Andy Titterrell signs for Edinburgh

Edinburgh have signed former Lion Andy Titterrell on a one year deal as injury cover for Steven Lawrie, another foreign player which will delight Craig Chalmers.
http://www.scottishrugby.org/content/view/3014/2/

Fairly solid and unspectacular forward - we needed someone to be 3rd choice hooker with Lawrie out and 4th choice when he's back and I think he'll fulfill that role nicely! good experience and at 31 will hopefully have some legs left.

I think you may be pleasantly surprised by him. His last season in the Jeff with Leeds was outstanding. He had a quite year last season, but by in large that was due to a bad injury. He's a better scrummager than he's given credit for and he's very handy in the loose.

I thought he was quitting to open a gym in manchester

The number of foreign players being signed up by the sru should definitely be a concern to scottish fans. With only two professional teams, the options available to andy robinsons will be severely depleted. I have no doubt that these signings will mean that both glasgow and edinburgh will be much stronger in the rabo and heineken cup next year. However, it does call into question whether scottish rugby has any kind of long term strategy in place other than to make wild pronouncements every few years regarding winning grand slams and so forth. Does anybody know if scottsish rugby has a national academy?

Completely disagree Scrumdown, the new signing won't have too much affect on Robinson's player pool which is probably at it's strongest in years.

There's been a high number of signings but with the exception of WP Nell and Nikola Matawalu they are unlikely to be challenging anyone that should be in the Scotland team over the next 12 months. I don't imagine either of the starting XVs will be dramatically changed from last year and will mostly be made up of Scottish qualified players.

Both pro-teams saw an injection of youth last year and many of them were involved with Scotland during the summer, plus a couple more that'll probably be involved come Autumn. I think it's pretty unfounded to say the SRU don't have a long-term strategy when the following young players signed full-time contracts last year:

MacArthur, Gillies, Walker, Hislop, Niven, Gilchrist, McAlpine, Campbell, Harley, Fusaro, Wilson, McInally, Denton, Pyrgos, Black, Weir, Leonard, Hunter, Scott, Dunbar, Jones, Brown, Hogg

Most of these players were signed up reasonably early in the season and have crept under the radar of many disgruntled Scottish rugby supporters. And both teams have 11 EDP players for next season and I wouldn't be surprised to see a few of them being offered full-time contracts next year.

Titterrell is a solid signing for Edinburgh and will do a job when required but obviously I'd like to see Walker start as Ford's back up. With Lawrie out for part of the season, having a seasoned campaigner in reserve is a prudent signing from Bradley.

And on a International note, Robinson has plenty of player to select from right now with both pro-teams being almost exclusively Scottish and there are more youngsters in the pro-squads that could be involved over the next 12 months. Plus the likes of Hamilton, Gray, McKenzie, Vernon, Brown, Beattie, Strokosch, Ansbro, Grove, Walker and possibly Bennett will be playing top club rugby next season.

Personally think Scottish rugby is in a reasonably good place for next season.

I think this is a good signing. For those who whinge about non Scots look at the current hookers;

Ford - international, away for AIs and 6Ns
Lawrie - injured
Walker - just turned full time from EDPs
Turner - u20 EDP

All of the above Scottish. So when Fordy is tied up with Scotland we have 2 young guys and no other cover. As a one year deal to cover Lawrie and provide some experience for the young guys in training this looks sensible and still leaves us with 4 SQ 1 NSQ.

Totally agree with the last two posts. As I said - he's only here to provide back up and can't see him being on a massive amount of money.

Walker should really be pushing on this year but Turner still has a year or two to develop first

As short term cover this is fine, and as a mobile ball handling hooker, he'll fit in nicely with the fast-paced offloading style of play.

What is more concerning is that lack of Scots options at hooker. With Fergus Thompson and Andrew Kelly dropping away, there is a huge gap between Ross Ford and Scott Lawson (not getting any younger), and the rest.

Not much Edinburgh can do about that other than find a stop-gap as cover, which they have, and aim to develop Lawrie and Walker as much as they can, and I have every faith that they will.

Signing NSQ players is only an issue when there are quality Scots missing out. In this case there are not. My only query is whether Andrew Kelly could have been retained.

That's a fair point - I wonder what Andy Kelly makes of this.

I'd much rather Kelly than Titterell and can't have seen Kelly costing much.

Edinburgh could field this team next season:

1.Yapp 2.Titterell 3.Nel 4.VDW 5.Cox 6.Basilia 7.Rennie 8.Talei 9.Rees 10.Laidlaw 11.Penn 12.Atiga 13.NDL 14.Sep Visser 15.Tonks

I count only 3 players eligible to play for Scotland in that XV (not sure about Tonks or Visser jnr). I do understand why each and every one of the above players was signed, but on reflection should Andrew Kelly have been fit and available, then he ought to have been retained.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Edinburgh could field this team next season:

1.Yapp 2.Titterell 3.Nel 4.VDW 5.Cox 6.Basilia 7.Rennie 8.Talei 9.Rees 10.Laidlaw 11.Penn 12.Atiga 13.NDL 14.Sep Visser 15.Tonks

I count only 3 players eligible to play for Scotland in that XV (not sure about Tonks or Visser jnr). I do understand why each and every one of the above players was signed, but on reflection should Andrew Kelly have been fit and available, then he ought to have been retained.

Visser Jr has represented Holland at international I believe.

Tonks is Scottish qualified I'm pretty sure. Again you make a fair point, but I still think we've got the balance right.

The fact that Andy Kelly is the only person we'd really prefer to the person brought in sums that up I think. Could maybe argue JT over Tonks as well but after his great form 2 years ago he's not really produced the same, and Tonks is still young ish.

From what i've heard Andy Kelly wasn't very proffesional in his approach to training and body health. Looked way off the pace last season.

The young hooker at Glasgow MacArthur looks like he could be challenging for the International bench hooker spot in the next 2 years.

I suppose we don't know the whole story - I know a lot of Al MacDonald'd friends and played rugby with him at school and apparently he was just disillusioned with pro rugby and basically couldn't be fecked anymore! Maybe Kelly was the same after 8 years as a pro.

Don't think its a big deal that he's not qualified to play for Scotland given its only for a year. He'll provide decent cover for when Ford's away and further back-up once Lawrie's back.

Oh and I think this may have been answered already but I believe Tonks is Scottish qualified through family (could be wrong) and Visser Jnr has played for the Netherlands.

Agreed that Lawson, MacArthur and Hall are behind Ford and ahead of both Lawrie and previously Kelly in the pecking order, so I can see the obvious lack of motivation.

Shame. On his day Kelly was a very decent player.

Can't make up my mind about this one - no doubting that Titterel is a handy enough player, but Kelly would have a right to feel a little hacked off

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Can't make up my mind about this one - no doubting that Titterel is a handy enough player, but Kelly would have a right to feel a little hacked off

I'm in the same boat, can't really make up my mind.

If it's true that Kelly's professionalism had become questionnable, then better he depart now before Neil Back tears him to pieces on the training ground.

A couple of barnstorming all-action performances from Titterall and I suspect I'll instantly forget he's NSQ.

Titterall is a good player - Injured a lot when at Sale and dont think he was used much at Leeds.

Quick question though. This Kelly lad - do the Scottish teams have dual registration with lower clubs?

Strikes me that if his professionalism is in question he could do with a season in the lower leagues just to let him get back to basics.

Like Tigers did with Varndell and like Quins and Irish do with Esher/Lon Scots/Richmond ect.

They have their own links amature clubs so he'll probably go back to Stewarts Mellville if he wants to keep playing.

Pro players are assigned into a club each season, but there's no loyalty there usually other than that's who they are told to play for if they aren't playing for the pro team.

Is Andy Kelly not away to London Scottish, I am sure I read a bit on another website that said he was away there with Godman and Thomson.
Good squad member but he wasn't going to progress to first choice hooker.
The player I'd like to see given another chance is Sean Crombie from Boroughmuir. Was on an EDP contract with Edinburgh about 3 years ago but was released after a season. Since then though he has been outstanding and seems to be phyically in the right condition now for pro rugby. He is a big ball carrier and was one of the top try scorers in the league and at scrummaging and line out time he is always consistant. Seems like a good leader having captained Muir and also the Scotland club team.