honestly united

It's been an utterly shambolic few days for the Welsh, which is nice. The whole thing seems to have stemmed from Ospreys being unsure of their future, both in financial terms and of their tenancy at the Liberty stadium. You would have thought that if any region needed replacing, it would be the consistently shite Dragons, Dragons are fully owned by the WRU (after they nearly went bust), Ospreays are part private hence why they are looking to merge with Scarlets (after Cardiff knocked them back)

Just as a quick example of players at Glasgow and Edinburgh who should / could be getting more game time as they are in and around the Scotland Squad (not an exhaustive list just my picks) Edinburgh Callum Hunter Hill 22, Scotland u18 & U20 - 2 years at Glasgow (1 game) (7 on loan at London Scottish) then moved to Edinburgh - 10 games in 2 years Lewis Carmichael 23, - Scotland u18 & U20 - 3 season 27 games (and 2 games for Scotland) Rory Sutherland 26, 5 seasons 53 games, (and 3 for Scotland) Chris Dean 25, 5 seasons 66 games Damian Hoyland 25, 5 seasons 48 games (1 Scotland) James Jonhstone 28, 18 games (spent 2012-2017 with the 7's squad) Darcy Graham 21, 18 games over 2 seasons Blair Kinghorn 22, 64 games over 5 seasons (9 Scotland) jamie ritchie 22, 48 games over 5 season for Edinburgh (4 Scotland) Magnus Bradbury is 23 and only played 47 game over 4 seasons, 4 for Scotland Glasgow Grant Stewart 24, 10 games over 2 seasons George Turner 26, 12 games in 5 seasons at Edinburgh, then 18 over 2 seasons at Glasgow plus 5 scotland caps Alex Allan 27, 1 game in a season at Sale, 5 games in 2 seasons at Edinburgh, then 86 games in 5 seasons at Glasgow Jamie Bhatti 25, 23 games in 3 seasons D'arcy Rae 24 - 49 games in 5 seasons Adam Ashe 25, 34 games in 8 season, 8 games for Scotland Matt Fagerson 20, 12 games in 3 seasons, 3 for Scotland Matt Smith 22, 17 games in 4 seasons George Horne, 23 - 36 games in 4 seasons, (15 for London Scottish on Loan) 4 for Scotland Ali Price 25, 42 games in 6 seasons 18 for Scotland Adam Hastings 22, 12 games for Bath, then 19 for Glasgow over 2 seasons Stafford McDowell 21, 5 games for Glasgow over 2 seasons. Rory Hughes 26, 38 games over 6 seasons Also they had the opportunity to set up a proper semi pro league but have instead came up with the abomination of the Super 6 where clubs are supposed to pay players yet are only going to have less than 10 home fixtures

We are bringing in foreign players as the hope is they will still be there during international weekends when they lose the majority of the starters. Dell is off to London Irish next season as he isn't first choice at Edinburgh and Dunbar has been punted to Newcastle as Glasgow have Johnson, Jones, Grigg, Horne and McDowell at centre. We are struggling at the position above as youngsters aren't getting a chance to play and develop as their is a bottleneck above them and only the exceptional players (Hogg, Grey, Russell, Fagerson) get game time at 19/20, most young players are coming in at 24/25 and hardly having played a game. It was also help Glasgow and Edinburgh if the Scottish internationals were spread around 3 teams so they would be losing 10/12 players rather than 15/18 every international.

because we only have 2 pro teams so only 30 players are starting every week. On SA teams in the Pro 14 the quote I saw was 2 from Bulls, Shark, Lions or possible 2 Currie Cup teams. More SA teams are most likely as they have the players and also can bring in money from TV deals, which at the end of the day any expansion is only about more money for the existing teams

Pro 14 will go through a another big shake up in a few years times (I think the TV deals have another 2 or 3 years to run i think) with talk of another 2 SA teams (SA to pull out of SA as they are propping up NZ and Aus with the TV deal and 4 best teams in Pro 14), a shuffle of the Welsh teams, an Italian team moving to Rome (if they are even still involved) and teams from tier 2 european countries (Georgia, Spain etc) all mooted. IMHO the SRU should be pitching for a 3rd Scottish team now so its on the radar in the upcoming reshuffle

Ok so big game coming up this week against Wales (and im over excited as I will be making the long trip up to Murrayfield for this one). Good to have Nel, Watson, Russell and Skinner back in the squad, so will be interesting to see what Townsend does. Im going with the following (thanks to the BBC....) One change to the above will be Price instead of Horne who i believe is still injured, with a bench of Fagerson, Brown, Allan, Gilchrist, Fagerson, Laidlaw, Hastings, Kinghorn. I actually like Grigg as a player for Glasgow but he falls into the Harley / Horne camp of being good at club level, but not quite having enough for international level, I have been quite impressed with McDowall when he has played for Glasgow so we may as well throw him in and see how he gets on. There's not many games now before the world cup so better to get him a run out now. Kinghorn on the bench as he covers the back 3, but dont trust him defensively for a full game. I think Townsend will play Skinner at 6 - but given Wales play 2 opensides (and Tipuric I rate as the best openside in the world since McCaw retired) we need more pace their.

Don't think he is saying anything everyone didn't already. Apart from maybe Gilchrist being ahead of Grey. Watson and Hardie both add a bit of bite when there playing, but agreed you dont see it from anyone else. I put it down to all the young players are stuck in the academy, not scrapping to get a game at club level

I think it will stay, its only the USA that would move the the rugby championship (Argentina use their B team mainly club players not with the Jaguares), so the US might do the same, or open up the competition for the next country down - either Paraguay or Columbia. The whole World League started out as a great idea - top 12 ranked teams in the world play each other once (11 games over the year) either as part of the 6N's or Rugby Championship and the Summer & Autumn test windows are used for inter tournament matches. 13-24 do the same (using ARC / Pacific tournament / REC matches) with the bottom club of 1-12 changing places with top club 13-24 every year. The problem was that the current top 12 includes Georgia, Fiji and Japan and Italy are down in 15. So for the tournament to work you would have to replace Italy with Georgia in the 6N (or expand to 7 teams) and include Japan and Fiji in the Rugby Championship. Japan are good to go as already in Super Rugby, but they dont want to include Fiji as they dont bring any money (the same argument that Georgia aren't included in the 6N's - if Spain or Germany were sitting above Italy you can be sure they would be included without question.) So to try and boost income the US are included over Fiji and the 6N's doesn't get touched to keep them happy - oh and there is no changes to the teams for 12 years!!! So the likes of Georgia, Romania, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Canada, Uruguay and Namibia miss out on playing the top teams outside of World Cups. At present the 2nd tier would be a revised REC (Italy, Romania, Spain, Russia, Belgium and Netherlands) and another 6 teams of USA, Canada, Uruguay, Namibia, Samoa and Tonga which would be an interesting tournament

2 interesting stories in the news at the moment, Georgia in talks over getting a Pro 14 team https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47388295 and the welsh regions being in dissary and talks of merging or moving teams https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47368262 If the SRU are serious about Scotland challenging for the 6N's we need more players playing as first choice for their clubs and we need more strength in depth to give us options when the inevitable injuries happen. Given there are changes afoot the SRU need to be pushing for 3rd club side. Leaving aside the arguments of where to put it, we need more players playing at a decent level. You just look at the current Scotland team, you have Russell and Hogg out injured, and apart from Kinghorn and Hastings you dont have any other options playing regularly (with the exception of Jackson and Weir who are out of favour - good clubs players but probably not top international class) Its the same all through the team - 2nd and 3rd choice scrum halfs are sharing game time at Glasgow. 2nd and 3rd choice hookers are sharing game time at Glasgow. Dell is a first choice prop but is 2nd choice at Edinburgh behind Schoeman, Bergham and Nel are sharing the jersey at Edinburgh (or Bergham gets a game when Nel is injured which is quite a bit). In the centres You have Jones, Johnson, Grigg and Horne all at Glasgow (add Dunbar until recently and McDowall was also in the training squad and at Edinburgh it was Bennett and Scott, and Dean and Johnstone only got game time as they were injured - and both are now in the Scotland Squad. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh are running with huge squads as they lose so many players in the international windows. This could be reduced with a 3rd team sharing the internationals. Given the welsh budget (£19m a year between the 4 regions) you are probably looking at least and extra £4m a year to run an additional team.

Maybe I missed it but did they ever mention what happened to Haynes' wife? I have a recollection they said she was dead but cant remember if they did. I was the same I assumed the son would look into the address further.

Matthew McConaughey was the other Edit to add as has been pointed out already!!

Was in Cardiff last year and the majority of the welsh fans were fine and we had a good laugh with them on the Friday and Saturday before and after the game, the majority, like most fans are just there to see a good game, have a good day out and if there team win all the better. . To be fair there were only a few w*nk*rs all weekend, one was Irish, there were 2 scottish lads falling about on the dance floor in the pub, and about 7-8 prawn sandwich types from Bristol that were sat behind us at the game (just there for the atmosphere, dont you know....). Dont find them anywhere near as bad as the Irish, but I think the price of tickets is stopping the average fan going, and your getting more of these nonces turning up as it seen as trendy to go along as its a big occasion Onto Scotland and apart from Hastings and Price I wouldn't give anyone pass marks. We should have started Hardie rather than Bradbury as we had no openside to get to the breakdown first, the slow ball makes Laidlaw look even more ponderous, making Horne's job even more dificult. It really reminded me of England 2 years ago, and Wales last year where there are so many off days your never going to win. Given we were missing Hogg, Russell and Jones, we need a big performance from the forwards and none stood up. I dont like singling out Grey and McInally, but they were really quiet and as 2 of our best forwards we struggled without big games from them. I thought Strauss was ok, Dell and Bergman average, and Graham at least added something when he came on, which Toolis didn't. In the backs it was much as expected, Kinghorn looks like the really rally quick lad that you always just shove on the wing, who when he has got the ball looks amazing, but in defence he somehow slows down so much the props get back quicker. Obvious he doesn't want to be putting in tackles. The 10, 12 &13 should have been better as they have played together for 3 plus years at Glasgow, but the ball was so slow they never got a chance. No suprise that we started to carve out breaks when price came on. Plenty of work to be done over the next 2 weeks before Wales, at the moment I am just glad we have already played and beaten Italy as at the moment I wouln't be confident of taking anything from a game against them.

Good to see the other Fagerson back as well

Pretty much as expected, only question mark was at 10 and Hastings isn't getting a game for Glasgow at the moment

I've thought the interviewer is the kidnapped girl, trying to find out why no one found her before she escaped

This is who we will be picking from for the French game Scotland squad Forwards: Alex Allan (Glasgow Warriors), Adam Ashe (Glasgow Warriors), Simon Berghan (Edinburgh), Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors), Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh), Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors); Luke Crosbie (Edinburgh), Allan Dell (Edinburgh), Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh), Gary Graham (Newcastle Falcons), Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors), John Hardie (Newcastle Falcons), Rob Harley (Glasgow Warriors), Stuart McInally (Edinburgh), Willem Nel (Edinburgh), D'Arcy Rae (Glasgow Warriors), Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh), Josh Strauss (Sale Sharks), Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors), Ben Toolis (Edinburgh), George Turner (Glasgow Warriors), Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors). Backs: Chris Dean (Edinburgh), Dougie Fife (Edinburgh), Darcy Graham (Edinburgh), Nick Grigg (Glasgow Warriors), Rory Hughes (Glasgow Warriors), Sam Johnson (Glasgow Warriors), Chris Harris (Newcastle Falcons), Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors), Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors), Pete Horne (Glasgow Warriors), James Johnstone (Edinburgh), Lee Jones (Glasgow Warriors), Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh), Greig Laidlaw (Clermont Auvergne), Sean Maitland (Saracens), Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors), Henry Pyrgos (Edinburgh), Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors), Duncan Weir (Worcester Warriors).

Russell being out may be a huge loss. Or it may actually be to our advantage that we are forced to play a more forward oriented game. French backs look dangerous, their forwards less so.

Ntamack Jr moved from centre, to the bench to fly half. Seems strange releasing the team this early

Its not a case for staying, its just a general question are players / clubs happy that they will be at the same tier, with all other rules being the same, yet WRJFA and ERJFA will be fining players to pay for TJ et al, whereas the rest of the leagues in the pyramid dont fine players

Another question I had just thought of is currently there is the Alex Jack cup played for by non-licencsed clubs in the south for a chance to get in the Scottish Cup. Is this going to be opened up to Junior clubs to give them a shot at the Scottish Cup? You could argue the Junior scottish cup is similar, but you have licenced clubs taking part in that who already get access. Also not sure if there are any junior players reading, but what is there take on the fact that from next season you could all now be on a par with senior leagues, same disciplinary procedures etc, except if you get sent of in for example a ERJFA game you could get fined, yet if you moved and played EoS you wouldn't. So in theory you would be worse off ERJFA?

You have to hope Russell is back soon as there is no one close in the squad at the moment. Hastings is still learning and prone to mistakes, Horne is struggling to be international class centre nevermind fly half, Weir is seemingly playing well at Worcester but is not even in the squad. The forwards are boosted by Fagerson and Turner coming back, for me front 5 stays as is, but the back row is still a concern. Harley being sent to play for Glasgow you would assume he isn't in contention to start (given he has played pretty much every week for Glasgow this year). It looks like either Hardie or Graham come in at open side and Ritchie moved to blind, or Ashe comes in at blind side. Rennie was bigging him and Grigg up after the Cardiff game. You would assume Johnson and Grigg will be the starting centres (fingers crossed its not Harris - i still dont know what Townsend see's in him as I think he brings nothing to the team) and Kinghorn slotting in at full back. Although Townsend was talking Maitland up at 15 so you never know.

Has there been any discussion on what happens if a west club (ie EK / BSC / Edusport) is relegated. Are the West Juniors going to accept them in there top tier (i remember this being a sticking point before), and will the clubs be happy for the players now to be fined for disciplinay matters?

It probably is only a yellow, but you could bet if the shoe was on the other foot the Irish would have had the Scottish player cited, and banned by now.

What's the point tbh We've had players cited and banned on much less evidence after games - we need to start doing the same and stand up for ourselves - we seem to get the rough end of the stick a lot of times in disciplinary matters, and it appears we just sit back to much and take it. If we did we might start getting away with more like the Irish and Welsh do. On another note, the proposed world league concept (were the top 10, then teams 11-20 etc) would play each other once a year, and there would be a single TV deal / pool to maximise income looks to be scrapped as the 6N countries have gone against the agreement signed last month and will be agreeing their own TV deal to cover 6N's, Summer Tours and AI's. Really sticking a massive 2 fingers up to the SH countries and all the Tier 2 countries that had hopes of getting a slice of the pie.

Was Thom (or was it his brother Max) not also pro golfer?