Out with the old, in with the new at Edinburgh

First topic message reminder :

Former Wasps & QPR boss appointed MD

Davies seems to have a good CV with experience in rugby. Also has experience in "building" stadiums.

It'll be interesting to hear Wasps/QPR fans view of him.

Anyone going tonight? Not able to make it unfortunately and not on TV so detailed updates and summaries would be appreciated!

I'm going - on the assumption that the performance isn't going to be mesmeric, and thus rendering me so districted by the sheer joy of watching Edinburgh tear Connacht to pieces I forget to look at my phone, I'll post the odd update.....

In fact I'll give you the first update now. The ref was terrible.....

I used to look forward to games against Connacht as it was usually a guaranteed 4 try romp and some exciting rugby –how times have changed!

Plus Dan Parks knows Murrayfield like that back of precision side burn trimmer, which is my biggest concern if our pack doesn’t dominate, which there is every chance it won’t!

Well the good news about Parks playing is that it limits the opportunities their wingers will have to run through Visser and Jones....

Every cloud!

Apparently the ref is doing his first competitive game tonight...

Could be worse, RDW, you could have Clownshoes

Even stevens so far. 3-3.

Tonks injured, Brown on.

Looks like we have them in the scrum. Should be 6-3.

Restarts once again a shambles, both times!

9-3. Getting on top here.

Laidlaw has thrown a couple of ropey passes this evening!

Still, we're on top. 12-3.

Lovely try from connacht, well worked. Edinburgh defence of old, soft soft soft.

Dan parks sin bin, deliberate knock-on.

15-10. Laidlaw 100%.

Great break matt scott, dreadful dreadful passing from atiga.

Poor penalty miss from laidlaw.

15-13 too close.

Cheers for the updates fes - sounds stressful!

Edinburgh starting to crumble, connacht making easy yards.

15-16 to connacht.

Connacht all over us. Laidlaw needs to come off, it's all too slow and ponderous, and connacht are far more physical.

15-19 to connacht.

Finally edinburgh with some ball. Good continuity and another connacht sin bin.

18-19.

Leonard on for francis.

Scott is having a great game, and tom brown playing well.

Another penalty from the scrum, should put us back in front.

Please god, let us win the restart!

Connacht just picked and drived from the half way line to into our 22 and parks effortlessly slots the drop goal. Connacht back in front.

More sustained edinburgh pressure leading to another penalty.

24-22 to edinburgh.

Can't take anymore of this!

Ta FES!

Anyone got a link to the radio commentary?

Of course, edinburgh concede a penalty straight from the restart, after all that hard work.

Park misses!

Cross off yapp on. Chunk to tighthead. Oh god!

Connacht try, and I suspect game over. Typically soft. They have scored some might easy points tonight.

How utterly depressing, that's Connacht's 2nd try of the night. 2-0 in terms of tries, against Connacht!

God Edinburgh have been Poopie this year.

Haha, Parks with a wicked sense of humour going for goal to try an deny Edinburgh a losing bonus point...

Parks gets it. 32-24 to Connacht.
And so concludes a very grim night for the pro teams

Desperately disappointing considering the crowd was pretty good - over 4k

Terrible night for both Edinburgh and Glasgow! didn't make it too murrayfield tonight but watched some of the glasgow game and they didn't seem interested at all.
One thing from that game i picked up on is that Kieran Murphy won't be Taleis No8 replacement. Talked of his hopes for winning a welsh cap in the future and trying to be first choice 8 at the scarlets during half time.

That was depressing. It was evident from about half an hour in that every time we stroked over a penalty, Connacht would cancel it out within a minute of the restart. We needed to pull away from them in a multiple greater than 3, yet every time we got an advantage in connachts 22, Laidlaw seemed happy to just waste it by forcing the penalty. So infuriating. They spent 20 minutes of the game with a man in the bin, yet we didnt seem to make any numerical advantage count.

Scott was our best player by miles, made more than one clean break only for them to come to nothing because he had no support. Unlike MEvans though, it wasnt for lack of looking for it.

Atiga showed glimpses of why he was signed, certainly looks much fitter than the start of the season, but still dont think he should be starting at 12 ahead of scott.

Talei was inneffective. His metres carried might look impresive, but thats because he thought he was playing fullback for most of the game. Rambo was far more effective at making real ground because he targets the space, not the defender.

Im getting really fed up with Sean Cox. Hes our kellock, all talk and no walk, except unlike kellock, hes an undiciplined brat and if the captain/vice captain is supposed to lead by example, then hes setting a terrible one with his consistent penalties and "who, me?" attitude when he gets pinged for it.

What gets me aswell is that last night was probably our last chance to get one over Parks. He will look back on his history of games against Edinburgh and laugh, we are the one team who consistently fail against him. He came off the pitch last night with barely a hair out of place despite not hiding on the wing as much as he used to. We just didnt target him, and he punished us for it.

Overall, a lack of ambition killed us. We looked like we were trying to play like saracens, except we dont defend well enough to do that...

It's going to be a real hard sell persuading people to buy season tickets. Best decision of my life not getting one this season!

RDW_Scotland wrote:It's going to be a real hard sell persuading people to buy season tickets. Best decision of my life not getting one this season!

apparently prices have been frozen, I think many would argue that they shouldve been dropped. A season ticket for us still costs more than one for the ospreys, who have a better product to sell.

I think the only thing that would save things would be some big name signings - can't see that happening unfortunately!

IBD - I actually thought Cox was ok on Friday - for the first time I can remember, he lead our lineout well. The weak link for me was Grant Gilchrist - was he even playing?? He's really got to start being more influential, and punch his weight.

Atiga got some good ball and did very little with it. He's certainly fit these days, but he was nothing compared to Matt Scott who was excellent. We sorely need NDL and Scott back together.

Laidlaw was too conservative, and although he made a couple of decent runs late on, we were earning our points the hard way, whereas at least 17 of Connacht's points was very easily accumulated.

Very frustrating.

On the season tickets, they really had to freeze the prices, any rise would have been unjustifiable.

As far as big signings go, what positions do Edinburgh fans feel are a priority? Also does anyone know if Brendan McGibbons of the waratahs would still be eligible to play for Scotland. He toured for Australia in the autumn but I don't think played and he hasn't been named in their current squad. May not be a critical position to fill but would be a cracking signing.

If Chunk retires then loosehead is a big priority, and we need at least one big strong enforcer for the back row, preferrably a specialist 6. Those would be my first priorities.

Second round of priority would be a decent stand-off.

Ali Dickinson, Ali Hogg, Tom Heathcote plus an NSQ specialist blindside - I'd be happy.

The problem is that, for the positions that we are weak in, we already have a lot of players in the squad - problem is they aren't very good!

Obviously it depends on who leaves this summer, but the way I see it is we need to strengthen the following:

Hooker - a big hard man who can throw

With Titterell probably leaving and maybe Ford too we are suddenly becoming short at hooker. Lawrie has been surprisingly good but we need backup. Preferably someone who can throw straight!

2nd row - a big hard man.

Gilchrist is too soft and Cox is too light and gives away too many penalties. We need a real enforcer. I had high hopes for Isaak VDV, and to an extent still do, but he's hardly played through injury. As said previously though we have a lot of 2nd rows now so would it be justified to sign another? Currently we have Cox, Gilchrist, PJP, VDV, McAlipne and Turnbull. 6 is definitely enough, but they are all the same standard - average.

6 / 8 - a big hard man

Talei leaving leaves a massive void (still can't believe he's gone to the Dragons!!). Take out Denton and we have a small, lightweight backrow. Hopefully Basalaia steps up after a season under his belt because he is the right kind of mental for my liking. We need a physical presence and ball carrier - i.e. a new Talei!

10 - some class and experience.

This is another position where we have plenty options, just none of them stands out. If we sign an experienced ten then they will have to be foreign, and with Francis likely to be 2nd choice that means hee haw gametime for Leonard or Hunter. Do we sign yet another 10 and resign the Scottish guys to no game time? I think they will stick with Francis as first choice and the 2 Scots as back up. Not ideal but can't see us attracting a decent 10 anyway.

13 - a big hard man

I've said it numerous time but we need a physical presence in the backs - someone like Laulala at Munster. Scott is the future at 12 but I just think we need a big guy to get us over the gainline and be a rock in defence. Atiga ain't that person.



So in general we are lacking in big tough barstewards in the Edinburgh team. We are far too easily bullied and over powered. Of course our style is fast paced and dynamic (or at least meant to be) so I don't want big lumbering oafs, but we desperately need some oomph in the team.

A real difficult decision to make at 10.

I think on the last point, Nikki Walker coming in at 14 will be a help in that regard, as he can come off his wing and attack the midfield. He's a big lad and he doesn't slow down into contact, a la Graeme Morrison.

I'm not actually too bothered about lock. Gilchrist is there to stay, he just needs to grow a pair. Cox is fine, and I agree that VDW will be like the proverbial new signing next season. I also think PJP is underrated. He's got decent hands for a big bloke and seems to throw his weight around a bit. Like Basilia, the coaches for some reason don't really rate him, which mystifies me.

If Ford leaves we'll certainly need a new hooker, but hopefully he can be pursuaded to stay. We need him.

funnyExiledScot wrote:If Chunk retires then loosehead is a big priority, and we need at least one big strong enforcer for the back row, preferrably a specialist 6. Those would be my first priorities.

Second round of priority would be a decent stand-off.

Ali Dickinson, Ali Hogg, Tom Heathcote plus an NSQ specialist blindside - I'd be happy.

What do you mean by enforcer and who would you say fits that mould? Do you mean another carrying backrow or someone who sorts out all the fights like in ice hockey! It strikes me that Vernon would have been a much better acquisition for Edinburgh than Glasgow though I doubt he would be described as an enforcer.

Fair point about Walker and PJP. PJP will have gained significant experience this season, and is a total beast.

The Ford decision is a difficult one. On one hand he's on a massive salary (reported 400k) but on the other who could we replace him with? A journeyman foreigner probably.

I think 2 years ago was the time for Ford to go, but now that he's here I'm beginning to come round to the idea of keeping him.

We could get 2-3 decent players for his salary though.

It's a real shame no one can cure de Luca of his continuing brain fart problem (that tackle was horrendous) as he is actually a very talented rugby player and he and Scott have the potential of being a superb centre combination for you. Add a back three of visser, tonks and walker and you are pretty damn potent. Unfortunately beyond that you are pretty short of options.

It strikes me that as opposed to needing hard forwards they would really benefit from an intelligent player in the pack to lead them. I may be wrong but quite a few of those guys above (and I have heard stories about Parker ad Denton from reliable sources) aren't the brainiest by some stretch and Cox isnt the man to sort it out and lead them correctly on the park.

DrTreasure wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:If Chunk retires then loosehead is a big priority, and we need at least one big strong enforcer for the back row, preferrably a specialist 6. Those would be my first priorities.

Second round of priority would be a decent stand-off.

Ali Dickinson, Ali Hogg, Tom Heathcote plus an NSQ specialist blindside - I'd be happy.

What do you mean by enforcer and who would you say fits that mould? Do you mean another carrying backrow or someone who sorts out all the fights like in ice hockey! It strikes me that Vernon would have been a much better acquisition for Edinburgh than Glasgow though I doubt he would be described as an enforcer.

I had in mind someone like Ali Strokosch or Kelly Brown. Not that we could get either of them, but that's the sort of player I had in mind. Someone physical to put in a hard shift. Rob Harley would be nice.....we could give Glasgow Piers Francis and Ben Atiga, two players for the price of one, can't say fairer than that!!

DrTreasure wrote:It's a real shame no one can cure de Luca of his continuing brain fart problem (that tackle was horrendous) as he is actually a very talented rugby player and he and Scott have the potential of being a superb centre combination for you. Add a back three of visser, tonks and walker and you are pretty damn potent. Unfortunately beyond that you are pretty short of options.

Agree, we need De Luca back badly. He's our best 13 in defence by a mile, and it would mean getting Scott back to 12. NDL does do some stupid things, and that tackle was awful, but we miss his aggressive tackling in midfield. Atiga is aggressive, but he isn't quick enough or mobile enough to get into the right position half the time so although people can't run through him, they frequently run round him.

I see what you mean by what someone like Harley would add with his tackling but the continued problem with him is he doesn't carry very well which is his downfall for Scotland. You have him and Rennie in the backrow together that's a lot of carrying for Denton to do.

It is highly unlikely as I see him going abroad but Barclay would be a better addition for you than Harley. An intelligent leader who has adapted his game with a good variety in his tackling, carrying, passing and breakdown work. He, Rennie and Denton would be a competitive and balanced backrow.