come on shire

This shows our progress. We've been to the last 16 twice but were well beaten at Saracens. Quins are still a good Premiership side and we went toe to toe with them and just about did it. I thought coming back from 21-7 down to edge in front was brilliant but home advantage was big. Losing Sione was costly but our general discipline in the second part of the 1st half was mad in the same way Quins fell to bits early in the 2nd half. Ref was poor. The amount of Quins high tackles that went unpunished was amazing but going to the corner then coming away with nothing instead of taking points with a penalty in front of the posts is mental when knock out rugby can come down to fine margins.

We couldn't play our running game in poor weather, especially in the 1st half. Cardiff made it worse by employing a high defensive line knowing we were at a disadvantage with the weather and the internationalists being away. However, whilst the weather was better in the 2nd half, the fact we rolled our sleeves up and found a way to win is the main thing.

I guess that'll be for the tweed jackets in the boardroom to figure out. However if in a couple of years time and Glasgow are still progressing then perhaps Franco gets a shot?

Well this summer's the perfect chance to start a transition.

I'm still of the opinion we need to freshen the coaching. Discipline has been dreadful and it could've been 40 points had our defence not been solid.

Finlay Bealham's an Aussie by birth.

I'm happy to admit that I've been proven wrong about a 40 point horsing and our defence has been excellent but we've given ourselves more work with poor discipline regarding penalties. Our attack has been non existent.

I'm not sure. It can't be too far off it. However I notice one absentee for Ireland is Mack Hansen...

Scotland's summer tour confirmed. Perfect tour for an experimental squad being led by a fresh coaching perspective.

Our Irish hosts. Very good team on paper but so are we. On the other hand Ireland play for 80 minutes, have excellent discipline and Andy Farrell doesn't just talk about learnings after a defeat.

The Italians deserved that. The ref loved his whistle but we were tactically inept as we didn't control the game and let it to be too loose. Playing for a try at the end when it should've been about setting up a drop goal. No Plan B and we can't keep discipline for 80 minutes. We need to change the coaching after the 6 Nations as we're stagnating. The tweed jackets in charge don't like change but they need to freshen up at the grassroots as our Under 20 team are hopeless.

Garbage. Poor discipline.

I really think we need to freshen up the coaching after the 6 Nations. We're excellent at times but discipline just about costs us games.

Too many penalties being given away here.

Post gets us out of jail.

FFS again.

FFS...

TMO...

Based on how loose open play's becoming I think it'll be high scoring so we'll need the bonus point try I think.

For a neutral. I agree running rugby is good to watch though. However we're a bit too loose imo.

Andy Christie giving away a lot of penalties today. I count 3 now.

Our hosts. Some real flair...

Hard fought win at a team who are no longer whipping boys at home. Treviso's a bit like Galway where winning requires an absolute shift with the sleeves rolled up. I thought our defence was outstanding and even when Sordoni went to the bin we were still well disciplined. Thompson kicked well and Staff got MOTM but for me Venter was outstanding.

Are we trying to bugger things up?

It's only HT but so far so good. Even without a bonus point I'd happily take a win as Treviso's a really tricky venue now. However the fact it's during the 6N is a leveller. It's been a bit wet over there as the grass is a bit slow and boggy which isn't great for our running style. Imo synthetic pitches are the way forward. Grass just doesn't handle wet weather. Venter has worked hard. Thompson's been good but I feel he should've nailed the 1st conversion. Defence has been good but we need to keep it up as Benetton are too good at home to fall asleep against.