honestly united

See Visser has decided to hang up his boots at 31

Having looked at the list of released players, Greg Tonks appears to be at a loose end these days.....

Bhatti going to Edinburgh to replace Dell, who has gone to London Irish as he cant get a game in front of Shoeman, not great all round, as i've seen London Irish have signed 2 or 3 other props over the last week or so so he might not get much game time there either. Does any have a list of Glasgow or Edinburgh signings for next year or a link for it? I know a few have been confirmed but I dont remember anyone that actually stood out.

First time in years (as last year was a bit disappointing) that I've not heard any songs prior to the semi finals, from the clips shown the better songs seem to be in the 2nd semi final. Wasn't overly impressed with anyone in the first semi, obviously Australia have spent a load of money, song is just a disney number with a bit of added Kate Bush warbling, Czech rep was ok, Iceland was decent, but apart form that all a bit samey safe stuff - hoping for better tomorrow

Disappointed that lots of Leinster didn't get injured

I was having a think and it should be either Dunbar, Dean or Scott. We have one inside centre in Johnson, Taylor can cover if he is fit to go, and then you have Horne who will be there as he can cover Stand Off as well. At outside centre we have Jones and Taylor and the lad from Northampton, and Grigg / Harris, and wing you have Graham, Seymour and Maitland and again Taylor and harris can cover as could Kinghorn, who is probably better on the wing than fullback. I actually think Kinghorn could miss out. Hogg's a definite to start, I actually think Hastings is better at FB than 10 and Maitland and Seymour are more than adequate. The make up of the 31 will be interesting, its usually along the lines of (plus who i think will go, if everyone is fit, not who I think should be picked) 5 props (2 each side plus one that can cover both) - (Nell, Dell, Bergham, Fagerson, Reid) 3 hookers - (McInally, Brown, Turner) 4 second rows (Grey, Gilchrist, Toolis, Sinner) and usually someone like harley or skinner that cover 2nd row and backs 5 back rows (Watson, Barclay, Thompson, Ritchie, Bradbury) 3 Scrum halfs (Horne, Price, Laidlaw) 2 stand off's (Russell, Hastings) 4 centres (Johnson, Jones, Taylor, Harris) 3 wings (Graham, Maitland, Seymour) 2 Full backs (Hogg, Kinghorn)

Cant think of any backs that will have any game time outwith those at Glasgow so would assume one of Jones / Steyn / McDowall / Hughes dependant on game time. Im suprised its only a 42 man training squad, given the world cup squad is going to be 31 players, and there are bound to be injuries given there are 4 warm up games, and at the tournament itself. I think I would have went for 60 player squad (ie 4 in each position) to ensure everyone was on board with game plan

I took in one of the stages when the tdf was in the UK. Picked a village on the route that seemed quite accessible, got fleeced to park my car as it was chaos, had too walk up a huge hill in the scorching sun. I got there in what I thought was plenty of time, but missed the sponsors / freebie prosession. Stood about for a good 45 minutes to an hour, with a few waves of excitement when a car came round the bend. The riders eventually appeared and flew passed in about a minute except for a few stragglers. I still get the death stare from the wife and kids if I ever mention cycling..... so probably stick to eurosport as above A mountain stage somewhere could be quite good as the peleton will be spread out more, but yeah its one of those at least you can say you've seen it if nothing else.

Thanks for the heads up, edited my post! Edit to add - Also wasn't sure on the situation with any of the youngsters so not included them

Smith, Rose and Shankland are away, while Doohan, Cadden and Miller will be back to their parent club so thats 6 that need replacing. Bell, Adams, Higgins, Geggan, Kerr, Crawford, McDaid, Forrest, Moore and Moffat are all out of contract and with the exception of Higgins you could make a case for giving new contracts to all of them, as none have looked out of place in the championship this season.

I think Bhatti will be the biggest miss (obviously Hogg and Dunbar are great players but Jackson (who has played more than Hogg last few years anyway) and Johnson (who is probably better than Dunbar now) are more than adequate replacements), and a strange one him going to Edinburgh to be stuck on the bench most weeks. Hopefully we get some decent 2nd row's in as this has been a weakness, I think we have the lad from Newcastle coming in, but we need some presence in their. Hoping we get some decent players in as we will need cover for the 20 odd players that will be away during the world cup

6 years as it was posted in 2013 surely?

Is it Heaslip on commentary? However the Irish guy is he is so one sided its unreal

Stupid from Gray leads to another Leinster try, still a long way to go but its Leinsters to lose now

am i right in thinking that 4th place goes into a play off for the last European place? So at the moment Embra vs Ospreay's unless Leinster or Munster win in Europe and both get in?

Shockingly looks like the sun making a c**t of it https://www.hmfckickback.co.uk/index.php?/topic/182506-liam-smith/

Although probably cheaper than paying him for a season while out on loan - although Im sure Hearts wanted to keep him but couldnt guarantee him any first team football this season - Smith maybe thinks they were good guys to deal with then so why not go back. Or as its the Sun it could be entirely made up....

Great servant, but as he is down to 3rd choice not a surprise. Wonder if he is retiring or will look for another club? Both Kennedy and Fowles away as well, wonder who they have lined up to come in at scrum half? Also think I must have blanked out Brown being capped. Hamilton was unlucky, got into the Scotland squad while at Leicester, gets injured at the start of his time at Edinburgh, and is now below Mata, Barclay, Watson, Bradbury and Ritchie in the pecking order, wonder if he will end up at Glasgow or be off back down south?

Scotland 7's win the bowl in HK beating Australia (semis) and Japan in the final

Kinghorn looked ok on the wing but a liability at fullbacks

I think there are advantages to both sometimes having a week off before playing a team that has just won 2 games on the bounce with big wins and high on confidence doesn't go well, on the other hand if the team has sh!tfested there way through on penalties the confidence wont be too high and energy levels low playing a team has rested up over the week. Granted it will be playing ICT twice before playing DU.

Edinburgh game was disappointing, as they should have won. For me Pyrgos lost them the game, the number of times the ball was at a back of a ruck and he was nowhere to be seen (Munster got a couple of turnovers from this) or slowed the game down so all momentum was lost. If Embra had got either price or horne last summer rather than Pyrgos I think they would have won today at a canter. As for Glasgow they seem to have gone backwards this season, and granted they have a number of players out injured, but the forwards seem disorganised, and defensively the whole team dont really seem to be following any sort of plan. I know people rave about Rennie as a coach, and at times we produce some fantastic attacking rugby, but defensively and in the forwards especially we have regressed again this season. We did look better at the start of he season, the first game against Saracens for example we looked solid, but since then the forwards especially are off the pace require to challenge in Europe.

IMHO we are a couple of wins off securing 4th as a minimum, the main thing for me is we need to get our early season form back soon to ensure we have a chance of doing something in the play offs. As others have said we win our 3 games in hand on DU we go above them in 2nd (and would put us 12 above Dunfermline) . However I dont think we should get hung up on finishing 2nd / 3rd / 4th its about winning the play off games, and sometimes it can be better to be playing and winning rather than having a week off. Either way there are 8 games to go before the play offs, and we need to have everyone at there best as with the number of midweek games its going to be a squad effort.

The Edinburgh pack today is better than the Scotland pack vs England, and is getting pushed about now by Munster in hte scrums, whereas the scrum didn't move at all s England

If you include the NCL / North Juniors / Tayside Juniors you could go down a few Tiers in the North. You would think over time we should have a Tier 5 of North, LL East and LL West and in the most likely movement across Tiers would be Tayside moving North / East and probably about Lanarkshire for the move West / East.