Edinburgh V Ospreys

First topic message reminder :

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!!!!!'

Oh crap. The O's scrum let's them down. Edinburgh penalty with less than a minute to go...they're in no rush to take this. Farck.

23-13 FT.

We've won a game!!!!!!!!

Well done RDW. The indiscipline and the absence of our best forwards cost the O's dearly.

Thanks cari - boy did we make that hard work!!!

RDW_Scotland wrote:We've won a game!!!!!!!!

YESSS!!!

Why is Tonks not in Scotland squad!?!

I thought Fife at outside centre for Edinburgh had a brilliant game.

Credit due to Edinburgh.

Feicin miracle - I'd like to credit the return of the Messiah

Parker looked pretty decent as well I thought.

Well a wins a win, but my did we make that difficult against a pretty poor Osprey's side!

Positives

We won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We didn't give them a LBP

Perry Parker and Isaak VDV had storming games in the 2nd row - very promising. VDV looks to be a good signing - tough as nails and hits the rucks hard

John Yapp continues to be one of our best players this year

Dougie Fife had a really strong game in attack

We scored a fantastic try

Alun Walker stood up well when he came on

Negatives

Ford's injury

We continue to try our best to self destruct!! Stupid mistakes, bad decisions - lucky it didn't cost us the game. All their points directly came from our mistakes

And surprisingly, that's about it!

It's the influence of the Messiah, I tell ye!

Vissers bro can expect to be cited Monday for deliberate contact to the eye area. Congrats to Edinburgh. Level of Irish refs is disgusting. How can briding be allowed one minute and penalised the next???

I hope for your sake that comes to pass otherwise you're going to look like a bit of a bitter plonker? Good luck with that

Well done burgh! Incredible stats in the second half, there's a good team lurking in there somewhere.

Pardon? You pull a player back off the ball, fair enough as it happens all of the time. Pull a player back by his nose area??? Etzebeth was cited for far far less

sheephead wrote: Level of Irish refs is disgusting.

Hope there were no balaclava's involved

Brilliant contribution artful. There were no consequences for the missiles from the terrace that day so no need to worry. Back on topic...

"Missiles from the terrace"

You are pure quality mate.

What would you call it then arful. Please enlighten me?

RDW_Scotland wrote:We've won a game!!!!!!!!

So relieving to see Edinburgh end the drought. And wow, what a try, geat handling.
Fairly streetwise in the second half although I thought that each if those charge downs was going to be a game changer. Onwards & upwards

Well done Edinburgh... We Os fans know what it is like to end a losing streak. Feels good.

Good to see an Edinburgh win. We also looked quite capable. Tanks, Fife and the entire pack had good games

Agreed Radge, Fife and Tonks played well, whist the pack turned the screw. Not a complete performance, but a win is a win.

Now....Scotland.....

A win is a win but the scrum was a bit worrying. Either Adam Jones was doing something illegal or he just handed WP Nel his own backside on a plate. I hate to say it that it was probably the latter

Scrum was a mess all game - when Jones came on their scrum was pushing early and the ref didn't have a clue what to do.

Agreed on nel - he either dominates or gets beasted with not much in between!

InjuredYetAgain wrote:A win is a win but the scrum was a bit worrying. Either Adam Jones was doing something illegal or he just handed WP Nel his own backside on a plate. I hate to say it that it was probably the latter

Think you'll find it was Duncan Jones and he wasn't binding properly and was driving in at the angle not much a TH can do about that tbf. Ref missed it the first couple of times then pinged him and told him why.

It's like the twilight zone or something. I'm here on an Edinburgh thread looking for crumbs of comfort in my rugby world!

It has to be said I was very happy with how Edinburgh played on Friday. The O's looked nowhere near the game by the end of it. I thought that big new Lock looked like a very powerful unit.

Also damn chuffed with how well our Scrum did.

Agreed - Parker looked useful, particularly his handling. Thought Hunter's kicking from hand was excellent also. He'll no doubt be dropped now as Laidlaw's back, but personally I'd reward that team for beating the Os and stick with them, perhaps with a few tweaks (e.g. Visser and Denton coming back).

Can see the Scotland guys being rested this week - got a mental schedule coming up:

Connacht away

2 HK games

2 1872 games

Leinster at home

2 HK games

All on the trot - gonna be a big few months

Lucky we have all that depth then!

Yeah, depth....

...of a small, shallow puddle being lapped up by a labradoodle.

It's good to see that for the first time this season there will probably be a bit of a selection dilema with the Scotland guys coming back. We've got a win, and some players had decent shifts (PJP, VDV, Hunter, Fife), so for once there's competition in this squad!!

Cannot believe it's taken Fife this long to get game time.

Would like to say I'm surprised that he looked sharp and dangerous, but I watched him last year and it's absolutely no surprise whatsoever. Keeping him at OC rather than on the wing could be an experiment worth perservering with...

He has been a superstar for Currie apparently, and is obviously electric with ball in hand. He looks pretty lightweight though and struggles when not in the front foot.

He's basically a younger Cairnsy - electric with ball in hand but a bit lightweight in defence!

As I said above, I really hope Bradley doesn't just rotate the whole side again. There were some really encourging performances against the Ospreys, and those four players you named above, Parker, VDV, Hunter and Fife should all start again. The Scotland players should go back to the bench. It'll give them a bit of a rest, but also tell them that there are no automatic starters at Edinburgh (Tim Visser aside).

My team for the next game:

1.Yapp 2.Ford 3.Nel 4.Parker 5.VDW 6.Cox 7.Grant 8.McInally 9.Rees 10.Hunter 11.Visser 12.Scott 13.Fife 14.Brown 15.Tonks

16.Chunk 17.Walker 18.Cross 19.Gilchrist 20.Denton 21.Laidlaw 22.Houston 23.NDL

Someone has kindly set up a thread for the Connacht game

https://www.606v2.com/t37843-connacht-v-embra