Edinburgh V Blues

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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

Blues are back in the lead 16 - 17

Less than 8 minutes left...im getting tense refreshing the page.

A point down, why don't Edinburgh go for the drop goal?

GLove39 wrote:A point down, why don't Edinburgh go for the drop goal?

Can they?

75 minutes

wales606 wrote:Less than 8 minutes left...im getting tense refreshing the page.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/scotland/17628613 why refresh when you can listen!

GLove39 wrote:

wales606 wrote:Less than 8 minutes left...im getting tense refreshing the page.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/scotland/17628613 why refresh when you can listen!

Great, I find that now...

Patchell getting praise from the Edinburgh commentators

Edinburgh beat us with a DG in the Arms Park earlier in the season...they better miss this time...

last chance saloon...

Patchell kicks the ball dead from carrying back into the 22. Apparently it was his first mistake of the game

Luckily the Blues steal the Edinburgh lineout.

And WIN!

Woop

FT
Edinburgh 16 - 17 Cardiff Blues

Another sodding loss why didn't they take the drop goal, as opposed to going for the try at the end?????

Jeez I had it as a 16 -14 win to Embra - thanks to that fecking, wenker BBC Rugby site. We slaughtered the Dragons in Newport btw.

Get in there. I had my doubts, but I can't see the Newport Drags catching us now.

BLOOOOOOOOOOOS!

So frustrating! Really ought to have put that one to bed. Lineout failures once again haunting us, and Patchell's goal kicking the difference. Cardiff scored with every opportunity they had, whereas Edinburgh were as always pretty wasteful with chances.

My Edinburgh player ratings:

Tonks - 6

Good kicking from hand but nothing much doing for him on the counter attack. I felt he perhaps delayed too long when we had the overlap with Brown, costing us a try.

Jones - 5

Beaten once by his man in the first half but didn't do much wrong in the 2nd half, and wriggled a couple of half breaks. Still looks short of confidence

NDL - 5

Looks a bit rusty but didn't have many chances to do anything with the ball, and tackled well.

Atiga - 6 (Brown - 5)

Direct and forceful at times and made some decent carries. Good tackling as well. As always he faded around the hour mark and during the long phases of play he's a passenger. Still no convinced he's fit.

Brown came on with about 15 minutes left. Made a nice half break but also knocked on with the try line begging (he overran Tonks, but possibly blame on both sides)

Fife - 6.5

Looked eager for the ball and as always very solid basics. Good tackling and handling and capable kicking out of hand. Promising

Hunter - 5 (Leonard - 6.5)

I felt that Leonard was an improvement. Hunter's kicking from hand was ok but he missed a couple of kicks which would have made a difference, and didn't create anything of note. Hasn't played for ages though, so deserves more time, although Leonard was bright coming on.

Rees - 6

Decent service, and although he was scragged a couple of times, it was usually when Edinburgh didn't have numbers at the ruck. Not a bad performance against his former masters.

Yapp - 5 (Chunk - 6)

Didn't notice him in the loose, although the Edinburgh scrum was dominant. Chunk made a positive impact.

Lawrie - 6 (Titterall - 1)

A couple of throws went missing, but he showed up in the loose and was part of a dominant front row. Good effort at captaincy but was outshouted when Cox came on. Titterall came on, made one carry getting turned over and then screwed up two crucial lineouts. Not sure why I've given him 1 to be honest).

Cross - 4 (Nel - 7)

Game of two halves. Cross not particularly interested. Nel very much so. Nel carried with menace and utterly destroyed the Blues front row (could have earned a late penalty with which Edinburgh would have likely won the game, but the ref let the scrum disintegrate without blowing his whistle).

Gilchrist - 5 (Cox - 6)

Both worked hard but Cox brought more intensity from the bench.

VDW - 5 (Watson 5.5)

Lots of hard work from VDW but he looks a little bit light for a lock. Watson's mobility made a difference (Denton finished at lock).

Denton - 6.5

Mixed bag. Some good and powerful carries but all to often he tried to force the pass and knocked on. Good run out for him though. Finished at lock but struggled as a designated lineout jumper.

McInally - 6

Another hard worker but not an openside and the breakdown was all too often a mess for Edinburgh. Got battered back in contact a couple of times although made a handy break.

Talei - 6.5

Seems to be coming back to something like his old self. Again made some powerful carries and seemed to get around the park a fair bit.


The difference between the sides was Patchell's kicking and the Cardiff lineout. Edinburgh really should have won, but if you can't convert territory and possession into points, and at the same time you give away soft penalties within range, then you get what you deserve. Credit to Cardiff, their defence was good, their breakdown work disruptive and they made less errors. Neither side particularly good.

funnyExiledScot wrote:

Rees - 6

Decent service, and although he was scragged a couple of times, it was usually when Edinburgh didn't have numbers at the ruck. Not a bad performance against his former masters.

Yapp - 5 (Chunk - 6)

Didn't notice him in the loose, although the Edinburgh scrum was dominant. Chunk made a positive impact.

Well done boys. Keep going through the motions. Hope to see you both back at CAP.

congrats blues. Ive seen quite a bit of that kid patchell this season, and he is seriously going to be the welsh stand off of the next decade.

Edinburgh, christ on a bike. You all talked about being fired up for this because of the circumstances, yet that was as lacklustre a display as any this season. There is absolutely no shape or plan going forward other than let the centres crash it up. Combined with the error rate and youve got a recipe for disaster.

Lee Jones, just go. please. You have been found out and now every opposition team targets you. You have done nothing to address the glaring weaknesses in your game since they became ruthlessly exposed this time last year.

I hate to say it seeing as ive been championing him for ages, but Gregor Hunter had a game to forget. 3 missed kicks and hesitant in attack. Still, his confidence is probably pretty low after the way hes been treated the last 3 months, and with news that yet another stand off is coming to the club. On the bright side, leonard looked very assured when he came on.

As for going for a drop, they were never in the right position for one. They managed to make the territory down the east toucline, but they needed to move the ball into the centre of the pitch to set up a drop. Unfortunately, stupid handling errors from a lack of patience put paid to that idea.

Andy Titterrall is possibly as bad as Ford when it comes to the lineout. Two lineouts in the 22 in the final few minutes, two lineouts gone straight to the cardiff front jumper.

Restarts. Geez guys I thought wed finally got the hang of these. Every single time, Patchell played a short restart, every single time, it caught us napping, and every single time, cardiff won their own restarts. Criminal. Utterly criminal.

I cant quite make up my mind about Dentons performance tonight. He made good carries, but he has to stop looking for a miracle offload. Lost the ball far too many times. On the plus side, he put in a impressive second row performance after VDW and Gilchrist both got injured. I expected the scrum to go backwards, but it got ridiculously stronger. I dont claim to be an expert on scrummaging, but maybe the slightly smaller body position really does make a big difference.

While it probably wouldnt have changed the outcome, the ref had a stinker. The rucks were a free for all and he didnt understand the concept of offside. Also, one of the blues forwards landed about five punches on Steve Lawries face in a maul, right in front of him and the linesman and play continued.

I know exactly what you mean about Denton. Made some great carries only to knock on trying some miracle pass at the end. He was powerful in the tackle and would spring to his feet only not to win the ball.

I'm also with you on Hunter. I've been really pushing for him to start for ages and he just wasn't decisive. Leonard made a really strong impression coming on, and the poor lad was itching to get the ball in those last 5 minutes, only for the forwards to screw up twice.

Scrum was a huge surprise. How bad were Cardiff?? I've never seen Edinburgh dominate a scrum like that. Nel went straight through the Cardiff loosehead twice, and really ought to have won a match winning penalty.

Filise has really lost it this season, but they shouldn't have been too bad against Edinburgh - especially with Hobbs and Bourrust on the bench,

That's our first choice 4 props.

Well your lineout was excellent, particularly on our ball, but your scrum had a rotten day.

Still, good away win for Cardiff ultimately. Keeps you winning the title of "best of the rest" in the Rabo, whereas Edinburgh's season continues to be utterly forgetful.

Sounds like Paterson has got the lineout running now that he is back.

Our next games are Ospreys away, Scarlets away, Ulster home - can't see our win coming from any of those.

Will be 12 losses in a row if we lose those!

Zebre awayy after that and they will be licking their lips at the prospect of getting their first win.

RDW_Scotland wrote:
Zebre awayy after that and they will be licking their lips at the prospect of getting their first win.

I think there is a good chance that Zebre will be looking for their 2nd win (and beat Aironi 1st season), they play the Dragons at home next week!

RD,

how did Denton play ? Herald and Hootsman both reckon he was feckin awful and cannot(or should not) even be guaranteed a place in the matchday 23 next week . Ryan Wilson a better option but I hope he gets left at The Warriors tbh -we need him v Ulster next Friday.

Someone did call a pretty big losing streak for Embra a few months ago didn't they... how scarily accurate thats proving.

When do Embra play Dragons, that should be a corker!

Last game of the season...

21st - I wasn't at the game. Papers say he was strong in defence and made some good carries but tried the odd wonder pass that undid all his good work

21st was at the game. Denton played well, moved to 2nd row later on, hit a lot of rucks and carried reasonably. His play in the loose and a couple of attempts at wonder passes were poor though. Needs to stick to the basics and not try to win the game on his own.

Aye Denton is definitely showing his youth and inexperience - he is struggling to cope in a losing team and needs to learn that he just needs to do his job, not throw wonder passes. I'd still keep him for Scotland, although Wilson is doing well.

But how long does Johnston persevere with a player struggling at club (and int.) level ? Begins to hark back to Robinson's ludicrous 'pick yer pals' policy. Just what more does Ryan Wilson have to do - grow his hair long and flick it about for the benefit of the prepubescent girls in the North Stand ffs.

Schiz - I've watched the Dragon vs Glasgow match now and there's no question that Wilson was the stronger performer, but the other Glasgow player I thought had a stormer in the pack was John Barclay, some excellent link play and breakdown work.

Given the lack of openside cover in the Scotland squad, I think Barclay, now that he has two games behind him, has a decent chance of making the Scotland bench. That would be harsh on Wilson, but it's an openside we need in the 23, not another 8.

Denton would be very lucky indeed to made the squad. He's out of sorts.

Aye fES my man, Barclay was my MoM too - did all the dirty stuff you expect from a 7. He could but where will that leave us On Friday - is Fusaro ready to come back ?

Been really impressed with Wilson, he's certainly overtaken McInally in the Scotland pecking order now and must be pressing Denton.
Amazing how we keep producing good backrow players and having watched Strauss playing for Glasgow this season he's certainly going to be a fantastic option as well once qualified.

Watched the highlights on STV Player through the gaps in my fingers.

I haven't seen so much butchering since Hostel. How many handling mistakes can one set of professional players make in one game?

Edinburgh is such a great club and it's supporters deserve so much better. They need a huge clear out, a coaching plan, two dogs in the second row and Heathcote at 10. And a coach that can start again with a clean sheet of paper. If Johnson is not retained for the Scotland job, he should definitely be considered for this one.

I'm going to reserve judgement on Scott Johnson until after the tournament, too early to make that call in my view.

Did you notice how much sharper we were once Leonard came on? I thought he brought real authority to the backline, and his distribution was so much more incisive than Hunter.

As always the experience of Edinburgh leaves you baffled as to what they actually do in training. We can rule out any lineout work, and they certainly don't practice set piece moves or backs moves, and they don't practice restarts. Confusing!

Whenever I’ve seen them play I’ve always though Leonard was the much better player – just looked more at east at this level. He’s a year older too.

Have no idea why he gets so little game time though.

Totally agree that Leonard looks like the real deal.

By the same token, if Edinburgh buy Heathcote or someone else, I think he has to get out of there and start getting regular first team play somewhere else.

I think Leonard will get the next couple of games ahead of Hunter based on that showing. He really did improve us. Harsh on Hunter having only had one start, but Leonard's impact was strong, and he's been similarly starved of sensible game time.

I'm just pleased that it looks like they'll both get chances between now and the end of the season. If we're going to be losing games, at least give some young Scots a chance. It's hardly a risk - Francis isn't any better!