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15 hours ago, Dunning1874 said:

Tom English on Friday in his article previewing the season for Glasgow & Edinburgh:

Screenshot_20231022_193227.thumb.jpg.267a7bccf18cc87a086a000e76b33780.jpg

Tom English in his match report:

Screenshot_20231022_193115.thumb.jpg.a2201ccea9a9a929e623850d64172a7a.jpg

I don't really get when English is said to be much better on rugby than he is in football. He writes a decent "Sobering result for Scotland who have much to improve before playing the big boys" article which you'd expect as he gets the opportunity once a year, but he's always been happy to flap back and forth between opinions when it suits him. He's actually right in the second one, it's a much stronger Glasgow than Leinster side, but he was too keen to get a narrative going in his first piece before knowing the squads to care that was very likely to be the case. 

Where he's absolutely correct, and I've mentioned it on here before is the crazy extent to which the Leinster (particularly private) schools are turbocharging Irish rugby. I'd love to see a deep dive on how that actually works, the funding that's going into it and how it's used; and the relationship with Leinster Rugby from the outset. 

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What do Edinburgh do now that Healy has arrived? You've got the Scotland back three and the heir apparent to Finn at 10, and then Boffelli to come back from the WC. Do you just accept that's a good problem to have and it's unlikely they'll all be available very often or is there an argument to have a go at making someone a 12/13? It's a pretty strong squad otherwise, potentially could have a run in the Challenge Cup.

For Glasgow I think the psychological boost of beating even a diminished Leinster team is a great way to start the season. Jordan was fine but I do worry about him sometimes, very decent depth most of the rest of the park. When is McKay due to be SQ?  

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3 hours ago, Jeff Venom said:

Lay person here when it comes to scrums and I've been trying to learn what happened at that scrum.

If the SA18 is the tight-head prop then isn't his angle a combination of the England loose-head and the forces behind him, and likewise behind him on the SA side? I have no idea how a tight-head can resist that. But then scrums just look an absolute shambles to me anyway.

Once one prop goes wonky the balance of forces is disrupted and things fall to bits

The question isn't who went the most wonky but who went wonky earliest

In this case the referee reckoned it was the English Loosehead and given that it happened right in front of him and he's a test level referee he was probably right

 

Edited by topcat(The most tip top)
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2 hours ago, GHF-23 said:

What do Edinburgh do now that Healy has arrived? You've got the Scotland back three and the heir apparent to Finn at 10, and then Boffelli to come back from the WC. Do you just accept that's a good problem to have and it's unlikely they'll all be available very often or is there an argument to have a go at making someone a 12/13? It's a pretty strong squad otherwise, potentially could have a run in the Challenge Cup.

For Glasgow I think the psychological boost of beating even a diminished Leinster team is a great way to start the season. Jordan was fine but I do worry about him sometimes, very decent depth most of the rest of the park. When is McKay due to be SQ?  

I’d be amazed if Boff doesn’t fancy a year or two in France (don’t think it went too well the first time around) or England.  I think that’s the most likely solution   

 

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This new world league is going ahead then. What they should do IMO is turn the six nations and the rugby championship into two identical six team tournaments on a single round robin basis where you alternate playing each opponent home and away (i.e., the current six nations). Then the rugby championship teams each play three six nations teams at home every summer and the six nations teams play three rugby championship teams at home every autumn.

 

By the end of a two year period you’ve played everyone home and away and the top team (based on overall results) is the winner, and then you relegate one team from each side based on performance in their own local tournament only over the two year aggregate period.

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The world league shuts out the smaller nations from competing against tier one and then an expanded world cup expects them to turn up ready to compete

Based on current rankings the 6 groups would look a bit like this

  • South Africa/Japan/Portugal/Hong Kong China
  • New Zealand/Italy/Georgia/Canada
  • Ireland/Fiji/Samoa/Chile
  • France/Australia/Tonga/Namibia
  • England/Wales/Uruguay/Romania
  • Scotland/Argentina/USA/Spain
     
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17 hours ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

The world league shuts out the smaller nations from competing against tier one and then an expanded world cup expects them to turn up ready to compete

Based on current rankings the 6 groups would look a bit like this

  • South Africa/Japan/Portugal/Hong Kong China
  • New Zealand/Italy/Georgia/Canada
  • Ireland/Fiji/Samoa/Chile
  • France/Australia/Tonga/Namibia
  • England/Wales/Uruguay/Romania
  • Scotland/Argentina/USA/Spain
     

The importance of Scotland staying in the top 6 in the rankings can't be understated. 

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40 minutes ago, peasy23 said:

The importance of Scotland staying in the top 6 in the rankings can't be understated. 

Top two teams qualify for the knockouts along with most of the 3rd place teams so you mean...... oh hang on ....you did actually mean it can't be understated

As you were

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On 23/10/2023 at 11:23, GHF-23 said:

For Glasgow I think the psychological boost of beating even a diminished Leinster team is a great way to start the season. Jordan was fine but I do worry about him sometimes, very decent depth most of the rest of the park. When is McKay due to be SQ?  

Really don't see it in Tom Jordan at the pro level. He's a good player, but against Leinster I thought his kicking was poor which put Glasgow under a little bit more scoreboard pressure. You saw them kick to touch (with a rookie hooker) rather than take 3 points. Horne came on and went to kicking duties. 

I also felt he didn't get much distance or was too safe in going for touch. When Weir came on he kicked one deep in 22 putting Leinster under more pressure, whereas we'd previously been getting limited distance from hand with Jordan. 

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On 25/10/2023 at 09:46, flyingscot said:

Really don't see it in Tom Jordan at the pro level. He's a good player, but against Leinster I thought his kicking was poor which put Glasgow under a little bit more scoreboard pressure. You saw them kick to touch (with a rookie hooker) rather than take 3 points. Horne came on and went to kicking duties. 

I also felt he didn't get much distance or was too safe in going for touch. When Weir came on he kicked one deep in 22 putting Leinster under more pressure, whereas we'd previously been getting limited distance from hand with Jordan. 

I think Jordan is fine as a pro club level, afterall he was Glasgows standoff for most of last season and we did pretty well, but he is definetely not international class. I would still have Thompson as first choice and Jordan as back up, with Weir as 3rd choice. Im assuming Townsend will slot in somewhere when he comes back from Australia, but i've not seen anything in the U20's or Super six to suggest he will get anywhere close to the levels of his old man.

Im really suprised that Miotti was not replaced over the summer when he left unexepectedly, (probably no one of a decent level available for the budget available) but I would expect someone to come in after Christmas to cover 6 nations as Thompson will probably be in wider squad.

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