Rugby Union

[John Lambies Doos]

It's an on pitch leadership problem

[Detournement]

Nae Finn, ,nae Scotland. 

The pack has been piss poor. Games like this prove the value of Ryan Wilson (or possibly Matt Fagerson) rather than a traditional 8 like Strauss.

Barclay has struggled and McGuigan is a waste of time. 

[S7C]

I'm not overly optimistic about Japan. 

[GordonS]

I'm not overly optimistic about Japan. 

I'm not overly confident about Russia...

[GordonS]

And what's with the constant terrible kicks down the throats of opponents in nice safe positions? Is it a training thing to see how we cope with counter attacks?

This has been shite all night. Pissed off I paid for Premier Sports just for this.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Why does McGuigan still get played - he's been absolutely shite every time he's played.

Totally out of his depth.

[come on shire]

A difficult watch though more grit about us in the 2nd half. France are strong at home and we're traditionally weaker away. However the WC warm-ups are just glorified experiment/trial games. 

That France team would start a major competitive game imo. Our team had a lot of international fringe players who are kept out by more experienced/better form players.

John Barclay and Duncan Taylor are just back from career threatening injury. However we tried to run with the ball and Taylor/Jones is a brand new centre pairing that's raw but COULD have potential. 

A team's home should be its castle so it'll be a more serious selection I'd expect from Toony next week. Tonight was an experimental side that'll also be the squad that plays Russia.

Edited August 17, 2019 by come on shire

[Savage Henry]

8 hours ago, come on shire said:

A difficult watch though more grit about us in the 2nd half. France are strong at home and we're traditionally weaker away. However the WC warm-ups are just glorified experiment/trial games. 

That France team would start a major competitive game imo. Our team had a lot of international fringe players who are kept out by more experienced/better form players.

John Barclay and Duncan Taylor are just back from career threatening injury. However we tried to run with the ball and Taylor/Jones is a brand new centre pairing that's raw but COULD have potential. 

A team's home should be its castle so it'll be a more serious selection I'd expect from Toony next week. Tonight was an experimental side that'll also be the squad that plays Russia.

How did Hutchinson play?   Is he likely to challenge Jones for the first XV?

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Townsend's teams are like Townsend the player: often mecurial - when they click they'll beat anyone, but when they don't they look god awful.  They just don't play "percentage" rugby.  

Edited August 18, 2019 by Savage Henry

[honestly united]

For me this was a classic friendly match, with France looking close to full strength, and Scotland giving game time to a couple of players coming back from injury and playing some fringe players to see what they can do.

A few players may have cost themselves a seat on the plane with their performances. Bhatti looked off the pace and the scrum improved with Fagerson coming on, and his brother put in a shift when he came on. Both Gilchrist and Toolis didnt do enough to suggest they should be starting ahead of Grey. Both Barclay and Strauss were average performances but both can be so much better and I thought Ritchie was poor again - he seems to be better coming off the bench and their is definitely a player in their but too inconsistant for me.

Price was ok, but Hastings is not an International standard 10 and we will struggle if anything happens to Russell. I still think he is a better 15 than he is 10 so would take him for the bench.

Taylor and Jones I wasnt impressed with, but its Taylor's first game in a long time, and Jones just doesn't look the player he was when he first came on the scene a few years back. Hogg was probably Scotlands best player on the night, and the 2 wingers didn't really get a chance to shine, but defensively weren't great. Kinghorn though should not get anywhere near getting on the plane to Japan as again he was woeful when he came on. He's great with ball in hand and in space, but cant tackle, shies away and looks like he actively shies away from his defensive duties.

Major worries over the set piece and defense, if you dont get these right it doesn't matter what your attack can do as you wont have the ball to unleash it. However hopefully we are closer to a 1st choice team next week to show what sort of performace we are capable of.

Edited August 18, 2019 by honestly united

[come on shire]

2 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

How did Hutchinson play?   Is he likely to challenge Jones for the first XV?

He was ok when he came on but I thought we were generally a bit better in the 2nd half anyway. Maybe not the best game to judge him as the game was over as a contest and we were just emptying the bench.

1 hour ago, honestly united said:

For me this was a classic friendly match, with France looking close to full strength, and Scotland giving game time to a couple of players coming back from injury and playing some fringe players to see what they can do.

A few players may have cost themselves a seat on the plane with their performances. Bhatti looked off the pace and the scrum improved with Fagerson coming on, and his brother put in a shift when he came on. Both Gilchrist and Toolis didnt do enough to suggest they should be starting ahead of Grey. Both Barclay and Strauss were average performances but both can be so much better and I thought Ritchie was poor again - he seems to be better coming off the bench and their is definitely a player in their but too inconsistant for me.

Price was ok, but Hastings is not an International standard 10 and we will struggle if anything happens to Russell. I still think he is a better 15 than he is 10 so would take him for the bench.

Taylor and Jones I wasnt impressed with, but its Taylor's first game in a long time, and Jones just doesn't look the player he was when he first came on the scene a few years back. Hogg was probably Scotlands best player on the night, and the 2 wingers didn't really get a chance to shine, but defensively weren't great. Kinghorn though should not get anywhere near getting on the plane to Japan as again he was woeful when he came on. He's great with ball in hand and in space, but cant tackle, shies away and looks like he actively shies away from his defensive duties.

Major worries over the set piece and defense, if you dont get these right it doesn't matter what your attack can do as you wont have the ball to unleash it. However hopefully we are closer to a 1st choice team next week to show what sort of performace we are capable of.

1st paragraph is spot on.

Agree about Bhatti. Was solid at Glasgow but better international looseheads. Reid's more solid even if he's stepped down to semi-pro.

I like Toolis but I'd have Skinner or Gray over Gilchrist. I don't see what the fuss is about and he gives away too many penalties.

I think your Hastings and centres comments are harsh with respect. Hastings is outstanding in a Glasgow shirt and is still learning. The centre partnership was new and being played for the 1st time.

Barclay's solid and experienced but he's better at 8. Agree about Strauss though. He's capable of better but never raises his Glasgow form into Scotland. Going to Sale and being benched a lot never helped either.

Kinghorn missed a bread and butter tackle at Murrayfield to let Ireland in for their 1st try in the 6N. I don't see the fuss about him. I'd have Seymour before him all day with D'Arcy Graham offering more potential as back-up.

 

[honestly united]

1 hour ago, come on shire said:

He was ok when he came on but I thought we were generally a bit better in the 2nd half anyway. Maybe not the best game to judge him as the game was over as a contest and we were just emptying the bench.

1st paragraph is spot on.

Agree about Bhatti. Was solid at Glasgow but better international looseheads. Reid's more solid even if he's stepped down to semi-pro.

I like Toolis but I'd have Skinner or Gray over Gilchrist. I don't see what the fuss is about and he gives away too many penalties.

I think your Hastings and centres comments are harsh with respect. Hastings is outstanding in a Glasgow shirt and is still learning. The centre partnership was new and being played for the 1st time.

Barclay's solid and experienced but he's better at 8. Agree about Strauss though. He's capable of better but never raises his Glasgow form into Scotland. Going to Sale and being benched a lot never helped either.

Kinghorn missed a bread and butter tackle at Murrayfield to let Ireland in for their 1st try in the 6N. I don't see the fuss about him. I'd have Seymour before him all day with D'Arcy Graham offering more potential as back-up.

 

On the front row, I wasn't paying enough attention, did Fagerson come on and play Loosehead (he's normally a tighthead)? and when Gordy Reid came on did they swap over?

If we didn't have Hogg I would be starting Hasting at full back. I think he is a really talented player, i really rate him i just dont think he is an international class 10. He has a strong tackle for his size, good under the high ball, has an eye for gap and is a good runner with ball in hand. I just always get the feeling he is always looking at what he can do when on the ball, rather than trying to put others into space. Maybe that will come with more game time and experience. I can get that he probably doesn't want to be compared with his old man, but I think someone should sit him down and tell him to focus on being a full back.

I think Jones just needs a good rest and a break as the spark to his game seems to have gone. Taylor gets talked up loads in the media, but I dont think I've seen him do much in a Scotland shirt, but thats probably mostly down to injuries. I haven't watched enough Sarries games with him playing to make a judgement on how he plays at club level, but most of the hype seems to be around he is first choice at Sarries and they could probably sign anyone to play if they wanted so must be good. 

On to next week and I would like to see the following team starting (if fit) - good enough to beat France and also gets Thompson capped, and gives game those that should be on the plane that haven't had it yet

Nel

Brown

Dell

Gray

Skinner

Bradbury

Watson

Thompson

Laidlaw

Russell

Seymour

Johnson

Taylor

Maitland

Hogg

Subs Fagerson, Reid, Turner, Cummings, Wilson, Horne, Horne, Graham

Just having looked through the squad without Hardie & Graham we only have Watson as an out and out openside, Ritchie & Bardbury are both blind sides that can play openside if necessary - we need more pace in the back row for the style we want to play which may mean we have to sacrifice Strauss as the ball carrying 8 to play either Fagerson / Barclay / Wilson at 8 to give us more mobility

[Mark Connolly]

Berghan went to loosehead when Fagerson came on, then Reid came on for him.

[peasy23]

England have conceded a penalty at an average rate of one every 8 minutes against Wales over 3 tests this year, while it's every 16 minutes against everybody else.

[Detournement]

That was horrible but there were only three definite starters playing (McInally, Price and Hogg). The pack got totally out worked and over powered. Neither Toolis nor Gilchrist looked totally fit and John Barclay just looked old. I'd like to see a backrow of Skinner, Watson and Wilson for the Ireland game as I think we need bulk at 6 and Wilson's work rate.

It was a tough night for Hastings but he is definitely improving and taking over a system designed for Finn is a tough job. I think he has potential at 15 but Maitland will be the cover for Hogg. It's hard to predict what team we will see next week, I read that Johnson has injured his ankle and Bradbury has a rib injury so we might not see either of them.

[come on shire]

1 hour ago, honestly united said:

On the front row, I wasn't paying enough attention, did Fagerson come on and play Loosehead (he's normally a tighthead)? and when Gordy Reid came on did they swap over?

1 hour ago, Mark Connolly said:

Berghan went to loosehead when Fagerson came on, then Reid came on for him.

 

I was very confused by those changes as they're out and out looseheads or tightheads specifically. I thought maybe there was a mistake with the on-screen graphic. It was very confusing and didn't look great tbh.

Honestly Utd, that line-up's a very fair shout. However let's swap Dell and Nel around so there's no more of last night's antics.

[honestly united]

34 minutes ago, come on shire said:

I was very confused by those changes as they're out and out looseheads or tightheads specifically. I thought maybe there was a mistake with the on-screen graphic. It was very confusing and didn't look great tbh.

Honestly Utd, that line-up's a very fair shout. However let's swap Dell and Nel around so there's no more of last night's antics.

It may be GT is looking to take only 5 props, 2 loose / tight and someone that can play both in an emergency which may be Bergham if he played both for a bit yesterday.

Apologies I just had Nel down first as we need him to anchor the scrum!!

[honestly united]

Scotland team announced for the return game vs France - still an experimental look to it, but much stronger than last weeks, Bradbury, Johnson and Brown missing through injury. Probably still only 50% first choice, Harris & Horne at centre giving me the fear already

Scotland: Hogg, Seymour, Harris, P Horne, Maitland, Russell, Laidlaw (capt); Reid, Turner, Nel, Cummings, Skinner, Wilson, Watson, Thomson.

Replacements: Stewart, Dell, Berghan, Gilchrist, Barclay, G Horne, Hutchinson, Kinghorn.

 

[Detournement]

Where's Jonny Gray?

Harris is probably the best defensive option at 13. I think we will compete better with that backrow.

[Detournement]

James Haskell is having a go at MMA and has signed with Bellator.

He obviously has the advantages of a decade plus of the best roids money can buy but he is surely going to get done in. Can't wait.

[come on shire]

We really need to be beating France on Sat to lift the squad and fans imo.

On my bro's stag doo so watching from a pub in York.

Wayne Barnes to ref on Sat with Oor Nigel as a touch judge.

Edited August 23, 2019 by come on shire