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Rugby Union


kiwififer

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It's good that they got a try and hopefully the side can kick on from a hugely successful world cup. Having someone like Danny Brough leading the team is a massive plus.

This may seem a bit odd in the context of a very successful RLWC for Scotland which broke new ground, but in a lot of ways - where can the team and the game in Scotland go from here? We've reached the RLWC Quarter-Finals, and the gulf to England, Australia & New Zealand is so huge that the only way to better this performance is a lucky draw (i.e. ending-up in 4th QF).

As I understand it there's only going to be 1 opportunity for us to make the Four Nations before RLWC 2017, it'll be in 2015/2016 seemingly.

So that is a target. But unless we qualify for that Four Nations, we're effectively going to be treading water for 4 years till the next World Cup.

We're not going to get a Superleague team and the domestic game here remains miniscule.

I attended our biggest home game of recent years... European Cup match v Wales in 2010, part of our only previous shot at a Four Nations qualification... and the crowd at Old Anniesland was only 787.

Part of me does wonder 'where next', tbh.

I suppose the answer has to be "qualify for the Four Nations" and "getting bigger qualifier crowd(s) in the process".

Perhaps one positive is that France and Wales seem to have got notably worse recently, so we've a better chance.

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This may seem a bit odd in the context of a very successful RLWC for Scotland which broke new ground, but in a lot of ways - where can the team and the game in Scotland go from here? We've reached the RLWC Quarter-Finals, and the gulf to England, Australia & New Zealand is so huge that the only way to better this performance is a lucky draw (i.e. ending-up in 4th QF).

As I understand it there's only going to be 1 opportunity for us to make the Four Nations before RLWC 2017, it'll be in 2015/2016 seemingly.

So that is a target. But unless we qualify for that Four Nations, we're effectively going to be treading water for 4 years till the next World Cup.

We're not going to get a Superleague team and the domestic game here remains miniscule.

I attended our biggest home game of recent years... European Cup match v Wales in 2010, part of our only previous shot at a Four Nations qualification... and the crowd at Old Anniesland was only 787.

Part of me does wonder 'where next', tbh.

I suppose the answer has to be "qualify for the Four Nations" and "getting bigger qualifier crowd(s) in the process".

Perhaps one positive is that France and Wales seem to have got notably worse recently, so we've a better chance.

Yeah, I think that's a fair point. I think there will be a bit more awareness of the sport and there's been more coverage of rugby league in the Scottish press because of the success of the Scottish team than there's likely ever been before. You'd hope that this will boost crowds and interest in the European cup games and possibly promote a bit more participation in the domestic game.

I've looked on a few RL forums during the tournament and one poster said that rugby league should forget about Wales, Ireland and Scotland and focus on France, which has a far better chance of becoming a competitive nation, which you can understand.

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Yesterday was pretty awful. That could have been a lot worse. Basic mistakes constantly being made by Scotland. No idea what has happened to our line-outs.

Still, there were some positives, thought our defence wasn't too bad, and we weren't giving away as many penalties as we normally do. I also think I saw a scrum that didn't result in a penalty, going to have to watch the highlights to confirm this however, this was a few beers in.

Still, games at Murrayfield are always good fun. Although I far prefer football to rugby I'm enjoying going to the rugby quite a bit more than international football right now. Everything about the game yesterday was more enjoyable than the match at Hampden on Friday. Not treated like a criminal by the police, able to actually have a drink at the game without the authorities assuming it will result in violence, a stadium that is easy to leave and a place where nobody cheers for Lee Wallace.

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Is it just me or is Ritchie Gray an 'emperor's new clothes' type of player? For a guy of his size he's fucking powder puff. He can't seem to ride a tackle. In fact he often looks like he's going down when a player comes to tackle him. Look at Lamont; there's a guy who can ride a challenge. On the topic of Lamont, the guy should be a winger in all games. It's his best position and he gives a good attacking edge.

Also the kick through for the 3rd S.A. try yesterday was glorious (De Roux or something I think it was; the same guy who scored the 2nd try). It was weighted perfectly.

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Still, there were some positives, thought our defence wasn't too bad, and we weren't giving away as many penalties as we normally do. I also think I saw a scrum that didn't result in a penalty, going to have to watch the highlights to confirm this however, this was a few beers in.

Still, games at Murrayfield are always good fun. Although I far prefer football to rugby I'm enjoying going to the rugby quite a bit more than international football right now. Everything about the game yesterday was more enjoyable than the match at Hampden on Friday. Not treated like a criminal by the police, able to actually have a drink at the game without the authorities assuming it will result in violence, a stadium that is easy to leave and a place where nobody cheers for Lee Wallace.

There was two scrum penaltys one for each side both for pushing to early.
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It was silly mistakes for most of the tries we conceded, interceptions, poor line out throws etc, but saying that SA were much better, have to say its dissapointed after we came so close to an upset in the summer.

Matt Scott is a big miss for us being injured, we have zero attacking edge in the backs without him, and without Hogg and Visser we dont have anyone that looks like scoring

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Guest The Phoenix

Rugby Union is going to wither and die as a spectator sport if they don't sort out scrums.

15 mins played in Wales v Tonga and about half the time has been spent trying to get a scrum set.

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Looking forward to the match tomorrow. Looks like England are going to get beaten by the Aussies in the test match in the Ashes, so hopefully Scotland can beat them in the rugby. Can't have Australia winning both, not sure if I could handle it.

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Rugby Union is going to wither and die as a spectator sport if they don't sort out scrums. 15 mins played in Wales v Tonga and about half the time has been spent trying to get a scrum set.

Yeah, watched USA v Japan (I think) a few months ago and turned over after about 10mins because all they did was scrum, collapse, reset scrum, collapse, reset...

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Rugby Union is going to wither and die as a spectator sport if they don't sort out scrums. 15 mins played in Wales v Tonga and about half the time has been spent trying to get a scrum set.

It's awful at times. Watched Munster beat Glasgow earlier this season and almost all of the last 10 minutes was spent scrummaging. Munster used all their experience to make sure that every scrum took ages.

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