Maitland signs for Glasgow!

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Sean Maitland to Glasgow

sensisball wrote:One other point Mark Bennet at Clermont is not in the first team and barring injuries is unlikey to make the bench this season. Ahead of him in the pecking order are Fofana, Rougerrie, Benson Stanley ( the preferred bench centre, who has 3 all black caps, and has scored and set up several tries this season) and fourthly the hugely experienced Regan King (6 years as a first team player at the Scarlets).

Unless he has received assurances that he is still on the radar of Vern Cotter then he should start looking for a move sooner rather than later.

What a fantastic place to develop his rugby though. At 19, there is no need to rush. I can think of few places that would offer him the same opportunity to learn from so many established world class players.

Another couple of seasons development and he could find himself the starting 13 outside Fofana, at one of the worlds biggest clubs. I know where I would be staying.

When can Maitland be added to H-cup squad?

Feel sorry for Troy Nathan, he seams to really try for the team and settle in, like when at Connacht, watching the all Ireland Hurling etc not a bad player either, but just not getting games for Glasgow, a move over to Edinburgh may be whats best for him,

EST wrote:

sensisball wrote:One other point Mark Bennet at Clermont is not in the first team and barring injuries is unlikey to make the bench this season. Ahead of him in the pecking order are Fofana, Rougerrie, Benson Stanley ( the preferred bench centre, who has 3 all black caps, and has scored and set up several tries this season) and fourthly the hugely experienced Regan King (6 years as a first team player at the Scarlets).

Unless he has received assurances that he is still on the radar of Vern Cotter then he should start looking for a move sooner rather than later.

What a fantastic place to develop his rugby though. At 19, there is no need to rush. I can think of few places that would offer him the same opportunity to learn from so many established world class players.

Another couple of seasons development and he could find himself the starting 13 outside Fofana, at one of the worlds biggest clubs. I know where I would be staying.

+1

Bennett will be around for a long time, no need to rush him - quite happy for him to stay part of the Clermont academy

Out of interest, at what point ought we to be concerned about Bennett not having played professional rugby?

I suggested that this season ought to be his last, as he'll be 20/21 next season by which time most serious prospects are at least getting regular top flight rugby.

I am a patient man, and the fact that NDL, Dunbar, Grove, Ansbro and Evans are all on the scene certainly affords us the opportunity to be patient on this supposed demi-God of rugby. Were he a tighthead prop I'd feel differently!!

fES, if he's any good, he should graduate from the academy this summer and with any luck he'll be given a full time pro contract at ASM by the excellent Vern Cotter (a fine judge if talent if ever I saw one)

....and if he's not any good he'll probably come to Edinburgh...

WOW

Troy and Toonie seem to have had a falling out...

Whether this is due to the SRU edict of Scottish players first or due to Troy being a Lineen man I'm not quite sure but it wouldn't honestly surprise me to see him leaving at the end of the season if he doesn't start getting some gametime.

Which is a real pity for Glasgow as he is a classy player with ball in hand and a genuine gentleman to boot...

How Glasgow could have used Troy Nathan against us at Scotstoun... big booming boot from midfield pinning us back. Wouldn't have been easy to deal with.

Townsend does not rate him and as he is very much a Sean Lineen man Nathan is frozen out. Wonder what will happen if Sean Maitland , also a Lineen man, falls out with him ?

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:Townsend does not rate him and as he is very much a Sean Lineen man Nathan is frozen out. Wonder what will happen if Sean Maitland , also a Lineen man, falls out with him ?

There's quite a talent gap between Nathan and Maitland though. I can't say I'm not dusappointed he's not played much this season. Things seemed to happen when he was on the pitch last year.

Whilst Nathan isnt in the same class as Maitland, as a centre i would rather have him instead of McGuigan in the Heino squad. Particulalry with Weir's absence and Jackson's poor form having a good kicking option from hand at 12 would have been very useful.

Given Horne's injury last week Toonie may be forced to play Nathan against Treviso this weekend. If so, it will be interesting to see how influental he is.

Sean Maitland is at Scotstoun to meet the press this morning.

McKibben looks like he's chosen the Ozzy's over us...

Yup saw that - wonder what Maitland's thinking about the mess he's come to!

nickj wrote:McKibben looks like he's chosen the Ozzy's over us...

Dammit. He's from the same town as me too. He was always going to favour the Aussies though.

Oops just realised my Freudian slip. Unless, of course, a certain aging rock start named Osbourne is starting up a team...

http://www.glasgowwarriors.org/news/5198-maitland-moves-in

Boom. A shard of light in a pretty dark old week...

Jaysus. I'm glad he waited until after we visited you. We needed the points.

I can't say that I have seen too much of Maitland on the TV but are we not getting a bit over-excited and expecting a lot/too much from this guy? The Scottish teams have been stung before by "top rated" Kiwis - Dave Hewitt???

InjuredYetAgain wrote:I can't say that I have seen too much of Maitland on the TV but are we not getting a bit over-excited and expecting a lot/too much from this guy? The Scottish teams have been stung before by "top rated" Kiwis - Dave Hewitt???

If you had watched Sean play before you would see he is definitely the real deal. He is a try scoring machine, plenty gas, good skill set, kicking game and can defend. If you look at the NZ press a lot of the fans and pundits are saying he is one of the best players never to be capped by the all blacks.
Can't wait to see him play over here.

That's good news, M83 but I am just nervous that we are expecting far too much from him (and to a lesser extent, Bennett).

I think the expectation around Maitland is high because the stats and previous performances back it up. He might take a few games to hit the ground running but once he does he will be worth the admission fee.
If you go on to youtube there are a few good highlight clips off him.

The difference with Maitland is that he's proved himself time and again at a high level, and is in the prime of his career.

Hewitt, laney etc were each missing at least one of those things!

InjuredYetAgain wrote:That's good news, M83 but I am just nervous that we are expecting far too much from him (and to a lesser extent, Bennett).

Nope, Bennett is the Messiah. It's official. Fact. End of. Actually, see that painting by da Vinci, that's Bennett in the middle, not that other bloke

I feel for Bennett

I've never seen him play but he is getting (on here at least) a tag around his neck saying "saviour of Scottish Rugby"

Is he that good? In all honesty!!!

Are we heaping too much onto a young guy? Does he know about this expectation? Does he care?

Maitland has been playing top lvl rugby for years and has a proven track record so I'm not concerned about him at all.

But Bennett, are we going to crush him with expectation?

Tattie - Bennett is a confident young buck and when I watched him play for Ayr, I must admit that he seemed head and shoulders above the other folk on the park. Depends entirely what he's got out of the Clermont experience watch Fofana and Rougerie train.

But all joking aside, players disappoint for a number of reasons and he needs a solid pro season first before he even looks at an international jersey.

No offense to the Ayr boys, but playing in a game at that level is night and day to playing international.

This is my concern. The way some posters go on about Bennett you'd think he was brian o'driscoll and Ma'a Nonu rolled into one with the game reading ability of Carter.

If you stuck marcus di rollo in a prem 1 game, he'd look better than the rest too.

ok, maybe not, but my point still stands

Don't disagree with any of that.

Apart from Di Rollo looking good in a Prem 1 game.

tigertattie wrote:No offense to the Ayr boys, but playing in a game at that level is night and day to playing international.

This is my concern. The way some posters go on about Bennett you'd think he was brian o'driscoll and Ma'a Nonu rolled into one with the game reading ability of Carter.

If you stuck marcus di rollo in a prem 1 game, he'd look better than the rest too.

ok, maybe not, but my point still stands

Your lack of buying into the exaggeration game does you no favour at all, Tattie - the Messiah is considerably better than those journeymen that you list

PS if we don't keep this up, we'll have to think of s/thing else to get fES annoyed about

tigertattie wrote:No offense to the Ayr boys, but playing in a game at that level is night and day to playing international.

This is my concern. The way some posters go on about Bennett you'd think he was brian o'driscoll and Ma'a Nonu rolled into one with the game reading ability of Carter.

If you stuck marcus di rollo in a prem 1 game, he'd look better than the rest too.

ok, maybe not, but my point still stands

I watched Di Rollo playing prem 2 last season, he was not a standout.

Oh god, it'll never get worse than di rollo! What did he do exactly?

funnyExiledScot wrote:Oh god, it'll never get worse than di rollo! What did he do exactly?

More than de Luca...

I don't agree with the argument that we are putting too much pressure on Bennett. O'Driscoll started for Ireland before Leinster's senior team, if I'm not mistaken and Gatland did it with Prydie. Had Bennett stayed in Scotland, he'd have a handful of caps by now, even with the injury. Well... maybe not given Robinson would have been picking the team. Ultimately, when Scotland are shipping 50 points at home with a player who has 40 caps in the centres, I don't think Scotland really have that much to lose by giving the likes of Bennett a chance. I'm not suggesting he should have been picked whilst playing for Clermont's youth team but a few decent outings for Glasgow should get him picked for the Six Nations.

Does Bennet shoite out gold bullion or something? I cannot understand what all the hype is about!

He went to Clermont and couldn't break into the senior side and all of a sudden we think he is the saviour of Scottish rugby?

This is insane!

Maitland on the other hand is a differant kettle of fish. He has excelled at the highest level and warrants his hype and excitement. Bennet.... what exactly has he done to get so much hype?

Here we go again....


For all the negativity about Scottish rugby just now, I think we should all take a step back and remember that our best option at 13 used to be Di Rollo.....!!!!!

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Does Bennet shoite out gold bullion or something? I cannot understand what all the hype is about!

He went to Clermont and couldn't break into the senior side and all of a sudden we think he is the saviour of Scottish rugby?

This is insane!

Maitland on the other hand is a differant kettle of fish. He has excelled at the highest level and warrants his hype and excitement. Bennet.... what exactly has he done to get so much hype?

He was once seen taking and passing the ball in one sweet movement.

No more needs to be said

He is the Messiah

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Does Bennet shoite out gold bullion or something? I cannot understand what all the hype is about!

He went to Clermont and couldn't break into the senior side and all of a sudden we think he is the saviour of Scottish rugby?

This is insane!

Maitland on the other hand is a differant kettle of fish. He has excelled at the highest level and warrants his hype and excitement. Bennet.... what exactly has he done to get so much hype?

He was once seen taking and passing the ball in one sweet movement.

No more needs to be said

He is the Messiah

just what Scotland need!

Cryptoyourisan wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:Oh god, it'll never get worse than di rollo! What did he do exactly?

More than de Luca...

I don't agree with the argument that we are putting too much pressure on Bennett. O'Driscoll started for Ireland before Leinster's senior team, if I'm not mistaken and Gatland did it with Prydie. Had Bennett stayed in Scotland, he'd have a handful of caps by now, even with the injury. Well... maybe not given Robinson would have been picking the team. Ultimately, when Scotland are shipping 50 points at home with a player who has 40 caps in the centres, I don't think Scotland really have that much to lose by giving the likes of Bennett a chance. I'm not suggesting he should have been picked whilst playing for Clermont's youth team but a few decent outings for Glasgow should get him picked for the Six Nations.

You are correct regarding BOD, but then again he is the finest NH back of his generation. Not sure citing Tom Pyrdie helps your argument.

I completely agree with your last sentence though. In fact I'd like him to make his Glasgow debut at the end of December so that I can see him live. I'd consider it a pilgrimage to Murrayfield, and I shall find the stadium by following the yonder star.....

Hud on. No one told me Bennett could pass.................

Ok. All OTT claims about the 2nd coming of christ can continue

Actually, is a Scottish Back passing the ball not one of the signs of the appocolypse? Those Mayans could have been onto something!

funnyExiledScot wrote:

Cryptoyourisan wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:Oh god, it'll never get worse than di rollo! What did he do exactly?

More than de Luca...

I don't agree with the argument that we are putting too much pressure on Bennett. O'Driscoll started for Ireland before Leinster's senior team, if I'm not mistaken and Gatland did it with Prydie. Had Bennett stayed in Scotland, he'd have a handful of caps by now, even with the injury. Well... maybe not given Robinson would have been picking the team. Ultimately, when Scotland are shipping 50 points at home with a player who has 40 caps in the centres, I don't think Scotland really have that much to lose by giving the likes of Bennett a chance. I'm not suggesting he should have been picked whilst playing for Clermont's youth team but a few decent outings for Glasgow should get him picked for the Six Nations.

You are correct regarding BOD, but then again he is the finest NH back of his generation. Not sure citing Tom Pyrdie helps your argument.

I completely agree with your last sentence though. In fact I'd like him to make his Glasgow debut at the end of December so that I can see him live. I'd consider it a pilgrimage to Murrayfield, and I shall find the stadium by following the yonder star.....

What I was getting at is that there would be nothing to lose by playing my gran when our first-choice players are an embarrassment anyway. The All Blacks often leapfrog players from the ANZ/ITM Cup straight into the senior squad without Super Rugby as well, at least for the autumn tours. I would rather see an inexperienced player thrown in at the deep end and given a chance to impress than let a player become more experienced and lose a bit of 'x factor'. I don't really subscribe to the idea that players can be over-coached but I think it is true of some players.