honestly united

Surely with the stringent rules applied by World Rugby, the fact he is called McKay makes him Scottish enough to be starting against France next weekend?

I think Wilson is resigned to doing nothing this year as realistically we aren't challenging for anything, and giving guys a run to build experience for next year. Toony and Rennie were in with a shout every year so every point was a prisoner. Edinburgh are in a different situation in that they have re-signed their big names for next season so probably dont have the budget for big name signings. They have signed Lang and the other lad from Quins, and Cockerill has said there are more to come.

I think he might be off as well, only include him as out options on the wing are pretty slim at the moment, Steyn and Jones are both very injury prone, Tagive isn't a rugby player. Nairn and Matawalu are decent back ups but not starters

The first 15 for Glasgow is looking pretty solid now - probably still need another (decent) 2nd row, an open side and probably another winger or 2 Props - Kebble, Fagerson, Bhatti, Bergham Hooker - Brown, Turner, Stewart 2nd Row - Gray, Cummings (Bain, Bean, McDonald) back row - Fagerson, Dempsey, Wilson, Gordon Srum half - Price, Horne, Dobie Stand off: Weir, Thompson Centre: Jones, Johnson, Grigg,McDowall Wing: Steyn, Jones, Seymour Full back: McKay

I think the issue is about when you move from a tackle to a ruck, the ref needs to balance between the jackaler going for the ball in a tackle then moving to a ruck haivng the opportunity to get his hands off. I agree that it should be one instruction of "hands off its now a ruck" and anything after that is a ruck

Thanks, for the life of me I couldn't what game it was he had been dreadful in, the fact he looks like young Peirs Morgan is even more reason to hate him

In general the Irish are the worst, apart from Gatland, Biggar and Williams the welsh are generally OK, as are the English rugby fans - however as they are a bigger country they have a higher number of annoying w*nks. Being a Scotland rugby fan you always get some positivity that builds through January only to be completely wiped out by half time in the first game - this year its just taken until the 2nd half of the 2nd game before being wiped out. I think everything has already been covered, crap ref, i remember him being dreadful the last time we had him in a Scotland game, but discipline cost us, with refs this bad you have to make sure you dont give them a chance to make these decisions. We should have been looking forward to going to France as a grand slam decider, then on to Ireland as a crack at a triple crown, we are now staring at mid table at best* * i appreaciate we still have a chance of the 6 Nations title if we go unbeaten, but others have already picked up a few bonus points

Nerves starting to kick in now

HAven't been impressed today, missed loads of forward passes. However at least he has made decisions and not gone to the TMO on every single decision

You can dive for the line, but you are not allowed to jump a tackle as its dangerous

Kids are generally getting bigger, but i think it has more to do with weight training and diet than anything else. At my old club the 3rds used to play the local uni freshers every year. We used to beat them convincingly every year as we were so much bigger in the forwards, but it started to change maybe 10 years ago that all the kids where so much bigger physcially, that it went to our forwards saying get the ball out to hte backs as we couldn't compete up front - that was over a period of maybe 5 years and was a really noticeable change. We saw it with the kids coming through the colts. Instead of getting to the bar for a few bees after the game it was all protein shakes and ice baths but you could see the difference in size of the kids coming through. I remember when I was younger you at least had guys like Gary Armstrong and Brian Redpath that were about 5'7" now most of hte scum halfs are 6 foot

I was just thinking back to the las game v Wales at Murrayfield, the defensive weakness was the other side of the pitch (KInghorn) where wales scored the first try and I am sure it was Graham that scored - infact I would have said apart from Watson was probably the best player on the pitch for Scotland. Just due to his size he will be seen as weak in the air / under the high ball, but for he hits much harder than his size would suggest

I haven't checked but is it the same team that played vs Wales in the Autumn? To answer my own question,VDM for Kinghorn, Turner for Brown and Fagerson for Ritchie (with Thompson moving to 6) i think is a slightly stronger team, and hopefully Russell stays on longer this time Scotland 15Hogg 14D GrahamSubstituted forvan der Merweat 66'minutes 13Harris 12Lang 11Kinghorn 10RussellSubstituted forHastingsat 33'minutes 9Price 1SutherlandSubstituted forKebbleat 54'minutes 2BrownSubstituted forMcInallyat 54'minutes 3FagersonSubstituted forBerghanat 54'minutes 4Cummings 5J Gray 6Ritchie 7Watson 8ThomsonSubstituted forC du Preezat 54'minutes Substitutes 16McInally 17Kebble 18Berghan 19Toolis 20C du Preez 21Steele 22HastingsSubstituted forSteeleat 69'minutes 23van der Merwe

Its not lack of depth, its lack of depth in the "bubble" as we are only choosing from the 35 man training squad. There was only 5 backrow players so it was a choice between Thompson and Graham one starting one on the bench. Same at centre the choice was between Taylor, Jones and Lang. I think the strength in depth is ok, as we have the likes of Bradbury, Haining, Du Preez and Skinner at back row (and Cowan who played in the AI's), and you could add in the youngsters like Crosbie etc and its plenty. Centre we have even more that aren't in the squad, on the 3 above you can add in Johnson and Hutchinson who you can make a case for starting, never mind just being in the squad, then there are fringe players like Bennett, Grigg, McDowall, etc

Scotland: Stuart Higg; Darcy Graham, Chris Harris, James Lang, Duhan Van der Merwe; Finn Russell, Ali Price; Rory Sutherland, George Turner, Zander Fagerson, Scott Cummings, Johnny Gray, Blade Thomson, Hamish Watson, Matt Fagerson. Replacements: Dave Cherry, Oli Kebble, WP Nel, Richie Gray, Gary Graham, Scott Steele, Jaco Van der Walt, Hugh Jones. Wales: Leigh Halfpenny; Louis Rees-Zammit, Nick Tompkins, Owen Watkin, Liam Williams; Dan Biggar, Gareth Davies, Wyn Jones, Ken Owens, Tomas Francis, Adam Beard, Alun Wyn Jones (capt), Aaron Wainwright, Justin Tipuric, Taulupe Faletau. Replacements: Elliot Dee, Rhodri Jones, Leon Brown, Will Rowlands, James Botham, Kieran Hardy, Callum Sheedy, Willis Halaholo.

Its a difficult one as different players offer different things and wouldn't necessary fit how we want to play now. Front row, you need to go back to Tom Smith, then David Sole era to find anyone better Second row, again back to Doddie Weir and that era to get anyone better At 6 I agree on Barclay and Brown, but would add White into the mix Agree Cusiter and Blair were ahead of what we have now For me Dunbar is more of an inside centre and had a great partnership with Bennett at the time it was the best centre partnersip in years, but would have Johnson / Jones from 2 years ago ahead of them

I get that end of season could be an issue, but surely people are aware of what games are on when ie if its the end of the season, it runs however many weeks are left in the season, then picks up again at the start of the next?

More Red Card Confusion https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/56002803 O'Mahoney gets a 3 game ban (the fact it should be much longer is another matter), however they are only counting the 6 nations games so misses the Scotland game. However there are 2 free weekends inbetween with club games that he could be playing in so in reality its 5 games he is missing. I dont know why they dont dish out weeks and say you are able to play again from this date - and make it finish on a Tuesday as there are Pro14 games on a Monday now Given as above George Taylor was able to include a Edinburgh v Glasgow bounce game in his 3 game ban the rules are all over the place

For a change I dont think we had any injuries, only update was that Maitland and Ritchie were taken off due to fatigue, no injuries were mentioned

George Taylor is banned for 3 games so wont be getting a game with Edinburgh - probably just coming in to hold the pads And today's huge transfer news Brandon Thompson is off to the Cheetahs on a deal starting 1st March - I felt sorry for him as he looked a player under Townsend when he arrived initially on loan and I was excited when he signed a full time deal as he is Scottish qualified, however hardly got a look in under Rennie who took over before he arrived permanently which seemed to dent his confidence and he looks a shadow of the player he was when he first arrived. Hopefully a return to SA and game time will up his confidence.

Just as a round up on the weekend, Leaving aside the players, who one and all were fantastic, I'd like to take my hat off to Townsend, who's position as Scotland coach I thought was rightly being questioned after a pretty poor world cup, Finn gate etc, he has turned things around. Last season was solid if unspectacular but his given the team the foundation to build on for yesterday's result. We could be 4 undefeated if Hogg hadn't given away a scrum underneath the posts and you would have to go back years for such a good run. The Irish is the next hoodoo to get off our back, but if we play with the same intensity and discipline we should beat them. I didn't see much from Wales to trouble us. As a rugby fan I am actually really excited to watch the France game as I think it could be a fantastic game of rugby. As a Scotland fan its the one im dreading as France have now got a coaching set up that is not caving into player pressure and getting the best out of them. And on the taking a knee, not one player from France, Italy, Ireland or Wales took a knee. Nobody did during the Autumn internationals. I am happy with the explanation that everyone in the Scotland camp had assumed that they weren't doing it. However once some (and not all) the England players took a knee some of the Scotland players decided to join in, but obviously not everyone noticed they were doing it. However I am sure like most people that have stood through minutes silence for people they never knew (or in some cases had never heard off) I would be surprised if all of the players were actually taking the time to think about BLM / inclusivity etc and not about the first hit / game plan etc. I dont really get why so many people are rushing to tarnish a group of players who have just achieved one of the best results and performances in a many a year (I was going to say generation but its probably more than that now). 1999 or 1990 was the last time we had as good a team, and I would actually be surprised if we didn't lift the Triple Crown for the first time since 1990. Its bizzare we have to look for the perceived negatives and not just enjoy the success Edit to add -I thought Fagerson was again excellent at 8, and hopefully silenced a few doubters. Bit biggest praise for Turner, lineout was one area I thought we would struggle but his throwing was excellent pretty sure he was 100%

I dont think I have seen such a dominant display by Scotland against one of the top teams in World Rugby. Yes we have beaten Australia, South Africa and England and France recently, but this was on another level. I know Finn comes in for some criticism for some of the mistakes he made, but today I thought he was fantastic. Its was his kicking that put is into good positions all game, and I thought he controlled things brilliantly and would much rather have him at 10 than a Farrell or Sexton. I think this was a better all round performance than 2 years ago Also what a player Redpath is, first game at International level and he strolled it. I just hope we get the same level of performance next week against Wales. Next hurdle is getting the Irish hoodoo off out backs. Can you imagine the seethe on the last day if Scotland wrap up the champinship in the first game against Italy leaving the other 2 games meaningless!

vdm should have taken it before it bounced. Watching Scotland plays havoc with your nerves!

You have to ask though how would, not just Georgia, but Romania, Russia, Spain, Portugal and Germany have progressed after 20 years of 6 Nations participation and 2 pro clubs. The 6 nations need to start investing in the 2nd tier to grow the game all over Europe rather than just the same markets - there needs to be movement between the 2 to grow the game so it doesn't go stagnant

Same as last week, except McGavin on the bench for Houston? edit to add - i know things have been slow during Lockdown but surely we are out of January already?