honestly united

Good to see both Russell and Hogg back playing this week after their injuries in the 6 Nations

Im assuming we are getting a Jungle Boy v Darby v Guevara match with the winner getting a title shot, you would have thought at Wembley with the title match at the next PPV

Win tonight and Glasgow have Scarlets in the Semi Final, very winnable game

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/65199732 Ashman as well

Its not worried, just dont think it would be a great look being at the top of the league all year, then missing out on the play offs, not that we would likely get promoted anyway. Its more the long term impact of missing out on the club, rather than anything else

To be fair Im more worried about finishing in the top 4 than looking at 2nd. If we lose to Morten they are 3 points behind with a game in hand, and if ICT win this weekend they are 4 behind with a game in hand. Last game of the season away to ICT needing anything to secure 4th gives me the fear.

When Glasgow play like that they are a joy to watch. Some of the defense needs tightened up when the serious stuff starts but our backs play is unreal at the moment whether its Tuipoltu Jones, Jonson McDowall. We've got loads of options across the 15 now that some big players are going to be benching at some point

Lions had a player sent off after 20 miutes but still beating racing

There's guys working 5 or 6 shows over the weekend, also wouldnt want to work at the Ukranian centre, there seems to be a different show on every 3 hours from lunchtime to 3 in the morning

I wonder if he has already put the feelers out and realised he wont be able to command anywhere near the same wage at Exeter, and with the rest of the premiership in the same boat, and no one in the URC going to match the wages his only option was probably France or Japan. France is way more games a year, and he maybe didnt fancy Japan

He probably feels done with the amount of rugby hes played the last few years and the amount of injuries (on top of the abuse about his teeth / hair) as probably realises he's not playing to the standard he once was. He could have probably done with a good 6-9 month break after the world cup to rest and recuperate rather than retiring, however sounds like he may have something lined up already

Some start from Glasgow, 3 tries to nil over monster after half ana hour

He hasnt before as far as I can remember, we must have some injury list to have to be playing him there. Did we not sign an Argentinian winger a few weeks back? Is tagive still inured / a thing?

If a youngster is really good (Hogg, Russell, Grey etc) they get picked up on early and will be playing with Glasgow / Edinburgh etc and not in the Scotland U20 teams which weakens the teams (Dobbie being a recent example). We do a really poor job of getting players from U20 level up to full international in the main as well. For example Luke Crosbie was playing U20 in 2017, its only this season he's made the break through to the full squad. That squad also had Darcy Graham, Matt Fagerson, Blair Kinghorn, Stafford McDowall, Robbie Nairn, Charlie Shiel, Alex Craig, Tom Gordon and a few others with pro experience. The 2018 team still had McDowall playing (i had high hopes for him before his injury) Murphy Walker, Rory Darge, Ross Thomson, Marshall Sykes, Jamie Hodgson and 2019 Ashman, Thomson, Sykes, Walker, Ollie Smith, Chamberlain, Blain with Darge missing through injury but he was back in 2020 so we have had a steady stream of players its just some take longer to get from the U20's to the full team. I would put that down to the private schools run their teams pretty much like a pro team, with training most days etc, whereas anyone at a club side maybe train twice a week tops so will be physically behind. In theory the Super 6 should have helped close the gap between U20 and pro but that doesnt seem to be working. I had thought the whole point was to split the youngsters across the teams and ensure they are getting game time alongside older heads in a competitive environment but it doesnt appear to be happening. Given the SRU owns the franchises surely they should be insisting on players getting game time

I actually think I would prefer England to win, given how much I despise the Irish

Thought Healy looked ok when he came on, a marked improvement from Kinghorn at 10 anyway. KInghorn looks a player at 15

We need a 26 point swing, plus no BP for France if Wales win

ooft, Kinghorn has been pretty poor but comes away with a hattrick

Every time McAdams had the ball on Monday, it didn't matter which one of the back 4 he rolled it out to, it ended up with McGinty, who would wander forward a bit before hoofing it forward to no one in particular. I don't remember seeing anyone else hoofing it, it was specifically McGinty. It definitely must be a tactic as if you were anyone else in the back 4 you would stop passing it to McGinty as you know what he is going to do with it

I would rather see what Healy has than give Kinghorn another run at 10, however its clear Kinghorn is our bench option for 10 / 15 / Wing going forward. I dont think Kinghorn is even 2nd choice 10 as that is clearly Hastings, and 3rd choice would be either Thomson or Healy for me but Kinghorn is clearly going to be in the world cup squad. Im not sure if the selection says more about Healy's ability (or lack there off) at 10, or how well Smith is going at 10. Im sure the last few Glasgow games McKay had been shunted to the wing to accommodate Smith at fullback so maybe he is seen as playing well and more deserving of a shot.

I think Kinghorn has been just as good as Hogg and I havent noticed a drop when Hoggs gone off so thats probably worrying for Hogg's form, remember he hadnt played for Exeter in a while before the 6 natiosn started. What happens at 10 is the issue. I think I would rather give Healy a run, as Thomson and Hastings are both injured, but can see Kinghorn starting there

To be fair it could have been, I just thought both sides werent at the same intensity as the first half for the first 10 minutes. It might just have been Healy and Gibson park coming on gave Ireland the spark

I was more thinking they had set it up to get the belts back on FTR, without them going over the Acclaimed and keeping the acclaimed and ass boys for later to keep them relevant

I think 3rd in the 6 nations is about where we are at, and likely the 5th best team in the world, which seems ludicrous given we were 3rd seed in our WC pool and likely wont make it out the group stages. At the moment we are significantly ahead of both England and Wales and I wouldnt be suprised if there are further record scores in Dublin and Paris next weekend. Again though I thought the difference was mental rather than physical / skill wise (other than the lineout) against Ireland. We play a very different game to Ireland but intensity wise we match up for 50 minutes, the difference I thought was that that is Irelands levels every week, but we were having to push ourselves to match, however when Kelleher went off I thought there was a noticeable drop from Scotland. To me it looked like we thought that they've lost their hooker, we have an advantage and subconcious or not slightly took the foot off the pedal, dropped the intensity slightly - whereas Ireland upped it to compensate - and once that happened we just couldnt get going again. A bit like in football as how often when a player is sent off the team with 10 men up there game, where the 11 struggle to do anything. Its an improvement as all too often we roll over to Ireland, so at least we stood up to them for 50 minutes this time. We do have decent strength in depth in the squad at the moment, however to truly compete we need to have a complete overhaul of the age grade pathways so we are developing many more players and not just hoping a few come through topped up with any southern hemisphere player that has a scottish relative we can find

We didnt start the 2nd half that well, but we really switched off once Kellerher went off, whereas it seemed to galvanise Ireland