honestly united

The Pacific islands get next to nothing for playing November tests, all the money goes to the host countries, some of the islanders playing for England are organising a whip round amongst the team to help pay the Fijians

For me the standalone movies have been as good if not better than the avengers or civil wR movies as there has been more emphasis on the characters rather than big action sequences. Dr Strange has been one of my favourites for example whereas age of ultron probably least favourite. Granted not as intense as Logan but still I feel got the mix of character and action spot on

Just noticed, on the Scotland front, that we now only have McInally, Turner and Cochrane as the hookers, I dont rate the first 2 (Turner is good in the loose, but not great at the set piece) and dont think I have seen Cochrane play yet.

Sutherland called up as well, Ford out too

Think he has just fallen that far down the pecking order. Was thinking the same myself, but yeah Tovey is ahead of him at least

You cant blame the SFA for the standard of the league, as its the best they can do with the current teams they have. Yes the juniors would improve the standad below LL (and the LL for that matter) which would be good for everyone. Thats the whole point, if the juniors joined en masse then there could be a discussion on a revised structure below the LL. If 10 or 15 west clubs decided they wanted to jump ship this summer, then there would be an argument for a WoS league, but if there is one then they would have to join the SoS. Although im sure an Auchinleck or any other top junior club could put up with one season in the SoS to get into the LL if Licensed.

It's a weakened Leinster side as well so I think it will be an interesting game

But being in the Juniors already is not a glass ceiling? Or more likely a huge concrete ceiling with no way through it and no where to go. At least in a pyramid if clubs want to progress they can do, if they dont they can stay in local leagues. Your complaint is that if you joined the pyramid, which at EoS or SoS level im sure the majority of clubs in the juniors would already have the required facilities, would require substantial financial input? On what exactly? Or that you would be moving from a local league, to .... playing in a local league? If junior clubs so wished they could stay year on year in the EoS, SoS or whatever equivalent if they dont go for licensing, which would be the exact same as the current super leagues.

I think Ireland up first is good as it is the toughest game and we should be able to put out our strongest team which should be good enough to beat Ireland. We have over a week until Samoa, then 10 days to Romania. Yes it's 4 days to Japan but our b team should be enough for Romania

World Cup draw is not too bad, Ireland, Japan, Europe 1 (Romania) and Play of winner (probably Samoa)

Bristol have been throwing the cash around since relegation, wouldn't be suprised if Grey was the first of the next wave of big signings to ensure they stay up the season after.

Just to follow up on some of the reasons given against the French bid as follows, They are scored down for the Olympics being the year after (fair), for anti-doping being illegal so risking arrests for doping offenses(!!!) (yes that is seriously in the document as a bad thing), and for wishing to use Tier 2 officials as 4th officials and time keepers (!!!). They are also scored down slightly because St Ettienne does not have enough hotel capacity. Added that they were unsure on the pitch sizes as the french bid didn't include it in their dosier but SA did, but 8 were used at Euro 16

Do you think all this time has bent the guns? Thousands of rounds have been shot and about 2 people were shot, except for Morgan who killed everyone with a single shot. The standoff was really poor, but i think the rest of it was fairly solid. Ezekiel and Carol chasing down the saviours lookout before he warned whatever location they were going to wipe out, Jesus and Morgan taking their compound, Rick and Darryl wasn't great though as not sure where they were, and didn't seem to fit with the rest.

I would have preferred France for a bit of a jolly to watch the games in 2023, so hopefully Europe get 2027, although just because the recommendation is SA doesn't mean they will get it. You probably need 8 stadium's to host, although the struggle would be if you have any football stadia its in the middle of the season so how do you free them up for 4 weeks. A possibility would be to host a group in Glasgow, one in Edinburgh / Newcastle, one in Ireland and one in Wales It would probably be doable with Murrayfield / St James'/ Pittodrie, Hampden / Ibrox / Parkhead (alternating weekends) Scotstoun for smaller games and Rugby Park, Aviva / Croke / Kingspan and Millenium / Scarlets / Bristol QF in Murrayfield, Hampden, Millennium and Aviva, SF Hampden and Murrayfield, final Murrayfield Spreads the games about the UK, without needing to be London-centric

from the last world cup, i believe every game was a sell out in terms of ticket sales (in fact about 75% of matches sold out at the initial ballot about a year before the WC started) In England the majority were 30k+ stadia and mainly football stadiums, with only a few smaller games going to traditional rugby grounds in Exeter and Gloucester to look like they were spreading it around. There was a huge uproar that the walkers stadium in Leicester was being used rather than Welford road as it had a few thousand more seats. From memory, Twickenham, Olympic Stadium, Elland Road, St James park, Villa Park, Walkers, Mk Dons and Brighton, Exeter and Gloucester and the Millenium in Cardiff, and Manchester (i think City's ground) and maybe wembley also. I have no idea how SA comes above France other than SA still has loads of white elephant stadia built for Rugby WC and Football WC in the 90's and someone wants to help pay them off

I think Toony is wanting to play a faster offloading game rather than the rumble it up the middle game, but not withstanding we are still missing some ball carriers. Fagerson jr is probably the best option coming through at the moment for the back row. On Kinghorn, im suprised he wasn't included in the squad, as I had assumed the only reason he didnt go in June was so he could play in the u20 WC. Cracking going forward, still a bit suspect in defence, but still a young lad. Also a bit worried about what sort of squad Rennie will be left with for the Leinster match, given Scotland will get preference I am assuming.

This had given me nightmares. Seriously though these were some of the better Scottish backs during that time, there was much worse

Had thought Fagerson and Gray might have been rested but otherwise strong team, but still resting plenty of players. Good to see the other Fagerson back in the team (I rate him higher than his brother and wont be long until he is in the Scotland squad) as well as Grant, hoping he can regain some sort of form

If he was fit then yes, my point being that we have so many first choice or fairly close call back ups either injured or not selected that you look at the 37 man squad Townsend has selected and instantly know the best 15 without to much pondering on options

Going back to the Scotland squad my biggest concern is how obvious the best 15 is, its like going back to the bad old days when you knew exactly who was going to play due to the lack of top quality players. Apart from who partners Grey in the 2nd row, any maybe hooker from the squad selected i dont think you can make any argument of the best 15 not being Nel, Ford, Fagerson, Grey, Swinson, Barclay, Watson, Wilson, Price, Russell, Jones, Dunbar, Jones, Seymour, Hogg Granted you could have a team of (with a couple out of position) Dell, Brown, Dickinson, Grey, Denton, Hardie, Ashe, Strauss, Laidlaw, Scott, Visser, Taylor, Bennett, Hughes, Maitland, with a bench of Reid, McArthur, Allan, Cowan, Horne, Weir, Tonks with the players missing, but would still have a squad where there are options in all positions that dont drop the quality of the team on the pitch

From the SRU, "Unavailable through injury: Adam Ashe (Glasgow Warriors), Mark Bennett (Edinburgh Rugby), Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors), Allan Dell, Alasdair Dickinson (both Edinburgh Rugby), Richie Gray (Toulouse), Rory Hughes (Glasgow Warriors), Greig Laidlaw (Clermont Auvergne), Sean Maitland (Saracens), Gordon Reid (London Irish), Matt Scott (Gloucester), Duncan Taylor (Saracens)." I get the impression that Townsend has had a falling out with Strauss, hence why he didn't get a new contract at Glasgow. I have seen Marfo play for Edinburgh, but had assumed he was some foreign import, no idea he was actually Scottish. McGuigan at 28 must have come on leaps and bounds at Sale as he was decidely uninspiring last time I saw him play. He is the leading try scorer in the Premiership though All the new caps are mid 20's, which goes to show the problem with just 2 pro teams, unless you are a standout, you dont get game time. Fagerson (21), Cummings (20) and Ritchie (21) are the only youngsters in the squad, and when you think Marfo, Bhatti, Hamilton, Fowles and Harris are all the same age as Russell, Hogg and Gray who are the established spine of the team and Burleigh is probably the oldest player in the team at 31. Given we are 3 centres down you can make a case for Harris being included, Cummings and Ritchie are solid picks and should go on to be good players. Hamilton has played pretty much every game the last 2 years for Leicester so should be solid.

Since the move to 5 pools, the lowest points as best 2nd place to go through was 16 (3 wins, 2 tries and 2 losing bp's), but average is closer to 18 or 19 points being required to get through to quarters.

4 wins could be enough to see us get through as best 2nd place. Hopefully if Montpellier have chucked it we can get 2 big wins to get us started

Only caught the 2nd half but the Munster game except that has been the exact same as every other Glasgow performance this season poor in the forwards and hoping the backs run in tries Gribbens must be wondering what he signed up for

I think we look ok at ruck and maul, its the scrum mainly we are struggling with