Edinburgh V Ospreys

Well unfortunately for us Edinburgh fans it's back to club rugby after a few weeks respite! The phrase 'surely it can't get any worse??' has been used about 18 times now in the past 6 weeks, so hell I'm going to say it again - surely it can't get any worse??

Hopefully the break will have done Edinburgh good and made them remind themselves that they are actually good rugby players, or at least know how to tackle and catch a ball.

Injury wise Edinburgh probably don't have a number 8, with Talei and Basalaia injured and Denton and McInally on Scotland duty. So looks like it will be the ginger midget at number 8, with a very lightweight backrow of Hamish Watson and Sean Cox at 6.

Ospreys aren't having much fun with injuries either, with half of Wales currently injured!

So could either be a cracker and Edinburgh finally click and run riot, or could lead to us saying next week - 'surely it can't get any worse!!!!!'

At least the ospreys will be without Ryan Jones, Paul James, Justin Tipuric, Kahn Fotualii, possibly Ian Evans and Ashley Beck(though not playing for wales this weekend), Biggar (though Morgan is more than capable of running riot).

Other than that, cant say im rubbing my hands. If Dirksen runs in a wonder try like last time at murrayfield, I will shake my fist and grumble to myself.

Am looking forward to this - Edinburgh never cease to find new ways to be urine poor.

Am positively damp with excitement about which way they'll find to look great, make 270 offloads and still conspire to lose the match this time.

I'm past caring

I'll be going - ever hopeful.

What would really please me would be if the following side were picked:

1. Yapp 2. Titterall 3. Nel 4. Gilchrist 5. Vdw 6. Cox 7. Grant 8. Mcinally 9. Rees 10. Leonard 11. Fife 12. King 13. Cairns 14. Jones 15. Tonks

Enough excuses, edinburgh should be winning this game.

Would be great to see Cairnsy back - they said he would be back around now.

I'm actually having minor heart surgery tomorrow (no joke!) so will have to see how I feel on Friday before deciding to go.

Now that's commitment to your team!!!

All the best with that!

I'd have thought watching edinburgh would not be recommended after such an op!

Ha - it's to fix problems with my heart beating far too quickly (peaked at 240bpm!!!) so Edinburgh games might be a good thing - not much to get excited about!

At a guess the Ospreys side will look something like

Fussel, Walker, Isaacs, Bishop, Dirkson, Morgan, Webb; D Jones, Dwyner, J Rees, Gough, J Thomas, Bearman, S Lewis, Stowers.

Considering who is missing for one reason or another that is a pretty feice side.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Would be great to see Cairnsy back - they said he would be back around now.

I'm actually having minor heart surgery tomorrow (no joke!) so will have to see how I feel on Friday before deciding to go.

Now that's commitment to your team!!!

All the best for the op.

Well if you get the chance to speak to the surgeon, tell him we need 15 good hearts for transplant purposes at edinburgh rugby, and a few sets of proper hard nuts well!

ScarletSpiderman wrote:At a guess the Ospreys side will look something like

Fussel, Walker, Isaacs, Bishop, Dirkson, Morgan, Webb; D Jones, Dwyner, J Rees, Gough, J Thomas, Bearman, S Lewis, Stowers.

Considering who is missing for one reason or another that is a pretty feice side.

That wouldn't be far off the side i'd expect, Joe Rees is injured though so we will be down to our 4th choice tighthead.

Right - sounds like no excuses for Edinburgh, this is going to very much be a 2nd string Ospreys! It is a 2nd string Edinburgh too but should still have enough - surely!

Good luck with the OP RDW, I'll be watching from home if it's on Alba. I'm not preparing to spend anymore money on Edinburgh untill they prove themselves worthy of my attendence.

I'm not spending 35 quid on my ticket / train fare to sit in a freezing cold, empty Murrayfield when we are playing so poorly. We have a couple of weeks to turn it around before I consider the 1872 trip.

Agreed, that is a strong ospreys side but we should be good enough to prevail at home. As you are all aware, I'm getting sick of bradley's soft regime. The ospreys have talent at 9 and 10 and real pace in the back three, anymore powder puff defending and switching off from the edinburgh defence and this will be another home defeat. Intensity, defence and clever tactics required. Particularly intensity and defence. We must put their half backs under massive pressure.

I reckon they should be told that for every try they concede Neil Back will take a sledge hammer to one of their X-box games. If they concede 4 tries, their X-boxes and plasma TVs will be destroyed.

That'll get them motivated!

Good luck with the op, RDW. On the mend soon big feller.

Thanks guys.

Planning on making my last words to the missus before I go in "if anything happens, the first thing you must do is let the guys on 606V2 know so they can open a virtual pub in my honour!"

I'm sure that will go down well….!

Hope all goes well, RDW, am sure it will

McInally isn't in the Scotland squad so looks like we'll not have to put up with the ginger midget at 8.

Must be gutting to get so close to a Scotland cap then lose the opportunity straight away...

Thanks ASBO.

Ahm...., who is the ginger midget, is it Roddy Grant?

RDW_Scotland wrote:McInally isn't in the Scotland squad so looks like we'll not have to put up with the ginger midget at 8.

Must be gutting to get so close to a Scotland cap then lose the opportunity straight away...

but Gilchrist is on the bench

All the best RDW In the nicest possible way, I hope Edinburgh don't give you too much to get excited about

Aye the ginger midget is Roddy Grant - his official stats are 5ft 10 or something but I've stood next to him and he's pretty short! Massive guns like....

Wikipedia has him at 6 ft, but then wikipedia isn't the most reliable source.

If gilchrist can't play I suspect mcalpine will come in to play with vdw at lock, with cox at 6. Not ideal, would prefer nick campbell at 4 to understudy gilchrist but there you are.

funnyExiledScot wrote:If gilchrist can't play I suspect mcalpine will come in to play with vdw at lock, with cox at 6. Not ideal, would prefer nick campbell at 4 to understudy gilchrist but there you are.

I agree fES. There needs to be more joined up thinking in the SRU with regards to players moving between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Its criminal that a talent like Campbell is getting zero game time at Pro level, whilst Edinburgh signed two non Scottish qualified 2nd rows during the summer.

Artful_Dodger wrote:Wikipedia has him at 6 ft, but then wikipedia isn't the most reliable source.

Wikipedia = "written by subject's mum".

RDW all the best with the op.

Will be at Murrayfield on Friday and hope to see you around there soon.

JS

Dirksen won't be playing. He's in the US at the moment. He's also needing surgery. Maybe grabham will start.

Grabham is pretty handy and walker and ross jones look good.

its not a bad ospreys side bar TH where we are currently in dire straits

Maes: hopefully it will give someone a chance to grab some experience. With the backs I've been impressed with walkers start to the season. I thought he would have been pack to the prem after last season

See the BBC about Dirksen. Told you =D. At least it will hive him the close season as extra recovery

Edinburgh Rugby team v Ospreys
Murrayfield (KO 7.05pm)

15 Greig Tonks



14 Sep Visser

13 Dougie Fife
12 James King
11 Tom Brown



10 Gregor Hunter

9 Richie Rees

1 John Yapp

2 Ross Ford

3 Willem Nel

4 Perry Parker

5 Izak van der Westhuizen
6 Sean Cox CAPTAIN

7 Roddy Grant

8 Stuart McInally



Substitutes
16 Alun Walker

17 Allan Jacobsen

18 Lewis Niven

19 Robert McAlpine

20 Hamish Watson

21 Chris Leck

22 John Houston

23 Mike Penn

Ford & McInally start, not the strongest side but hopefully the couple of weeks off will have given a chance to focus minds and draw a line under the poor recent form. No sign of Leonard for some reason, not listed as injured.

Is Atiga injured?

Not a bad side - Fife in the centre shouldn't be too much of a problem for him offensively, he's got great hands and is quite 'heads up' due to all the 7s training. Great to see him start.

Absolutely no idea why Cox is captain instead of the Ginger Midget though.

It's taken him about a milleneum to arrive but let's see what big Izak's got.

Shame Alun Walker is on the bench. He is about as effective as a chocolate fireguard

Ospreys team to face Edinburgh

The Ospreys team to face Edinburgh at Murrayfield on Friday 23rd November, KO 19.05, is as follows:




15 Richard Fussell
14 Tom Isaacs

13 Andrew Bishop

12 Jonathan Spratt

11 Eli Walker

10 Matthew Morgan

9 Rhys Webb



1 Ryan Bevington

2 Scott Baldwin

3 Owen Williams

4 Lloyd Peers

5 James King

6 George Stowers

7 Sam Lewis

8 Joe Bearman (Capt)



REPLACEMENTS

16 Duncan Jones

17 Matthew Dwyer

18 Nicky Thomas

19 Ian Gough

20 Morgan Allen

21 Tom Habberfield

22 Sam Davies

23 Ross Jones

Howd the surgery go RDW?

Hi guys, all went well and am just recovering in hospital now.

Probably won't be fit to go tomorrow so guess I'll just have to settle for the biased Welsh commentary!

good to hear. I was thinking about starting up your memorial pub, even had it typed out, but then I thought if you had actually popped your cloggs, it wouldnt be too funny.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Hi guys, all went well and am just recovering in hospital now.

Probably won't be fit to go tomorrow so guess I'll just have to settle for the biased Welsh commentary!

Good man. Nice to have you back.

Glad to hear it went well RDW

RDW, great that everything went to plan - take it easy for a while tho.

I have a funny feeling that Burgh might actually start the turnaround of their otherwise-calamitous-to-date season - just a feeling, not an expectation (so no accusations of arrogance from O's fans, pls )

Both have good teams out, I said a while ago that this would be th egame the Edinburgh team come together and put in a performance, don't see it now though, think Ospreys to win, best Burgh can do this season is finish in 7th

RDW_Scotland wrote:Hi guys, all went well and am just recovering in hospital now.

Probably won't be fit to go tomorrow so guess I'll just have to settle for the biased Welsh commentary!

Listening to them won't be good for your ticker, best just watch it on mute.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Hi guys, all went well and am just recovering in hospital now.

Probably won't be fit to go tomorrow so guess I'll just have to settle for the biased Welsh commentary!

Not in Welsh Commentary though !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

glad yer not RDW.

stay off the 's for a bit mind!

don't go at the commentary tonight though

(Yes, I'm bored at work)