honestly united

He sounds like part Duncan George, prowling about the centre circle kicking people, but once he wins the ball rather than the simple pass, he attempts some hollywood esque 60 yard cross field pass

He only seemed to play up until December then wasnt even getting on the bench for a good chunk of the 2nd half of the season, not sure if injury or not, but given the finished close to relegation and brought in 7 players in January could be telling. He played in most of their pre-season games but hasnt been the in the squad for any league games

There were at least 2 over the weekend that went to bunker review and remained a yellow. The one in the wales game I didnt even think it was a yellow as the player was already being tackled and fell into his shoulder and he was already fairly low

Just heard Miotti is away to France, a couple of months after signing a new contract. Glasgow seemingly not going to bring anyone else in at this point, and will run with Thomson and Jordan with Weir and however's in the academy (is Toonies son still there?).

TNS or Bala away were the only 2 good draws (as they are fairly close for me!) Colreaine, Cliftonville, East Kilbride, Kelty and University of Stirling acceptable as I dont think we have ever played any of those before. I used to quite like the Challenge Cup (or Centenary cup as it started out as) but the b teams have ruined it for everyone. I quite like the LL/HL and the Irish, Welsh, Lower League English teams being in it though

I miss the days of having loads of players in on trial but not signing them as they were "no better than what we have already"

The tackle is shoulder to head level, and he leads with the shoulder in a no arms technique, the change in direction makes no difference to that This is absolutely dreadful stuff. They implement the yellow with 10 mins for video ref to review, as they were complaining about too many red cards and video reviews taking too long, then when someone gets a red card they decide the 10 minutes isnt long enough to properly review. Why are we having video refs if the disciplinary panels dont agree with it.

Unfortunately we would need to sink another level down (at a guess, maybe more) to get a game against Hungary, it would be Czechia as hosts along Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Romania, Poland, and Switzerland

Not sure if this is true or not (but given the way the SRU is run it wouldnt suprise me) but it could be years until the U20's are back in the World Cup. From what I understand, we only had a place in the last World Trophy (winners promoted the World Championship) as we were relegate from the World Championship as we finished last. The World Trophy is made up of a set number of teams, 6 from the regional championships (ie Europe, America, Africa etc), the host and the team relegated. It looks like we didnt ask to be included in the European Championship which is in November this year (Spain were due to host but as they won the World Trophy and were promoted have no need to play in the Euro's, so the only chance we currently have of playing in the World Trophy next year is if we host the event which I suppose is possible, however you would have thought giving the team an additional tournament which they would likely win would give the squad a boost ahead of the 6 Nations. However given its our fault the real junior Euros' collapsed when the 6N's (except France) pulled out as we would have been relegated Im not suprised we werent keen on playing

Dont think its been mentioned yet, but New SA coach appointed by Edinburgh, previously head coach at the Sharks. Seems a decent appointment, will wait and see how it plays out. Im not sure what level of coach some fans were thinking they would get given some of the comments https://www.theoffsideline.com/edingurgh-sean-everitt/

Wonder if hes looking at player coach / player assistant manager / player scout given

Im still holding out hope that big Kirk gave Arsenal such rave reviews about his time here that they are going to loan us their next star in the making striker for the season, but are just waiting on finishing their preseason before letting him join us, buts its all lined up and ready to go. We can but dream...

My first season going was the year we won the old 2nd Division with the team of Watson, McIntyre, Hughes, Furphy, McAlistair, Evans, Templeton, Scott, Walker, Sludden and Cowell, if you didnt get hooked on Ayr United after that there was no hope for you I can still remember near full houses for the 2 games vs Dunfermline in the cup, and thinking we had a team of world beaters, Im still of the opinion that we are a bigger team than St Johnstone because of that season, even though we've been below them in the league for every single season since!

If he hadn't been delayed by the car/motorbike yesterday I think he would have caught Yates and Gall and won the stage, he was proper sprinting past other riders on the ascent. There's being better than everyone else, and I get team leaders get an easier ride than most but its getting ridiculous now

If you take Dipo out of the equation the squad we have at the moment is on a par with what we had last season, so if we managed to get a replacement as good we would be in with a shout of a top 4 finish. Granted we are unlikely to unearth a player as good as Dipo, so realistically to give us a chance of mid table your looking at a 10-15 goal CF another winger thats going to add a few goals, and potential an attacking midfielder that can add a few goals thats going to make the difference. As others have said, the free agents have probably dried up now, or will be soon, we are then into the territory of loans, which most clubs are just starting to look at as they firm up their squads, and similarly clubs may be looking to free players / players asking to be freed towards the end of the window if new signings come in. Given the players we have been linked with it looks like we are looking at hte right calibre, I would rather we hald on and made a quality signing than panicking and signing some over the hill dross (McGuire)

Given Bangala has played a decent number of games over a few seasons at 5th Tier in France and top tier in Slovakia you would assume there is a player in there, however if you watch him you wouldnt know. I heard he had a bad injury while in Slovakia, I wonder if that is still an issue, although his physical condition doesnt seem to be the issue

I thought Fowler would have been a good option but depends how much Beith are looking for, Knowing Scottish Football it wouldnt take much of a fee to put the likes of Kilmarnock and Motherwell off

To be fair is the difference in prize money from 2nd to 5th in the 6 figure range?

Thats more like the kind of signing I was expecting this year

I had thought we might get some signing news today before the Q&A to deflect questions and give a bit of a positive buzz, but if its true Dipo's away it could be a bit of a downer. Although if we do get a decent fee, im sure there will be plenty of questions of spending it all on a new striker.

Its mostly to do with ticket sales. They were selling team group passes (ie all Scotlands group games) or city passes (ie all games in lille) about 2 years ago which then gives them a wedge of cash way in advance of a ball being kicked. We got 2 games tickets months before individual tickets went on sale just to ensure we got them. A few hundred million sitting in World Rugby's bank for year or so extra is probably quite appealing to them. They would fill the stadiums all the same leaving it later to do the draws. I know from when the wc was in England, my club were used as a training base (i think both Samoa and Romania used it) but we knew about a year in advance as we had time to have a new pitch laid with floodlights, changing room upgrades etc from getting chosen and notified we were hosting teams to the world cup starting. Ideally though you could wait until the southern hemisphere finishes in July / August take the rankings then, draw in September for the tournament the year after. By then you would probably have all the qualifing and repachge complete so would have all the teams, and all fans would have a fair crack at tickets. There will be fans of the late qualifiers who couldnt get tickets / hotels etc as they'd be sold out before they get a chance with the current set up.

New Season of Titans (season 4) now on Netflix, fair enjoyed it so far. I thought 1 & 2 were really good, 3 not so much, but 4 has been better again, maybe not the heights of the first 2 though.

Im sure its across the board that your not allowed sponsors at the world cup, i beleive so the sponsorship rights to world cup are a higher value. I quite like the tartan trim to it

Was looking at that earlier, my group were all going to get the new top for our trip but have been put off by that

Im sure after the league cup games nearly everyone was convinced he was a dud