honestly united

Im fairly sure he also scored the week after as well

Im assuming the likes of Ashman will play the A game as that then ties them into Scotland. Im actually also more interested in the Scotland tour than the lions - hopefully a few of the young lads put in big performances and put there hands up for selection for the AI's and 6N's. Will also be good for Glasgow and Edinburgh having a lot of these fringe players exposed to a higher standard of training and matches. Its been quite a turn around in terms of optimism from the Autumn to now both at an International and also club level.

In terms of the Glasgow release list i thought most of these well all ready confirmed, the only ones I wasn't aware off were Jones and Dolokoto who are both good players, but have missed far too much through injury. Jones has looked ok last few months, but will be behind the likes of Forbes, Steyn and McLean - Dolokoto looked good when he joined and is ideal for the international weekends but cant remember the last time he played. Evans, Nairn and Thornton are no great loss, Evans was brought in as cover, Thornton I dont think I have ever seen play, and Nairn has never kicked on, though you could say never had much game time either

Best - Henry Templeton was magic to watch Worst - Mark Duthie - thought we had a great signing, was dreadful

Gutting that had we turned up v Treviso we would be in the final now as the only unbeaten team

If he wasnt a scrum half I think the SRU would have offered him a contract - its probably the only position - other than centre maybe that we dont need another international class player - we already have Price, Horne, Steele, Dobie, SHC, so cant see SRU forking out for another scrum half

A lot of established guys getting the summer off, is Hutchinson injured or completely out the picture? Should have enough to beat Romania and Georgia but may be a lot closer than expected Just to show the strength in depth, off the top of my head (and probably missing a load) the following are having a rest this summer having been in squads in the last year or so Nel, Dell, McInally, Brown, both Grey's, Gilchrist, Thompson, du Preez, Graham, Jones, Johnson, Grigg, Maitland, Taylor, Hutchinson, Redpath

Rather we had somone other than Hamilton as that us playing them 5 times now, other than that very winnable group, but also chance we could be 3rd depending on Falkirk and how bad we start. Will be a good indication of how our recruitment was / style of play for the year etc

That midfield 3 would give me the fear more than McGinty joining Baird in the back 3

Gutted for the lad, amazing debut then pretty much been injured since

Loving the usual gammon seeth about or entry getting nil points, even though the song was decent, the lad isnt the greatest singer (with a dreadful coat), and it looked like someone on work experience that did the staging - no one is going to vote for you if you dont put the effort in. Italy was in my top 5 songs (Belgium, Ukranine, Finland and Lithuania the others), which were actually really high standard this year and glad Switzerland didnt win as thought that was dreadful and wasn't a fan of Malta either. All in all a very good year, we've had a few years where i have thought the standard was meh, but enjoyed last night and a decent song winning unlike the last 3 or 4 years

Im sure my old rugby club hired a fishing boat for the day when playing Kyntre after i had left - although i used to enjoy the 5 hour bus trip back with a slab of cans

Didn't think tonight was as strong as Tuesday. For me Iceland, Finland, Bulgaria were decent, dont get the hype for Switzerland

Same, im all for more foreign teams and binning the colts

Just caught up on the first semi final, for me Belgium and Ukraine were the 2 best of the night by some distance. Cyprus (although the verse and chorus sound like they are from different songs), Azerbijan, Romania were decent. All the rest different shades of forgetable meh so only really dissapointed Romania didn't get through. I may be a bit biased as I have been a fan of Hooverphonic for a while! Edit to add, apart from Russia nothing overly mad going on

Im wondering if there was any vote tampering going on to ensure one of OUR players got the awards? I voted McCowan and Sinisalo how I thought was head and shoulders above Reading and McKenzie would have been next choices

Im hoping for a 40-50 man training squad, then all the youngsters getting a run in the A game, then a squad of 30 odd out for the 2 games in Romania and Georgia. Im hoping its a chance for some young guys to put there hands up rather than the same old squad players getting a game. Im hoping we get a chance to see you guys like Dobie, Thompson and McLean getting capped as well as Crosbie etc. Im hoping that they try and keep it under 30 yo as a start to building for the next world cup

The LL haven't had to look at it previously as there was never a glut of licensed clubs hammering at the door to get promoted, in fact (not counting the last 2 years being called off due to Covid) i think there has only been 1 play off due to lack of licensed clubs to play in it. They couldnt open up the number of places as there was never anyone to open up to. Once its up to decent number in the West I can see them opening up to 2, but at the moment (as of SFA's April file) its 20 in the East, 4 in the South and 2 in the West - granted many more will get there license this year, but until there there is you cant ask the LL to fix a problem that doesn't exist. You cant complain about glass ceilings until your actually banging your head against it. Im sure the LL are already looking at it, as any club being relegated from the LL will be worried about getting back in, the same as clubs relegated from the SPFL will be.

teams for this weekend, Edinburgh (v Glasgow Warriors at Murrayfield, Saturday @ 7.35pm): B Kinghorn, D Hoyland, J Johnstone, C Dean, E Sau; C Savala, H Pyrgos; P Schoeman, S McInally, W Nel, M Sykes, J Hodgson, M Kunavula, L Crosbie, V Mata. Subs: M Willemse, B Venter, L Atalifo, A Miller, C Boyle, C Shiel, J Blain, G Taylor. Glasgow Warriors (v Edinburgh at Murrayfield, Saturday @ 7.35pm): A Hastings; K Steyn, N Grigg, S McDowall, R Tagive; R Thompson, G Horne; T Lambert, G Turner, E Pieretto, R Harley, R Gray, R Wilson, R Darge, M Fagerson. Subs: G Stewart, D Evans, D Rae, K McDonald, T Gordon, J Dobie, P Horne, L Jones. Edinburgh missing 19 through injury and Glasgow 16 First starts after injury for McInally and Fagerson - Harley plays his 250 game for Glasgow and Kinghorn hits 100 for Edinburgh

He would be a solid signing, if unspectacular - I dont remember him being the leader / captain material though which is what I would be hoping for in a CH - although most people thought Baird was a good signing so doesnt say much. Was in the Livi team from League one through to Premier although not played much the last 2 years

Targetting 4th should be the aim, as most seasons there isn't too much off a gap from 4th til 9th until the last month or so. This year with 2 games to go Queens could have finished 4th or 9th - granted we were a round of games light, but there's usually not much form 4th to say 7th. For me we need a leader / organiser at Ch and another leader in CM and a goal scorer up top. Get the right players for those 3 and the rest falls into place

Back to the 1872 cup tonight, and 3 new Lions getting a run out Glasgow Warriors (v Edinburgh at Scotstoun, Friday @ 8.15pm): C Forbes; R Tagive, N Grigg, S McDowall, K Steyn; R Thompson, A Price; O Kebble, F Brown, Z Fagerson, R Harley, S Cummings, F Lokotui, T Gordon, R Wilson. Subs: G Turner, T Lambert, E Pieretto, R Gray, L McDonald, G Horne, P Horne, N Matawalu. Edinburgh (v Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun, Friday @ 8.15pm): D Hoyland; E Sau, M Bennett, G Taylor, D van der Merwe; N Chamberlain, H Pyrgos; P Schoeman, D Cherry, W Nel, J Hodgson, G Gilchrist, J Ritchie, L Crosbie, V Mata. Subs: S McInally, B Venter, L Atalifo, M Sykes, M Kunavula, C Shiel, C Savala, J Johnstone. Good to see McDowall and McInally back after long lay offs with injury. Teams look well matched, except for the Edinburgh back row that is head and shoulders above Glasgows and should win them the game

Having seen it on positions it looks incredibly unbalanced. Front row is ok, then 6 2nd rows and 6 back row - 3 opensides and 3 8's meaning that Beirne, Lawes or Itoje will be back row Daly down as inside centre with Henshaw although obviously Farrell is in the mix there. I was wondering if they picked Daly for goal kicking if they are thinking of starting with Russell?

Ringrose misses out for Aki as well, Daly was a shock. Lawes and Hill didnt seem to be on anyones radar either

37 man squad - so thats wrong unless both Sutherland and Vunipola going