honestly united

Aye the SRU should be ensuring that the u20's get more game time in the Super 6 as there is no way the strength is there to have 2 full u20's playing in it, and as has been said better gaining experience alongside rather than against. I also dont think anyone u20 at Glasgow or Edinburgh that gets game time is ever picked for SCotland at u20 (ie Dobbie hasnt featured the last few years). Only saw about 20 minutes yesterday but seemed a much better performance than the last few years

Is Sutherland injured as well, have seen him being mentioned? Sione and Jones at centre could run riot as they can swap positions easily, but im not sure defensively on those 2 as a partnership. The pack seems slow in comparison to normal which I think will hamper our game

I think it would more likely be Smith going out, as we probably need Hewitt as cover at the back

That is exceedingly harsh on Bristol. Sign player on 3 month contract after he gets made redundant at Wasps. Play him in 2 games in Europe. He then gets offer from Montellier, both club and player decide its best move and off he goes, then retrospectively he becomes ineligible due? as Bristol didnt force him to stay for the full 3 month contract?

I think Redpath and Harris are the preferred option when fit, but given Redpath has missed that much its been chop and change most games

No place for Bennet, Scott or Jonson in the centre, but we call up / recall 2 30 something wingers. I am assuming Maitland will start / bench at worst as he said before he wasnt going to join up with the squad to hold pads. Apart from the likes of Darge, Cummings and Graham who are all injured I cant think of anyone else I would have in the squad at the moment

Aye the draw is shocking, NZ, France, Italy, SA, Ireland and us on 1 side - top 4 sides in current rankings - 5 of top 8 and the other side one top ranked 5th at best gets to the final. That would be my choice if we could get him. I had thought he would get the NZ job last time, and will depend if he is holding out for that or not. Im hoping we have spoken to him as im sure he will have plenty of offers. I dont think Blair has done enough to warrant the Scotland job, a few decent seasons with Glasgow then maybe but not yet.

I more meant if he gets a gig in Super Rugby he would have a 1 in 5 shot at getting the NZ job if it came up, obviously if he is seen to be doing well at one of the clubs he may have a shot at it

If Toonie is away after the World Cup Rennie must be quite high on the list to replace him. The only issue would be if someone gets in before the SRU do. I would assume the only options for Rennie would be a NZ franchise if he fancies waiting on the NZ job coming up / staying at home or Europe / Japan other international side. You would hope Scotland would be his first choice having already been here for a while but given there is likely to be Leicester, Bath, Ulster all looking for new coaches soon hopefully we dont lose out.

Given on the one hand im still wondering if the 18 point gap to Arbroath is enough to avoid the relegation playoffs im still fairly confident we will make the top 4. Losing Chalmers is a blow but when we get everyone fit were as good as anyone else in this league. A lot depends on how / if others strengthen and there form as much as ours as anyone can beat anyone else in this league Im hopeful though given that we now actually seem to have some sort of plan with recruitment that we will have targets that we can move on quickly. Ideally we would be moving ahead with targets we had as potential summer signings and get them in either as full signings or initial loan with a view to signing in the summer. To be fair if we manage that we will have done well. I think its more likely we will pick up players on loan

You get the feeling that any disciplinary hearing has a note of how many weeks it is to the next England game before they hand down any bans. The inconstancy is the worst thing also, club players get bans of double the length of pro players for similar, or in some case less severe cases

Great performance and result from Glasgow. We managed to match them physically up front, and the backs looked dangerous. Thought Jones was excellent, will be giving GT headaches if he keeps it up. Discipline was good (maybe co-commentator is a good move for Wilson) given how poor Brace is, and to see us win scrum penalaites in the last 5 minutes is a good sign, all the while still being willing to run the ball from our own 22 when there was only a couple of points in the game. I'll admit I was a bit meh on Smith as head coach, but he seems to be doing well. Seems to have kept the good things we were doing (ie the attack) and has worked to improve the area's we were not as good (ie physicallity / defence / etc)

Is that £5m budget or £5m in wages, as im sure the travel / accommodation / coching staff etc would take a chunk of the budget if that is the total budget. In other news S&C plays a huge part though, it doesnt matter how skillfull or well coached you are, if you are miles off it fitness and size wise as a team your not going to be winning, and your also impacting on the players development. Im not saying just go with the biggest and strongest, but you have got to be at least in the same ball park physically to compete In other news looks like Hastings is out of 6Nations - means we have another year of Kinghorn in the squad https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/64177528

On the face of it the SRU's strategy was fairly sound if you accept that the teams remain mediocre. Accept that you cant compete with ENG / FRA on wages, let your top players move abroad at 26/27 for a pay day after giving Glasgow and Edinburgh some good years. This opens up spots for youngsters coming through in the squads, keeps costs reasonable etc Obviously both have had some success over the last few years and there is now an expectation from fans, and also an increased income stream which has not been met with a new strategy. Obviously they are not going to pay top dollar for players, but we have had a couple of players (before Wasps / Worcester) come back up from England taking up spots and some of the imports have not been up to much. Maybe we were spoiled with Nakarawa, DTH and Matawalu but we havent had any hit those heights as of yet. Im not sure on the wages front how much the SRU are spending, but if you look at England the salary cap is £5m (plus marque player, and home grown exceptions) per team, how much are Glasgow / Edinburgh paying out? Its probably comparable given the size of the squads they have to carry due to internationals / limits on game time per season. Maybe wouldnt cost much more for a 3rd team if you could reduce the squads at Glasgow and Edinburgh slightly

Was thinking that after I watched the Longest Night last week. I thought it was only a one season thing to start with but It is set up to keep going so hope it doesnt get cancelled

Interesting article. One of the comments though gives a list of players to be produced just at Merchiston castle over the last decade and ask's if it is the clubs / SRU that is causing the issue. I would argue that maybe the Private Schools are falling behind their counterparts - again I dont have anythng to back this up, are there many cross border matches between schools? Im firmly of the belief that given we only have 2 teams players are not getting the game time as they have to dislodge an international from the team to get game time. When a player does get game time early its because they are world class, ie Hogg, Russell, Gray all getting games at 19/20, but further down, the international squad fillers are 24/25 or older before they have the pro team experience to get international recognition and by then its too late to be able to push on from good to great. We just seem to miss something from 17/18 to 20/21 - I had previously put it down to guys being in hte institute of sport not getting proper meaningful games so we didnt breed winners, some people are born with it but others can learn it from being in tight, meaningful games and wanting to win, and learning from losing also what it takes to win - Scotland have been too soft for years and its getting proper competition at an early age which will change that. I think its too early to write off the Super 6's but the coaches need to be ensuring the youngsters are playing and not just filling the team with older journeymen. Again a 3rd team would help to blood more players but as was said is costly. Glasgow and Edinburgh now are probably bringing in a decent amount in gate money compared to 10 / 15 years ago (crowds up to close to 10k at Glasgow, compared to 3-4k not so long ago) which will also have increased sponsorship etc so maybe worth looking at again.

although only 12 out the 44 not Scotland qualified. However its one of my biggest gripes is player development in Scotland. When you think both Garbisi and Redpath are younger than Ross Thompson, yet are both consider Internationals yet Thompson is still looked on as a youngster as his development is stunted being in Scotland

For me getting Hewitt back from loan would solve a couple of problems as he can fill in at RB and offers decent cover at CM - he's not a starter if everyone is fit, but is a decent option as back up. Getting another CH in is top priority for me, getting a win at cove in the cup and a decent draw in the next round could get you the budget for another couple of players till the end of the season and I dont see us doing that with McGinty and McAlister at CH. As has been said it then depends on our aspirations - if we want to win the league then your probably looking at 2 FB's, if we want top 4 Reading and Houston should be OK if they buck their ideas up a bit - they are decent enough CHampionship level players when they are playing well. Up front we should have enough to see us through, obvs we need to keep Akinyimi first and foremost, and partnered with either McKenzie and Young has worked ok and out wide we have Mullins, Chalmers, O'connor, Ashford and JML so plenty of bodies. Maybe an AM and changing to a 4-3-3 would offer something different but may isolate Akinyimi. Our recruitment has been pretty good so far under the new team so hopefully a few rabbits out the hat in January

I used to work in a hotel when I was younger and the assistant manager was Welsh and a huge rugby fan, and as he knew I played he used to ask on a Saturday evening (the joys of split shifts) if I had played that afternoon, how I got on etc. So as normal one Saturday I had been telling him about my how I had played full back that day and scored an interception try for our 2nd team when he tells me Gavin Hastings is staying. Think no more about it other than might spot him later today. About an hour later im wandering through reception on my way to the bar when I spot the manager having a chat with Gavin Hastings. He calls me over then says, tell Mr Hastings about the try you scored today while playing full back. Still my most embarrassing moment of my life talking a Scotland and British Lions legend through scoring a try for my local 2nd team in a friendly.

Do we get Hewitt back from his loan at Peterhead in January? Could do with him as can play both RB & CM, hopefully he's had a some decent game time and comes back ready to go.

I find it mad that we are picking Jones at 12 and Tuipoltu at 13. Although both are much better outside rather than inside surely you would go with Tuiuplotu at 12 given GT only ever playes him there for Scotland? Also I take it we are expecting this to be a forward battle given we have picked 3 8's for the backrow and 6 forward subs.

He looked really good in the loose, and had a good few turnovers. but as you's have said his throwing is horrendous. Out of all our hookers I think Cherry's throwing is maybe the best, but he's not great either. Brown and Turner arent much better than McInally either. Whatever happened to Dylan Richardson, he was another hooker / flanker wasnt he?

If Cameron Neild is the ex sale guy then yes - nothing flashy just lots of hard work

Thought the youngsters in the backrow looked good. Also just seen Leinster have hammered Racing in Paris.

having seen Bath are at near full strength I thought Glasgow were in for a hiding, but good start and first try so maybe game on