honestly united

at the moment the play offs are 2 Scottish, 2 Irish, 1 Welsh and 1 SA thats proper seethe from the Welsh and those that thought the SA's would bring nothing. Plus Ulster. Pleasing

Just realised we have Nigel Owens reffing tomorrow. I would say that lifts my level of optimism that we can get some sort of result as Owens doesn't pander to the favourites normally (unlike the majority of the Irish refs) so we should get a fairly reffed game for a change

This is a strange one, didn't the SRU pay for temporary stands to be in place for the next few years? Has there been some sort of falling out?

There was talk a few weeks ago of SRU buying Worcester also

I too used to like Ireland (the whole celtic cousins thing) but since the provinces started winning in Europe they are now insufferable. Internationally I dont really hate Wales, its more individuals like Gatland and Jonathan Davies I hate. Have a bit of a soft spot for Argentina, Georgia and Romania as basically they were (Argentina until recently) left to get on with developing the game in their countries and never allowed in to the big competitions like 6 nations and Super Rugby / Championship even though they are more than capable of competing. For all rugby goes on about it ethos of fairness and its a game for everyone, they dont have try and keep their on little boys clubs cliques together and exclude others. Same goes for the PI's etc, always love it when one of the so called Tier 2 countries beats the big boys.

Reports that Nel has been training this week with Scotland and hopefully fit for England game.

I think as things stand would be good enough segregation of teams that want to progress and those that dont / cant afford to. Club licence required for entry to LL / HL would keep those interested in playing locally only in either EoS, SoS, WoS, NCL, North / East / West Junior top league. Further up the SPFL there are already miniumum requirements so those could be kept as at present I dont think are prohibative (now the 10k all seater has been removed) Below that for entry into other levels could be set as required - ie minimum changing facilities and fenced off pitch for ammy teams wanting in at the bottom of the leagues mentioned above.

I take it you have forgotten the games he played there previously? It was horrible to watch big forwards running over the top of him for fun, he's to small to play a full match there. Plus he isn't actually that good a 10 which is why he went back to scrum half as soon Jackson came on the scene Sent from my Redmi 4X using Pie and Bovril mobile app

Not had a chance to review this years entries - im usually at least read through bio's by now at least!

Solid performance after another poor start. I think the difference today was the work rate in the forwards compared to last week. Against Wales I thought the likes of Gray and Barclay, who usually have huge games for Scotland, were fairly average, and it wasn't helped that du Preez did nothing, and Reid and Welsh, although solid in the scrums, dont get around the park as much as Fagerson / Dell / Marfo etc so the difference in defence was noticeable. On Russell Im more dissapointed that Townsend hasn't got him playing. They are / were similar players and you would have thought Townsend would be able to get the best out of him. Maybe though that is the problem that Townsend is just telling him to play and not to keep things simple. I think that we should keep Laidlaw at 9 for England game, as the difference when Price came on in terms of tempo was huge and could be just what is need if its a tight game. Will be interesting to see who is back fit, I think Marfo and Dunbar are back, maybe Fagerson so could be big changes to come.

Just watched the Glasgow game, conditions looked horrible, but still far to many dropped balls and knock ons in the forwards. Backs looked fairly good, without overly threatening. Dont think we ever looked like losing, and Dragons spent most of the 2nd half in their own 22 but we couldnt hold on to the ball long enough to get the score. And what was the carry on with the first conversion, if we had got that we would have won!

As they have in senior football, yet the pyramid is being branded as such

I had thought Thomson would have got more game time, wonder if Townsend rated him but Rennie doesnt

Surely the Juniors is just a much a closed shop? Surely the juniors should be showing the way and opening up the bottom tiers of their leagues to the winners of amateur leagues to show how a forward thinking pyramid should work?

Very strong Glasgow side, good to see the likes of Kebble and Hastings back - things looking good for the run in to the end of the season.

Did she not ref one of the European games a few weeks back?

Seemingly McGuigan out, and Richie Gray and Taylor not fit enough to join up with the squad. Not sure were we are on Dunbar, but think we have Berghan back for the French game from suspension

Just finished re-watching the Scotland game, really not sure what to make of it. In the cold light of day, watching it back, you can see what we are trying to do but its one of those days where nothing has come off, whereas if the last year, apart from the England & Fiji games we have played well and the little flicks have mostly come off. I think the problem is we have no plan b, we cant slow games down or control them. In the forwards, apart from Watson we had no ball carriers, Gray and Barclay had really quite games by their standard and Toolis & Du Preez were non existant. For me the worst part was the defence, there were numerous occasions where the welsh first receiver was just popping the ball on to a runner, and we had no defenders covering. This is a standard play (Scotland use it all the time) and we seemed incapable of defending it. Im not sure where we go for next week, probably will depend on who is back from injury. Dunbar is a must if fit, we need more up front, but dont see who would make a difference apart from if RIchie is fit, unless we go cap in hand to Strauss,. We know that the French will look to batter up the middle and it could look men against boys stuff again. Edit to add we are now down to 7th in the world rankings, with Wales and SA going above us, and the 7's only managed to win one game all weekend, although we did make it through to the Cup Quarters on points difference

Got back from Cardiff yesterday, still not plucked up the courage to rewatch the game to see if it was as bad sober as it was through a drunken haze. We seemed to start quite brightly but the 2 tries we gifted them took all the wind out or sails

As far as I am aware there is no clamour from teams in the north to get access to HL. Again if there was either give a entry to NCL champ and expand the area NCL covers.

It's not, as has been said numerous times, the SFA are not going to set up a wos league until they have expression of interest from enough club's to set one up. The sos league for a season should be a minor inconvenience to get to the LL, then who knows how far Talbot could go

I thought they had both just come back from injury, Bennett played for Embra a couple of weeks ago, and thought Taylor played in Sarries last euro game? Also cant wait for the game, will be in Cardiff tomorrow taking in the Blues Vs London Irish Sent from my Redmi 4X using Pie and Bovril mobile app

Im suprised at moving Jones to inside centre, rather than playing Taylor there. Maybe the thinking is that Parkes at 12 is a weak link for Wales? And Harris coming in as well infront of Bennett and Taylor. Has he maybe not gone Horne at 12 and Jones at 13 so he has Horne on the bench to cover 10 if required? Forwards are about where I thought it would be, except I thought Bhatti would start, although coming of the bench he may have more impact about the park.

I am in Cardiff for the weekend, looks like we are taking in the Cardiff London Irish game on the Friday night as well. Can't wait!!

I think Wales are there for the taking, as long as we dont implode completely in the scrums and win a decent amount of our own ball we will win. Even living on scraps Hogg, Russell, Price, Jones and Seymour can all create tries out of nothing, and generally our defence has been fairly sound when we are switched on. Im sure we get the likes of Bergman, Marfo and Fagerson back in for the last 3 games, so a win vs Wales, and we go into the French game on a high (and hopefully the Irish demorlaise the French) we could do well.