Discipline and defence in the 1st half was the concern for me. However we still produced a huge team effort to win at a tough away venue which is the main thing.

    I noticed that England played with an aggressive attack close to our defence line. That shows Steve Borthwick's tactics as being far less conservative than Eddie Jones.

    It'll be hopeless if we don't back this up next weekend. Wales's issues are deeper than just their national team. However they looked like an ageing team with poor organisation. AWJ looks finished imo. We have to be merciless next weekend.

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