Rugby Union

[GAD]

3 hours ago, dogmc said:

Cochrane is very solid n scrum n lineout but not spectacular in loose....McInally n Turner are dire at throwing n scrum but decent in loose. The other option would be McArthur bit he's a bit streaky at lineout (either v good or awful). Id go cochrane tbh but its a worry that we are so thin on the ground for hookers.

It's the age old problem of having only two pro teams really. We have two good hookers, one who's first pick at Glasgow, one who's first pick at Edinburgh, and everyone else are reserve players who probably haven't had enough exposure to top level games. I'd probably go Cochrane as well, as I don't really know who he is, but I'm hopeful he's better than the other two!

[John Lambies Doos]

It's the age old problem of having only two pro teams really. We have two good hookers, one who's first pick at Glasgow, one who's first pick at Edinburgh, and everyone else are reserve players who probably haven't had enough exposure to top level games. I'd probably go Cochrane as well, as I don't really know who he is, but I'm hopeful he's better than the other two!

In fairness if one of the hookers can hook, throw straight and ball carry I'd pick him.

[GAD]

Just now, John Lambies Doos said:

 

In fairness if one of the hookers can hook, throw straight and ball carry I'd pick him.

 

To be honest, I'd settle for just the first two.

[John Lambies Doos]

To be honest, I'd settle for just the first two.

We need to be aiming higher GAD..

[dogmc]

We need to be aiming higher GAD..

Long term yeah we do but right now we can only piss the cock we have. Retaining possession at scrum n line out needs to be our priority given the calibre of opponents we are facing. Get the basics right then build from there.

[John Lambies Doos]

Long term yeah we do but right now we can only piss the cock we have. Retaining possession at scrum n line out needs to be our priority given the calibre of opponents we are facing. Get the basics right then build from there.

Agree... but a couple of decent ball carriers would be great

[ajwffc]

highlights from the weekend

 

 

 

[Savage Henry]

Excellent conversation between Brian Moore and Doddie Weir on the Telegraph website. 

Link

[dogmc]

For anyone near stirling tonight caley reds take on south of Scotland at 730. Tenner for adults n I believe £3 for kids with proceeds going to doddie weir foundation. Am taking wee lad along n looks like two strong sides. Particularly keen to see how Logan trotter goes on wing for caley. Looks a real prospect having had a motm performance for Scotland u20 when he was still eligible for u18

Eta kids go free!

 

[ajwffc]

Refs for 2nd set of Euro fixtures are out 

Glasgow

Home game v Montpellier Matthew Carley (RFU)

Away game v Montpellier JP Doyle (RFU)

Edinburgh 

Home v London Irish Sean Gallagher (IRFU)

Home v Krasny David Wilkinson (IRFU)

Mike Adamson has Zebre v Gloucester and Dragons v Newcastle both in the Challenge cup

Joy Neville will become the 1st female referee in a men's European professional fixture when she takes charge of the Bordeaux v Enisel match on the 15th of December 

 

[dogmc]

South of Scotland ran out winners v caley after caley had raced to a 19 pt lead. Caley had the more exciting back line with the county scrum half (wont attempt to spell his name) and logan trotter looking very good indeed. South had more power in forwards and carried more directly. Their coach probably won the ht team talk too with a much better defensive line second half. Overall it was an excellent standard given how cold it was n a real advert for the quality of scottish club rugby. Most though not all players were from top two tiers. Only disappointment was no Melrose players at all given that it was doddies old club. Not sure why. Does make me think that those proposing a revival of the old inter district championship rather than this sru idea of a 6 team elite league are spot on. Why would would we want to lose semi pro players n coaches from throughout the league structure?? The standards of skills strength n conditioning were certainly right up there. Think we are in danger of trying to fix something that isnt broken. Griggs n Horne have shown that it's possible to step up from bt prem to pro rugby. Anyway good game n over £5k raised for a good cause with final score 40 to 24. Game was being filmed so will hopefully appear on YouTube at some point

[Savage Henry]

Murrayfield at 95% capacity for the Samoa game.  Not that long ago, it wasn't even close to that for Six Nations games.  

[come on shire]

Slipped up over in Fiji in the summer allied to the fact that Samoa have given us some tough games recently so the Polynesians will be a tricky task and a real banana skin.

Who knows what Samoa will turn up?  Either galvanised or in turmoil.  This is because the Samoan PM is looking for public donations to bail out the Samoan Union as they are bankrupt apparently...

Edited November 8, 2017 by come on shire

[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

[John Lambies Doos]

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

That is scandalous. Tier 1 nations and IRB need to do more here. If rugby truly wants to grow then these issues need to be addressed.
Re. The game, I think we will win by 15+. Samoa not great away from WCs.... accept against Wales

[dogmc]

Big thing with Samoa is ensuring ref clamps down on armless hits, high tackles and off the ball cheap shots. Not even nz get away with so much. Need our skipper to on refs case whole game way Sexton would be.

[Doonhamer doon south]

7 hours ago, dogmc said:

South of Scotland ran out winners v caley after caley had raced to a 19 pt lead. Caley had the more exciting back line with the county scrum half (wont attempt to spell his name) and logan trotter looking very good indeed. South had more power in forwards and carried more directly. Their coach probably won the ht team talk too with a much better defensive line second half. Overall it was an excellent standard given how cold it was n a real advert for the quality of scottish club rugby. Most though not all players were from top two tiers. Only disappointment was no Melrose players at all given that it was doddies old club. Not sure why. Does make me think that those proposing a revival of the old inter district championship rather than this sru idea of a 6 team elite league are spot on. Why would would we want to lose semi pro players n coaches from throughout the league structure?? The standards of skills strength n conditioning were certainly right up there. Think we are in danger of trying to fix something that isnt broken. Griggs n Horne have shown that it's possible to step up from bt prem to pro rugby. Anyway good game n over £5k raised for a good cause with final score 40 to 24. Game was being filmed so will hopefully appear on YouTube at some point

Is this all we can expect for the time being is Caley and South team being knocked together for charity type matches. Can you give an indication of attendance and where the two teams would potentially fit in within pro 14. Would they be competitive against Kings, Dragons and the Italians. 

[dogmc]

Is this all we can expect for the time being is Caley and South team being knocked together for charity type matches. Can you give an indication of attendance and where the two teams would potentially fit in within pro 14. Would they be competitive against Kings, Dragons and the Italians. 

Was 800 which for a midweek charity game was reasonable. Also worth saying no Melrose players in south side (they are flying at top of BT prem with 100% record n lovely style of play). Would these guys compete with a pro14 side right now?no...but then they were all semi pros. If you took best of guys last night plus the Melrose lads with twelve months of full time conditioning n training I reckon they could give dragons kings n ospreys a game. I wouldn't especially expect a third pro side to be made up of solely these guys but certainly there are players who could be squad players. I don't see how eliminating all the other semi pro coaches n players in order to favour 6 sides will raise standards. In fact it will do just the opposite. This was semi pro lads coming together after a few sessions in a bitterly cold night producing a very decent standard of rugby played at an excellent tempo. Eta worth saying that most of the 800 were rugby players or regular spectators (lot of local age grade lads m lasses there) so very few of what our boxing thread denizens would call 'casual fans'. A third pro side would obviously have to attract the casual demographic. I found it pretty encouraging tbh.

 

[Doonhamer doon south]

30 minutes ago, dogmc said:

Was 800 which for a midweek charity game was reasonable. Also worth saying no Melrose players in south side (they are flying at top of BT prem with 100% record n lovely style of play). Would these guys compete with a pro14 side right now?no...but then they were all semi pros. If you took best of guys last night plus the Melrose lads with twelve months of full time conditioning n training I reckon they could give dragons kings n ospreys a game. I wouldn't especially expect a third pro side to be made up of solely these guys but certainly there are players who could be squad players. I don't see how eliminating all the other semi pro coaches n players in order to favour 6 sides will raise standards. In fact it will do just the opposite. This was semi pro lads coming together after a few sessions in a bitterly cold night producing a very decent standard of rugby played at an excellent tempo. Eta worth saying that most of the 800 were rugby players or regular spectators (lot of local age grade lads m lasses there) so very few of what our boxing thread denizens would call 'casual fans'. A third pro side would obviously have to attract the casual demographic. I found it pretty encouraging tbh.

 

Interesting assessment. We both know that investment would be made into the squad with a few foreign players, maybe a few ex internationals etc. So long as development and progress is seen to be achieved then vast sums of money doesn't necessarily need to be spent in getting a third pro team being at least competitive. The teams you watched should in theory be good enough as "squad players" and would they be far off the standard at times like the international windows? Big issue I think is fan base and the potential lack of it although player and coaching depth is also a concern for me.

[Wilky1878]

3 minutes ago, Doonhamer doon south said:

Interesting assessment. We both know that investment would be made into the squad with a few foreign players, maybe a few ex internationals etc. So long as development and progress is seen to be achieved then vast sums of money doesn't necessarily need to be spent in getting a third pro team being at least competitive. The teams you watched should in theory be good enough as "squad players" and would they be far off the standard at times like the international windows? Big issue I think is fan base and the potential lack of it although player and coaching depth is also a concern for me.

This. Rugby is getting more popular in Scotland I think but most people I know that are only just getting into it have no interest in club rugby at any level and just want to watch international. That maybe brings a different question though of if a new club could convince some of those guys to go follow them. 

 

There's also guys like myself who don't really support one specific club, not sure how many of us there are but some of them might end up getting attached to this new club if its local to them. (fwiw I don't think I would end up solely following the new club I enjoy watching both Glasgow and Edinburgh and wanting them to do well, I also enjoy when i'm in Scotland if theirs a local game on I can make going and watching that without having to support anyone).