honestly united

Ayr were part time in the first season of the premier league the only team out of the 10.

Huge amounts of panic this morning with reports of the wales game being postponed to 31st Oct along with the France Ireland, but thankfully its still going ahead as planned. Not that it would have stopped my trip to Cardiff, but the welsh fans are usually a decent bunch and although the game itself is usually a dissapointment going to the stadium keeps you out hte pub for a bit! I agree on Haining, I was skeptical when first selected but thought he was very god against Ireland and put in a better shift against France. He's the kind of hard running ball carrier we have been crying out for for years - I cant rememeber the last proper 8 we had - Strauss flattered to deceive, before that you have to go back to Jason White and he was more of a blindside.

I think today's performance was much more assured and professional, played the rugby in the right area's, mistakes were cut out, defense was strong and we took our chances when they came. If we could sort the line out we would be a really good team. Im hopeful we can turn Wales over next week and finishing the campaign with 3 wins, and 2 bonus point loses is probably than most would have expected after the World Cup and the Russel debacle. Yes we got lucky with the stupidity of the French prop, but we still created and finsihed off 2 really good tries, and one lucky one, but the amount of times the bounce goes against us you take one when you get it.

If Hutchinson is out, we have no cover for 10. You put Weir on the bench as cover he can only play 10, and Hastings could only really move to 15. Steyn is the ideal option as can cover centre and wing so you have all positions in the backs covered. I think Jaco van der walt joins the ranks of kilted springboks in August along with VDM so gives us another option at 10

Haining in for Bradbury, in the backrow, and Skinner and Weir an then bench, otherwise same as last time Edit to add Gilchrist for Toolis also

Only when they choose to be relegated to the WoSL

Glasgow were really poor last night, first 10 minutes had some hopeless kicking and general messing about in our own 22 that gifted leinster 2 tries. Pete Horne aside I thought the rest of our backs looked really poor, and our forwards were ok. Apart from the first scrum, we seemed to hold our own and its hard to defend when it looks like Leinster are running on to forward passes around the breakdown. I think I would be starting Jackson at 10 rather than Horne but we definetly need another 10 for next season

I think its fairly certain the Italy - England game will be called off also so it could throw the whole summer and autumn test series into chaos, unless they schedule the games for outside the window Benetton are already a game down and both italians home games this week are off in the Pro14. They will get a chance to catch up during the Euro Quarters and Semi weekends and there are no league games the weeks of the 7th and 14th, so wont have an impact unless things are still being called off weeks of 28th March, unless the games on the 21st are against one of the teams left in Europe

Although in that case you are only mingling with a few hundred people in the pun instead of 60,000 at the Aviva! It would be great if they just awarded the points to Italy, can you imagine the tears over that. This better not spread, ive got tickets for Cardiff on the last day - Im torn between will there be a proper tantrum, or would it be celebration at a 2nd weekend in Cardiff as not wanting to waste the tickets!

I dont think Price is the issue, its Hastings positioning. He is lying really deep and most of the time the forwards are in the way (where they should be if he was playing flat to be fair), so Price has no option but to give them the ball to just rumble up as they weren't expecting it. It does look like a classic backs and forwards have been training separetely and no one has told hte other how they are going to play! Russell always played very flat and Hasting does for Glasgow and anytime we look like doing anything interesting is when he is flat. I can only assume its the tactics and he is being told to stay deep but as a whole its just not clicking - it just looks like nobody is on the same page in attack, whereas in defence its clear everyone knows exactly what they should be doing. Anyone else feeling really dirty about being glad England beat the Irish? Both Biggar and Sexton being put in their place was excellent to see. Hopefully we can get a decent result against the French (I would take us winning but France with the 2 BP's to ensure they are still in pole position for the Championship) and would set us up nicely for the last weekend in Wales where a win could see us finishing 3rd

With the centres we had then I don't I wouldnt have passed to them either [emoji16]

Scarlets was an odd one ending up being out on loan at Harlequins, but he must have done ok at Stade to get a deal at Lyon for hte rest of this year, and a contract at Exeter

I had been really interested to see where this would go but they have gone for less historical accuracy and killing off the best characters. I'll stick with it as we are 6 season in but don't think I'll watch another if it doesn't pick up

You always get dividing line issues when building a pyrmaid top down, rather than bottom up. If it had been done properly from the start you have a number of local leagues, at the bottom tier. each local league promotes into a regional league. ie a South Ayrshire FA should govern local amatuers leagues etc, a full Ayrshire FA would govern semi pro up to a point then taken over by a West Scotland FA then into LL. Then every club from Amatuer up to Professional is firstly asscoiated with their local FA which then ties them into the associations above in hte pyramid. It dosnt necessarily have to be done on council lines. It may be worth trying to resurrect in some way the old local FA's and use that as a deciding factor in where clubs go - ie if you want to go senior you first have to join a local FA as an associate member, until such times as you go through licensing and become a full member.

Glasgow with a 2nd signing for next season with Argentian prop Pierietto signing from Exeter. Still young at 25, but 20 caps already. Only moved to Exeter on a short term deal after the world cup due to injuries. Hopefully he is adding to the squad and as cover for Fagerson and not as a replacement.

what has happened to Johnny Gray, I thought he played the full 80 minutes on saturday?

Unless i've missed something we've been fairly woefull for the entire 20 years of the 6 nations. Having spent 6 years of Williams and Hadden where all we got to cheer was the odd Paterson or Parks penalty and stumbling past Italy to avoid wooden spoons. We went what seemed like years without scoring tries (with backs that would struggle to make a pass to a team mate), and against everyone except Italy keeping the score close was seen as an achievement. We started under Cotter to see an improvement but over 3 years he only managed 3 wins in the 6 Nations, and also suffered a wooden spoon in the middle of his reign. Under Townsend we appeared to turn a corner, with 3 wins in his first season in charge, before an utter collapse against England, last year we seemed to regress as although attaking wise we looked good in spells defensively we looked weak. The world cup was poor, as we struggled as we didn't really seem to know how we wanted to play and there was a mixture of the quick tempo game, interspersed with rediculous kicking and generally looking directionless. This year we appear to be a really solid team, and at least we dont look like getting humilated, which is nice for a change, however attacking wise were just not at the races compared to the last few years. Hopefully a good win againsts Italy will give us a bit of confidence for the last few games. France although topping the table so far are beatable, especially at Murrayfield, and having seen Ireland beating Wales by quite a distance I think we have a decent chance of beating them. I think the suprising thing about the Finn situation is in terms of playing rugby, you would expect them to be on the same wave length as they both played a similar style, and at Glasgow, and the start of his time for Scotland, it was as if Toony was building a team to suit how Russel played (obviosuly there was a whole set of backs that suited the style of play but having a stand off that can pull the strings is the starting point of the whole game plan). To hear they dont actaully speak is quite shocking, but is maybe just the way Toony is as a coach. I always got the impression that he was coaching more of a heads up play whats in front of you style, with the players given responsibility to make decisions rather than anything to rigid. You do wonder if he is quite controlling and its the reason a number of the senior players who didn't quit after the world cup, were dropped (im thinking Wilson is quite outspoken) THe likes of Hardie and Dunbar being pushed out makes you wonder if they too were querstioning of Toonies methods. Its interesting that the drink ban was seemingly the senior player leadership group that made the decison. WIth Russel and Maitland weren't there you wonder who it is. Im assuming Hogg, McInally, Gray but not sure who else is invloced in that.

Drinan with his first goal for Ayr

there would be absolute scenes if the were kicked out of Europe on top of the relegation. I get the impression they are focused now on winning it to prove a point, so the seethe if they were kicked out of that and essentially playing for nothing for the rest of the season would be brilliant!

Ah yes, forgot as Bergham was picked but dropped out last minute

Scotland same as last week, except Bradbury starts, with Haining replacing du Preez on the bench

Last year Jones got the tactics spot on in the first half. Scotland set up to deal with big runners close to the breakdown, which is Englands normal game, but Jones changed it to attack wider and we had nobody to defend as everyone was set up defending close to the breakdown, and we were 2 or 3 tries down before we changed things on the park defensively, nevermind how the attack was going. Looking at the England team I dont htink they know how they want to play. its a small backrow by normal England standards, but having 6 forwards on the bench it looks like they are wanting to play a forward dominated game. For Scotland I am expecting the same team as last time (although maybe starting McInally for Brown) and as long as the forwards put in the same shift as last time against Ireland then we stand a chance of winning

I had thought he must have got the time wrong, just due to the way he was celebrating when he kicked it out. If there was over a minute left there is no way you would kick it dead. You would go for the lineout as much less likely to give away a penalty or try at a lineout on the 22 compared to a scrum on your own 5.

You could also take the view that it is the exact same squad that finished the prep from the Ireland game, so maybe going for continuity from the last couple of weeks carrying over into the England game. Its more likely we will see him back after the England game if at all, although how long you can ignore one of hte few world class players we have if we lose 2 on the bounce