Edinburgh V Blues

Edinburgh

15 Greig Tonks

14 Dougie Fife
13 Nick De Luca
12 Ben Atiga
11 Lee Jones

10 Gregor Hunter
9 Richie Rees

1 John Yapp
2 Steven Lawrie CAPTAIN
3 Geoff Cross
4 Grant Gilchrist
5 Izak van der Westhuizen
6 David Denton
7 Stuart McInally
8 Netani Talei

Substitutes
16 Andy Titterrell
17 Allan Jacobsen
18 Willem Nel
19 Sean Cox
20 Hamish Watson
21 Chris Leck
22 Harry Leonard
23 Tom Brown


Blues

15) Jason Tovey 14) Owen Williams 13) Richard Smith 12) Gavin Evans (c) 11) Harry Robinson 10) Rhys Patchell 9) Lewis Jones

8) Robin Copeland 7) Thomas Young 6) Josh Navidi 5) James Down 4) Michael Paterson 3) Scott Andrews 2) Marc Breeze 1) Taufa'ao Filise

16) Kristian Dacey 17) Sam Hobbs 18) Benoit Bourrust 19) Lou Reed 20) Andries Pretorius 21) Alex Walker 22) Gareth Davies 23) Chris Czekaj

Some interesting selections there from Bradley, the main points being:

There are double the number of Scottish players starting than last week

Geoff Cross is obviously needing game time for Ireland the week after

Denton will hopefully be a snarling beast and take all his frustrations out on the Blues

Piers Francis has been dropped to go play for Heriots

Gregor Hunter gets a start!

Lee Jones is starting


As always that looks a decent team on paper but you just never know with this team any more.

If we lose to a 2nd string Blues team at home we might as well throw in the towel and just not play our other games.

I'm really hoping John Welsh gets called up for the Ireland game, a much sounder prop than Cross even playing at 3

Aye Cross got himself in good shape for the world cup and was a decent player then – now though he just looks like he can’t be arsed.

BTW no disrespect meant for the Blues – I was meaning that a lot of these players are perceived to be a lot better than our season suggests, and if they lose to a 2nd string Blues team at home then they are conforming what we feared all along.

It's interesting that NDL is back in the side. Guess he's back from injury early.

I'm very pleased with this team - delighted to see Hunter at 10 and Leonard on the bench, and it's great to see NDL back at 13.

Lawrie as captain is a huge statement of intent for the young lad, he's a top prospect, and I'm pleased that Cox is on the bench rather than at 6. Chance for Denton now to show what he can do - he needs a good game.

Looking forward to tomorrow a bit more now that I've seen our team, although I'd have started Brown on the wing ahead of Lee Jones.

On a more disappointing note Ross Rennie is STILL not back. Suggest that signals the end of his 6N, and therefore lions, involvement.

Been very frustrating that the SRU haven't said a word about Rennie's injury or recovery time, not a good sign.

Atiga starting again! Why?

2-yr contract Francis dropped entirely - why was he given 2 years?

Better looking Embra side than last week tho

With Matt Scott on Scotland duty and James King injured (I think) I'm not surprised that Atiga is starting.

The other option would have been NDL at 12 and Cairns at 13, which has worked in the past, but to my mind NDL has never really been a 12, and deserves to come back into his better position.

Quite why Francis was given 2 years I'll never know. Am delighted that Hunter is starting though, and hopefully we can see a bit of Leonard off the bench as well.

To be fair, Atiga has been significantly better in the new year than he was in the first half of the season. He’s a strong carrier and hasn’t looked so flat footed in defence as he used to be.

Nothing special, but I don’t think we’re missing much by having him play over King or Houston.

I agree RDW - where Atiga is good is the contact area and in recent weeks his directness has added something. He's a pretty physical guy and although his pace has been off the mark, he does relish tackling.

I don't think he'll ever be a world beater for us, but I do think his biggest problem was that he started the season nowhere close to being fit, so in the first few games he was just a passenger. It's probably taken him close to 6 months to get match fit.

I think it was a mistake signing him, and I don't think we need keep him longer than his contract. But whilst we have him we may as well extract what we can, and right now he's not bad cover.

To be fair to Cross I thought he did ok in the AI's, and I thought Welsh was a loosie? or can he play both?

Anyway thank goodness Francis has been binned. He should have been shown the door after the 1872 matches. Hunter has been in fine form and I would like to see him establish himself at 10 and leave Wee Greig to bed in at 9.

Atiga though? Oh my goodness why is he in there?

Although I would keep the Scotland squad unchanged as much as possible I hope DeLuca can come back well and push Lamont for a start in some of the 6N games, despite Lamont taking his try well I would like to see our back 3 get more of the ball, their chances of doing so increace if a centre like DeLuca, Grove or Ansbro play.

Blues team

15) Jason Tovey 14) Owen Williams 13) Richard Smith 12) Gavin Evans (c) 11) Harry Robinson 10) Rhys Patchell 9) Lewis Jones

8) Robin Copeland 7) Thomas Young 6) Josh Navidi 5) James Down 4) Michael Paterson 3) Scott Andrews 2) Marc Breeze 1) Taufa'ao Filise

16) Kristian Dacey 17) Sam Hobbs 18) Benoit Bourrust 19) Lou Reed 20) Andries Pretorius 21) Alex Walker 22) Gareth Davies 23) Chris Czekaj



Not available for selection:
Dafydd Hewitt- Fractured cheeckbone, back mid March

Andi Kyriacou- Neck operation, return in April

Cory Hill- Knee injury, return in early March

Dan Fish- Suffered shoulder nerve palsy in match against Zebre, return mid March

Tom James- Fractured sesamoid (big toe) return in late February

Jake Copper-Woolley- right knee ACL injury, return mid March

Tom Davies- ACL knee reconstruction, back in April

Tom Williams- Shoulder dislocation, back in May

The Blues are right up there with Edinburgh in terms of having a disappointing season, so this one should be a real race to the bottom.

I'm expecting slapstick tomorrow.

The Blues were expecting a poor season though, unlike Edinburgh who would have wanted to kick on from the HC last season.

Blues pack looks good, (not that I have seen them play for weeks because the games havent been televised), Paterson, Navdi and Copeland will cause problems for any opposition.

Richard Smith did an excellent job in the one game he has played this season - still, I would rather have seen Czekaj on the wing and O.Williams in the centre (a smith-williams midfield would have been interesting)

The Blues would have been disappointed last week and will really want a win this weekend. Plenty of forward strength off the bench too, our replacement from row is an equal for the one starting, and we can also bring in an international lock and our club captain.

Blues by 8

Really thought we'd see Warbs having a game this week, he's firmly behind Tipuric and may not get a huge amount of game time till after the 6N, a runout is just what he needs!!

Is this game televised? Looking forward to Paterson getting back to where he was.

Not on TV.

I can't imagine the TV stations fighting for this one - it ought to come with a health warning for the clinically depressed!!

I shall be there, shouting my usual cocktail of encouragement and abuse at the Edinburgh players!

Having said all I have, I going to say Edinburgh by 3-5 points.

funnyExiledScot wrote:I can't imagine the TV stations fighting for this one - it ought to come with a health warning for the clinically depressed!!

I shall be there, shouting my usual cocktail of encouragement and abuse at the Edinburgh players!

Having said all I have, I going to say Edinburgh by 3-5 points.

You said the same thing about the Italy game. Am I to expect another 20 point thrashing?

RDW_Scotland wrote:

If we lose to a 2nd string Blues team at home we might as well throw in the towel and just not play our other games.

Wouldnt call that a Blues 2nd string, its their 1st side except for Halfpenny, Cuthbert, Warburton and Roberts !

Blues are missing Bradley Davies and Reed in the second row (reed on the bench)

Warburton from the backrow (Thomas Young is 3rd choice though, behind Rory Watt-Jones)

Lloyd Williams from SH

Jamie Roberts and his replacement Daffydd Hewitt in the centres

And Tom James, Czekaj (bench), Halfpenny, Cuthbert, and Fish from the back 3.

Im not too fussed about Atiga starting tbh, he hasnt done much, but that includes not doing much wrong. The same cant be said for F.S.Francis.

A lot of people voted for Atiga for worst player of the season a few months ago which I think was a bit harsh considering Jones's performances. I think the club just over sold him to us a bit, had he come in quietly and without the club hyping him up every time his name gets mentioned, people would be fairly content with him. He's defensively sound, and has shown flashes of something more lurking under all that extra weight.


Oh and thank goodness Hunter is getting a start. Might actually go to the game after all.

The Samaritans are setting up a special helpline for fans of both sides

wales606 wrote:Blues are missing Bradley Davies and Reed in the second row (reed on the bench)

Warburton from the backrow (Thomas Young is 3rd choice though, behind Rory Watt-Jones)

Lloyd Williams from SH

Jamie Roberts and his replacement Daffydd Hewitt in the centres

And Tom James, Czekaj (bench), Halfpenny, Cuthbert, and Fish from the back 3.

As i stated in an earlier post only 4 internationals missing, Jones is a better 9 than Williams, and all the rest are injured.
Edinburgh have 4 internationals out, and a few youngsters playing, and the rest are injured.
So nothing in it.

Not better than williams, and bd is definitely still an international.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:I can't imagine the TV stations fighting for this one - it ought to come with a health warning for the clinically depressed!!

I shall be there, shouting my usual cocktail of encouragement and abuse at the Edinburgh players!

Having said all I have, I going to say Edinburgh by 3-5 points.

You said the same thing about the Italy game. Am I to expect another 20 point thrashing?

Hey, I'm on a roll predicting the correct outcomes of games (a roll of one game).

I wouldn't expect a 20 point thrashing. It usually takes Edinburgh 5 or 6 games to accumulate 20 points (or 10 games in the HC).

Some good fighting talk from De Luca in the Hootsman today - saying that he's probably used to having to spin out these kind of liens these days.

For what it's worth I think Edinburgh will manage to scrape a win today - on paper we are technically better at home than the Blues I think and if the players manage to make only 20 mistakes instead of the usual 50 per game I think we'll win!

Also Bradley in the Hootsmon saying that he's still on the recruiting trail - would somebody pls take that pen away from him? No more duffers!

Interesting that Greame Lowe was responsible for a lot of the signings – including Atiga. Also interesting that Bradley wanted an experienced ten but the SRU gave him Francis!

All in all I feel a bit sorry for Bradley – he’s had a lot of these players forced on him.

I was about to make a post shooting down Bradley as a moron when it comes to signings, but it sounds from what you say like he didn't have much choice.

The lack of transparency at the SRU is appauling. Who is responsible for these signings??

Sure, Bradley is a terrible coach and can't pick a team, so I'm delighted he's leaving, but whoever picked Francis and Atiga should also be fired.

That has really annoyed me actually – Bradley asks for an experienced 10 and the SRU give him a young, unproven player based on the recommendation of Wayne Smith who was in the country for 5 days. I suspect no one had even seen him play.

I wonder the same about Atiga as well. Who from the SRU actually went out to Japan and watched him play and train? Who conducted the physical assessment to determine his fitness?

I think the SRU have probably been signing players based on YouTube clips.

Surely they consulted Bradley before foisting Francis on him? Surely he had to sign off that this was the player he was looking for??

It's a shame he has so little faith in Hunter and Leonard. Not sure why he needed another 10.

Apparently Lowe was the man picking these players, if true then delighted he's gone as well. Here's the chat from the Scotsman:

By DAVID FERGUSON
Published on Friday 15 February 2013 00:00


MICHAEL Bradley called on his players to show what they are made of in the final eight games of the season, starting against Cardiff at Murrayfield tonight, but refused to blame them for his demise.


The head coach was told at the start of the week that his two-year contract, which ends in May, will not be renewed, after his failure to build on last season’s Heineken Cup semi-final achievement and push the team into contention for the RaboDirect PRO12 play-offs.

It did not came as a major shock and Bradley agreed that results this season – a Heineken Cup whitewash and just four league wins – were poor, but the Irishman was disappointed to be called in by SRU chief executive Mark Dodson because he believes he could have plotted significant improvement if given more time.

He said: “Personally, I’m disappointed because I’ve enjoyed my time in Edinburgh and feel we have a good squad. The results haven’t been good enough and I accept that, but the quality is there and it will come to the fore. The new coaching team will be very happy with the squad they have going forward.

“As the head man in terms of the rugby side of things you have to take responsibility for the results and they haven’t been good enough.”

Asked if he felt let down by his players, or fellow coaches, he said: “You can use the words ‘let down’ or ‘disappointed’, but we as a squad and group of people representing Edinburgh Rugby haven’t done ourselves proud or justice in terms of the investment and potential.

“You look at the players we’ve brought in and what should be produced on the pitch and it hasn’t been a really consistent, good performance by the side.

“It’s been massively up and down, inconsistent, lack of concentration, but without going into all the detail there is still a good squad there and a strong team, maybe even better for the experience because this has harnessed them and they’re fighting for their reputations now.

“I don’t think they need to react to that [his sacking], but they do need to react to the requirement to win at home, play good rugby and be combative on the pitch. When they do that they’ll win matches. Coaches change on a regular basis, but when they wear the jersey they have to perform at a certain level.

“I think the players are looking forward to the match, hopefully a home win, and then seven more matches, three at home, and I believe that these guys will finish the season quite strong.

“But the players have to do it now. You bring the cattle to the water, but they have to drink themselves.

“They have to produce the goods on the day. They have been given the opportunity but they have to take it and hopefully they’ll be fighting for it this weekend.”

Few Edinburgh supporters will be crying into their beers after witnessing a woeful season, and Dodson may have felt he had little option as attendances start to fall again. But whatever anyone thinks of Bradley’s coaching, he is paying the price for the failings of others too.

Graham Lowe, the now-departed SRU director of performance rugby, made many of the signings that have so far failed to gel, including one-cap All Black Ben Atiga, and crucially when Bradley asked the SRU for support in signing an international fly-half, Argentine Ignacio Mieres, to provide experience and reliable goal-kicking, and bring on his crop of young stand-offs, he was turned down.

He was available for less than most other signings, but Lowe, backed by Dodson and then national coach Andy Robinson, disagreed with Bradley’s view that an experienced fly-half was what Edinburgh required. The SRU later brought in Piers Francis, a young, raw fly-half, to add competition to a stable already housing promising young Scots Harry Leonard and Gregor Hunter.

Intriguingly, Bradley has dropped Francis after a poor showing against Munster, restoring Hunter to the No 10 jersey tonight, and said yesterday he still would like to “complete the job” by signing an experienced stand-off to support the youngsters. Mieres has just signed for Exeter so he is no longer a target.

The Irishman did not have great support either from Billy McGinty, a defence coach who whose defence is the league’s worst statistically, and Neil Back, brought in despite a similarly brief coaching CV, and whose pack has been maddeningly inconsistent.

Whether six months was sufficient time for the coaches to gel, and bring together a squad with 15 newcomers, also remains a moot point.

But Bradley has no interest in apportioning blame elsewhere, and could not hide from the results even if he wanted to.

It will be difficult for the coach to retain the motivation of a side when effectively already sacked, but he is a strong character.

And with a team that has under-performed to Edinburgh’s extent this season a strong finish is Bradley’s last hope of leaving a positive legacy, and perhaps of persuading other clubs that he is worth a shot

Mieres has just left Exeter for Wuss - I suspect that reflects the overall level of accuracy of the general reporting. Why is the Scottish (actually not unique to them) media so Poopie?

To be fair I wouldn't have wanted Mieres to sign either.

With Laidlaw at 9 and Scott and NDL in the centres, there's enough experience and quality to support developing a young stand-off. Tonks can even shoulder the responsibility of kicking from hand.

Had the backline and backrow both been raw, I'd understand needing a wise old head at 10, but we have an all international back row and centre pairing, with an international goal kicking scrum half.

It's the perfect mix for Hunter and Leonard to come into, and possibly Alex Blair or another young 10 as well as a third option. Had we signed Mieres I've no doubt that for the next 3 years we'd be watching an NSQ hold down the 10 jersey at Edinburgh, leaving only Glasgow to produce all of Scotland's credible options at 10. With only two pro teams we cannot afford to cut down our options like that, particularly in a position where there isn't really an exile option (unless you're willing to wind the clock back on Gordon Ross).

The statements above show to me that Bradley still doesn't get it.

Instead of all these non NSQ players coming in the SRU could have instead attempted to bring in one (or possibly two) major SQ signings such as Robbie Robinson and at the same time pushed the young player development. This appears to be working well at Glasgow,obviously Maitland has been a great signing and Strauss will probably enhance the Scotland backrow options by the next World Cup. Glasgow don't appear to have made many pointless signings ,except possibly Paris.

To be fair I think Maitland is probably a bit of a one-off, but the principle must surely be that you don't sign or take a chance on a NSQ unless you are virtually CERTAIN that he's better than the Scottish options available.

You'd think that would be obvious.

We really need this win tonight - we have to look up and overtake Cardiff and Treviso before the end of the season. It would give us something to build on next year.

Not a bad Cardiff side, but we really ought to be winning at home.

Atiga isn't as bad as you are making him out to be, with better conditionning he will get better and better.

As for Francis, this is the worst signing this year by any team, also i don't know who let Alan MacDonald go but he is a moron.

I hear what you say about Atiga's conditioning, but given we hired him on a 2 year deal, don't you think we should only start paying him once he's fit to play??

It's taken him more than half the season to stop wheezing after 20 minutes of play. I remember watching him in the pre-season and it was like watching a re-run of my Dad (a big man) climbing a flight of stairs.

He's a decent tackler and his contact work is very aggressive which I like, but I've yet to see him do anything more than run hard and straight - I haven't seen him create anything.

Hopefully tonight will be the night where he finally steps up as a 12. He's got the right man at 10 and NDL back at 13. We ought to be defensively solid in the centres (let's hope Cardiff don't run at Lee Jones), but I want to see a bit more spark, and less of this running straight into contact or passing side to side stuff.

VinceWLB wrote: i don't know who let Alan MacDonald go but he is a moron.

In Alan MacDonald's case I think it was by consensus of both parties - he was a great player for Edinburgh but never fully embraced life as a professional rugby player.

He's gone off to Dublin to do a medical degree so he obviously targeting a different career which has to be commended.

Chat is that a top amature club in Dublin will be looking at taking him on, maybe paying him too.

I was never really clear as to whether MacDonald ought to have been a 6 or a 7 - he sort of fell somewhere between the two.

Fair play on the medical degree - certainly more rewarding than playing for Edinburgh this season!

Blues leading at HT

Edinburgh 6 - 14 Blues

Michael Paterson with the Blues try just before halftime.

Edinburgh 14-6 down at half time...

Half way towards our 16th loss this season. 16, 16 out of 20.

Cripple fight. At the game and shocking from both sides and Lacey. Deserves to be a 0-0 draw.

According to the Edinburgh twitter feed, Denton's now playing 2nd row!?

Edinburgh back in the lead 16 - 14