honestly united

For once i think i am in full agreement with tom english https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51344887

Its so frustrating as I think most people expected us to be bent over and given a good seeing too, but the forwards fronted up, and I think we had the upper hand for the most part. I think a lot of it is the players trying too hard with the silly penalties. Prices was stupid, Brown gave away another stupid penalty, Johnson the same sill barge. I thought for once today the ref was good, and didnt let the Irish away with a lot of the usual shit the do which was good to see. The positive is at least it was our own mistakes that cost us the game, and we didnt get rag dolled like we did in Japan. Of the forwards i thought everyone put in a shift, Was suprised when Nel came on, what happened to Bergham? I thought Cummings, Sutherland and Haining as the newcomers didn't look out of place, Hastings I thought was decent, Johnson was excellent. For next week we just need to trust each other more in defence rather than trying to do everything ourselves which leads to the silly penalties.

Welsh scrum woeful, only winning as they got a few penalties early as the Italians got isolated

Wales don't look great but are easily beating Italy

That will take us up to our maximum of 4 Scottish loans I'm pretty sure, means other signings must either be permanent or loans from down south 3 - Ross has gone and Houston is now fully signed

Haining starting is a big call - he's not even been mentioned squad wise nevermind starting before. Sutherland not so much, or Fagerson, but Nel not evening making the bench is. Only issue for me is there is no plan B if either Hastings gets injured, or is having a mare - only option is putting Hogg in at 10

For me he is quite similar to Forrest in that you wouldn't say he is a winger. I actually thought he would suit playing in the 4-3-3 we were playing earlier in the season as he seemed to be good at the short passing game, and has an eye for a goal

I dont know if its just me, but for the last 4 or 5 years I've gone into the 6 Nations full of optimism that this will be our year. We have usually had a really good November, Glasgow are sitting top of the Pro14, playing amazing rugby and all the players seem to be in top form. Then the first game starts, and after 10 minutes we've given away an interception try, our forwards are being bullied, and we look set to be battling with Italy for the wooden spoon. Is it wishful thinking that this year, after a woeful world cup, Glasgow have been pretty poor, the squad seems to be in disaray that we might actually have a really good 6 nations?

I think Murray & Sexton can be got at, and we should be targetting them. The can be prone to a heads gone if too much pressure is put on them. Also if we can keep the score thight, but play a fast paced game to the hour mark I think we will have the fitness to snatch the game at the end. As has been said above the bench doesn't look great so there is a chance.

Ireland announcing their team early, Ireland: J Larmour; A Conway, G Ringrose, B Aki, J Stockdale; J Sexton, C Murray; C Healy, R Herring, T Furlong; I Henderson, J Ryan; CJ Stander, J van der Flier, C Doris. Replacements: R Kelleher, D Kilcoyne, A Porter, D Toner, P O'Mahony, J Cooney, R Byrne, R Henshaw.

He did and played on Saturday I beleive

Im not seeing the big deal here, player plays game in France on Saturday, goes to Dubai for few days while Scotland are in Spain or whereever training (which he wouldn't have gone to anyway as no chance of being involved in the match day squad) . I'll be more concerned if it comes out he isn't back with the squad for the England game

I thought tidser would have been a decent signing, but going by the last few posts maybe not

Im I right in thinking we can sign loans outside the window, so maybe waiting for actual signing first before turning to them? I would assume we will make some loan signing as why else would we push through Houston signing if we didn't have them lined up. Also is anyone else surprised we paid a fee to get Houston? I was under the impression Rangers were going to free him at the end of the season, were we worried someone else might steal him first if we waited until June?

If anything Cotter would have packed his bags for him and probably blocked him from the team on Whatsapp! Obviously there may be details we dont know or never will ie was there a reason Russell decide to get that wasted he wasn't fit to make training? If it was just breaking curfew to have a few checky extra drinks I dont see too much of an issue, but staying to get that drunk you dont make training the next day is something else and we probably wont get the reasons why. My and my mates though have had a bit of a laugh at this, were of an age where being sober on a friday night before a game was frowned upon, and a hangover (fixed by a bottle of orange lucuzade) was a prerequiste to playing. Over 25 season later and I still dont like playing with a clear head!

It has to be telling either the attack coach or Townsend they have no idea what they are doing, or their tactics are dreadful. As much as Hastings has improved, Russell is the one player we cant afford to lose - we could cope with losing Nel, Gray, Watson, Price, Hogg etc as we have decent cover, but this is a game changer

There is probably some perspective needed - for a few years it was Glasgow and Leinster as the best 2 teams in the Pro 12, with Glasgow playing all the rugby and Leinster grinding out wins. Now (not looking at the current league table but last 3 or 4 years finishing positions) you would say Glasgow are still top 4 Pro 14 with Leinster the best and Glasgow on a par with Munster and Ulster with Edinburgh gone from perenial mid table / lower half mediocrity to probably pushing to get into that top 4 teams.

I think Glasgow peaked with the Pro 12 win - that was a special team that just clicked, lost the final the previous year so knew whatto expect next time round. Regressed is probably harsh but fair. Harsh as we were never going to replace Russell or Hogg we also lost but have since returned Nakarawa, DTH & Nico. We were always fragile up front, but there are signs this is improving slowly. For me when Rennie came in he inherited a free flowing, run in tries from anywhere team, that lost games when they got dominated upfront. I dont see that having changed at all, in fact i think its got worse. I would have preferred to have kept the high intensity, attacking rugby, but have added a bit of steel or streetwise-ness not to do something stupid in our own 22. From the outside looking in that was what was missing and still is. From me Scotland at least are a different beast under Townsend, and very much like him as a player can either be majestic or utterly frustrating. We went i think 2 years without losing at home, a Calcutta cup win, and then a draw that have been some of hte best performances every (or the 2nd game the worst and best half of rugby ever) we've beaten everyone except NZ. But we've also been dreadfull away from home, and had a poor World Cup, so think he needs a solid 6 nations or maybe time for a change

Nakarawa makes his first start at blindside against Sale https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51151174

As much as I hate Sarries, I dont know what they are suposed to do this season. They got caught out after the season had started, if they released anyone then they would have to pay up the contract which counts towards the salary cap anyway so makes no difference to the total. The only way round it would be if they could offload players to other clubs and not have to pay the remainder of the contract but thats not as easy to do mid season as players would probably not want to take a drop in earnings, and most other clubs are at the full limit of the cap anyway so dont have the room to bring expensive players in. Edit to add - really good to se Richie Gray back next season - been out in France for a good few season, then bringing back what he's learned to Glasgow. Im hoping the likes of Hogg and Russell do the same - good few years away earning a decent wage and learning somewhere else then seeing out there carear helping bring through the youngsters

I think the issue is we are stuck in the middle ground. Any player who would want to sign a longer contract (ie 2 or 3 years) with us is probably going to be someone we wouldn't want to sign. Imagine if we had 6 or 7 players signed on 2 or 3 year contracts that turned out not to be good enough = we would be paying their wages and either getting relegated, or paying the additional for replacements and putting the club in debt. The only chance we have for longer contracts is when we / if we sign lads from the academy. Getting Ecrepont of a long deal is good for both parties. However for every Harvie & Rose (who took a season or so to come good) that we sign up after leaving a top division side as a youngster, there is also a Kevin Cawley Edit to add, when we first signed Shankland, how many people would have been happy if we offered him a 3 year deal? in hindsight it would have been good, but if he had flopped like he did at the majority of clubs before can you imagine where we would have been.

A few strange choices in amongst the usual suspects Front Row as expected - Dell, Nel, Fagerson Brown, McInally and Turner pick themselves Bhatti, Bergham & Sutherland probably the best of the rest - if Reid had gone to Glasgow rather than the Bulls he may have been an option but there is no standout player missing out 2nd Row - Grey, Cummings and Toolis are by far the best 3 - Gilchrist doesn't bring enough, Craig i've heard good things about but never seen play so can comment, other than he only has a handfull of games for Gloucester - hopefully him and Gordon are just there for experience and not expected to be playing. If the other Grey wanted back in the squad he should be there. Back row - apart from Zander, I would have Matt Fagerrson down as Glasgows best player this season (blip against La Rochelle aside) so dissapointed he isnt in the squad, and I think he suits the way Scotland want to play. It seems though that Townsend is after a big battering ram no.8 now, and after going through Strauss and Thompson, which isn't really Fagersons game. I dont remember seeing Haining play but he is another SH import of Scottish ancestry playing second fiddle to Mata at 8. There was no fanfare when he arrived, or when he was at Bristol so cant say im excited to see him start. De Preez has always been ok, but nothing special. I like the look of Crosbie so good inclusion, but suprised at Gordon getting in the squad 9&10 pick themselves really as does 15 - although was really impressed by Bryce vs Exeter so may be one to keep an eye on. Centres - assume Grigg is still injured hence why not in the team, Horne & Taylor being dropped is a suprise, not that I think they are that good, just a lot of coaches seem to rate them. Johnson / Scott at inside and Jones / Hutchinson outside are fairly similar players so. Bennett must have been there or there abouts, but you have Harris / Steyn that can cover wing and centre so probably justifiable. Wing - tagive? McGuigan? Both would get no where near starting for Glasgow - surely we have better wingers than that available?

Poite in particular, and the frnech refs in general never seem to give us anything. But on to the match, best performance of the season from Glasgow. IF that team had turned up against La Rochelle in the last game we would be in great position going into the last game against Sale, not whinging about poor refereeing

The big issue with this trilogy is that you had different people writing different parts, so the whole thing ends up being disjointed. If they plan on having another trilogy, then surely they need to have one person, if not write, at least have creative control over the whole 3 movies so at least there is a coherent story over the piece. On episode 9 it was ok. As they went with Palpatine, it would have been better to find out he was behind everything later, cut down on the time finding objects and bobbing about. Some good moments for the fanboys (me included...) with Lando, Han, Luke and Wedge all making an appearance, some quality scenes - esp. the fight on the deathstar with Ben walking through the wave, and I thought Richard E Grant was excellent. Palpatine wanting Rey to kill him to go over to the darkside made sense as it was exactly the same with Luke in RotJ. On the downside, the lightning taking out the ships was ridiculous (1 you could see, but not an entire fleet miles away form where he was) , and Lando and Chewy leaving to go and get back up at the same time as every one else leaves, but arrive 10 minutes after they did while going round hte whole galaxy round up troops. Passable, I thought it was better than TLJ, but not a patch on Rouge one, or the Mandalorian for that matter

I'm ok with that. Btw was Matt Taylor not being touted as the new Glasgow coach few weeks back? Obviously that's not happening now, so who takes over from Rennie? Its Danny Wilson thats taking over from Rennie - but this is looking like a proper clear out at Scotland after the world cup To save another post, Kebble, Price and Tagive are the only changes for Glasgow for the 2nd Edinburgh game