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kiwififer

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41 minutes ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

Quite excited to watch this tour, albeit never getting a tour and regular games against the big boys down south is one of the things that's held us back from kicking on in the last 7/8 years imo. Obviously a lot of guys rested/unavailable, and the usual handful of strange exclusions, particularly in the backs, where I hope we get to see Currie, Bennett and Hutchinson offering a more attacking edge. Equally in the backrow there a lot of very promising guys who will hopefully get minutes. Bit strange that Fagerson is playing the A game but I guess his and a few other inclusions are a sign of the caution which has been the hallmark of most of Townsend's thinking post-2019 6 Nations; not wanting to run the slightest risk of an upset even for the A team. 

On the back row, been thinking recently about how our relatively recent explosion of good options there makes the captaincy discussion more difficult. No guarantee Hogg is stepping down but I think for most Ritchie is the natural choice. Is he or should he be guaranteed a place now, though? He'd probably be my starting 6 in the majority of games but I don't think he'd ever really start at 7 with Watson and Darge available for me, and going forward if we start to adapt our back row to the opposition there are times when you'd maybe prefer Skinner as an extra lock, Dempsey/Bradbury/Fagerson(maybe even Muncaster in the near future?), or Darge to get our best jackal on the pitch. Christie and Crosbie could force their way in at some point in the future too. 

On the flip side, I can't think of anyone who should, imo, be guaranteed a start who would be a good choice. Zander def not, J. Gray or Cummings maybe at a push, Watson no. In the backs there's a lot more but none I'd really want as a captain, except again maybe Price. Hard circle to square at the moment 

I think Fagerson and Cummings are only playing the A game to gte some game time - both have been out injured for a while and didnt get any club game time before the end of the season so probably more about getting them match sharp for later in the tour.

On the captaincy I think your right that apart from Ritchie no one really stands out. Potentially Cummings or Gilchrist are options. I would rather Hogg wasnt captain as you are better having someone in and around the action that can quickly have a word with the ref, rather than having to run 50m's each time he has to have a chat.

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3 minutes ago, Detournement said:

Ritchie should be captain.

Hopefully Muncaster and Currie go well. I can see them being big players for us soon. 

We do seem to have a good crop of youngsters coming through.

Skills wise and physically we do seem to have caught up with most other countries. The problem we still have though is that we are not creating winners which is why we are not getting the results at International level. Most other countries have a system where you have leagues and winners and losers and although development is important there is also an emphasis on winning games which helps develop a winning mentality.

In scotland you still have players spending all their time with the institute of sport, or if they are lucky getting some game time in the Super 6. Until we start developing players that have that will to win we are always going to struggle.

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2 minutes ago, Detournement said:

That was better from Thompson. Smith has started well.

We should be looking at 60+ points here.

Yeah, as soon as I wrote that Thompson did really well to move that attack around twice and good try in the end.... And there's Horne scored as well!

I take it this is a Glasgow/Edinburgh select because it's outside the test window, but who does Javan play for these days?

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5 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

Not sure there is much to be learned here.

Bigger game for Chile I suppose. Tbh, I think there should be more games like this, should be more games between T1 and lower tier teams, and not just bringing them to the UK in the autumn for an easy hit out before playing the SH big dogs.

I saw that Portugal actually gave Italy a really good game today, but just couldn't defend a rolling maul, because it's just not something they get enough exposure to.

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3 minutes ago, GAD said:

Bigger game for Chile I suppose. Tbh, I think there should be more games like this, should be more games between T1 and lower tier teams, and not just bringing them to the UK in the autumn for an easy hit out before playing the SH big dogs.

I saw that Portugal actually gave Italy a really good game today, but just couldn't defend a rolling maul, because it's just not something they get enough exposure to.

I'm all for it. I'd also like to see a T2 world cup or a shield tournament at the RWC. We might win it 

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Decent half to be fair, never looked in any trouble and pretty much been one way traffic. You can see it's a level up from what Chile are used to. They are certainly game, and they are tackling for their lives, but I can see us racking up a lot of tries in the second half.

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So far we've not been troubled defensively but when we make changes the game could open up a bit. We've been held up over the try line a couple of times and had pressurised knock ons so Chile are still wanting to give a good account of themselves. 

I know Hoyland is on a hattrick now but I'm still unsure if he'll start the 1st Test next Saturday night. 

Special note to Ross Thompson. He scored a great conversion from a tough angle for the 1st try and he's playing with more freedom and enjoyment. Under Danny Wilson at Glasgow he seemed to be frustrated and off form. 

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Yeah, this half has been shite in all honesty. @invergowrie arab is right, we haven't maintained standards. Done a lot of stupid shit that wasn't necessary because they know they will not be punished for it. Absolutely loads of penalities being conceded on our own ball as well, which is a total scourge of Scottish rugby right now.

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Sad part is, it's when Cummings and Fagerson have gone off that it's really gone to shit, probably the only two nailed on first team starters on the pitch. Not sure anyone else is really putting their hand up here.

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