Scotland Coach

First topic message reminder :

Breaking news; Mark Dodson, SR CEO, announces "We have concluded our search for a head coach and will announce that in coming weeks."

Any Ideas? sounds like its someone still in a job

Haymarket and Shandwick place to be complete by the end of the year I think.

AirHOrse wrote:Somehow it is quite easy!

I am a computer science graduate at Edinburgh uni, in the computing labs there they give the machines stupid names. First machine I sat at was called AirHOrse, it became my nickname through circumstances I cant remember!

Welcome. I was a bit concerned about the prominence of the 'ho' in horse. I thought that the 'r' might be misplaced and this was a reference to the Mile High Club.

Just me?

It should be complete by the end of the year, but they have a planned opening "date" of Summer 2014. No doubt they'll start operating in April and claim they have come in ahead of time and under budget...

When I visit Edinburgh, which I used to be able to navigate my way around blindfolded (it being my home town and all), I find that I can no longer drive from the outskirts to the city centre with out doing at least three pointless laps of the centre to reach my intended destination. One time I stupidly assumed that my freshly updated satnav would be able to cope better than me, I got more confused and then it crashed.

I was pleased to hear that it is not just me, a pal who lives in Trinity and works in Little France frequently has to change his route as the parts of it that are cordoned off randomly change with little or no warning.

Has anyone given a realistic guess as to when the works will be over?

highland_scot wrote:It should be complete by the end of the year, but they have a planned opening "date" of Summer 2014. No doubt they'll start operating in April and claim they have come in ahead of time and under budget...

Just in time for the referendum. Methinks that Salmond and the Sturg will contrive somehow to take credit and cut the ribbon!

funnyExiledScot wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:To be fair to King Salmond I think this started before his reign.....as much as it pains me to say!

You'd think he'd have stepped in though by now. Truth is he doesn't want to touch it, or even be associated with it. Now that's leadership!

He tried to cancel the plans when he came in, and since he didn't manage to get it canceled(as he didn't have a majority leadership first time round) he vowed never to give any additional funding to it if it went over budget.

Perhaps he is partial to the north Korean look?

I think it wasn’t cancelled because the cost of cancellation was thought to be greater than the cost just to finish it. Whether that is still the case I don’t know.

I think he only tried to cancel it prior to construction going ahead, since it started I think he has avoided even thinking about it!

I have heard stories that one of the contractors pulled out because they refused to increase the budget when the original maxed out due to the increased cost of materials since the original estimates, and because they pulled out it blew the costs out of proportion as to get someone to come and finish the job was way more expensive than it would've been to just stretch the budget for the original contractor!

Sounds like a case for Dominic Littlewood to me!

This all makes the SRU look a shining beacon of competence!!

Surely there's a case for Frank Haddock to return in some capacity.....

Maybe that's the news they are holding back from us... due to the cost cutting measures and their similar histories of success, the SRU and the Scottish parliament are going to be merging!

McKie and Salmond - the offfield equivalent partnership of Henderson and Di Rollo.....

Surely none of these monumental acts of omnishambolic ineptitude would have happened in a fully independent Scotland?

Stop it George – you’ve already caused one mass debate!

AirHOrse wrote:Hi everyone,

First time poster here, long time reader. Kind of makes me sad that its the trams that make me want to post for the first time as well, says a lot though!

I lived in Edinburgh for four years, the year after I moved back to Glasgow they started on the trams. My god is Edinburgh a mess now, every time I find myself in Edinburgh it shocks me how much of a blight the tram works are, and all for what? To make Edinburgh the new san fran?

I saw Alex Salmond outside of murrayfield signing autographs after the Scotland vs NZ game, I wanted to go and ask him if he walked from the parliament to the ground and had a look at the mess he has made, but decided I didn't want to get into trouble for causing damage to the most horribly smug face of all time...

Oh aye, all of Scotland's problems are Fatty Salmond's fault?! Give me fricking strength...

Oh, and welcome to the board

No, they aren't, but its his job to sort them out and not let them get out of hand.

Refusal to acknowledge a problem is there when its your job to deal with them is worse than causing that problem in the first place in my books.

Look at what happened to France and Michalak in the 6N!

Oh jeez we’re getting onto independence….

I like you guys – lets not ruin it!

AirHOrse wrote:No, they aren't, but its his job to sort them out and not let them get out of hand.

Refusal to acknowledge a problem is there when its your job to deal with them is worse than causing that problem in the first place in my books.

Look at what happened to France and Michalak in the 6N!

A nice tangent back to rugby!

If completely baffles and delights me in equal measure how utterly hopeless France can be at rugby, despite having a wealth of talent that we can only dream of.

Quite how Saint-Andre has kept his job after that 6 Nations is incredible. Kayser, Domingo, Maestri, Dusatoir, Picamoles, Parra, Fickou, Fofana, Bastereud, Clerc, Houget and Medard. Quite how that lot can finish bottom of the pile is beyond me. I'd back a Matt Williams/ Frank Hadden dream team to do a better job, armed with Tricolours text books and tapes of locals speaking from La Rochelle!!

My overriding memory of this years 6N was frustration at watching France play! I don't understand what he was doing with that team at all...

Speaking of french rugby, after watching the HC final, and despite the fact that Clermont lost, I would love to see Scotland trying to play Rugby like them more often! So I'm up for Vern Cotter!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Stop it George – you’ve already caused one mass debate!

No idea what you could possibly mean.

AirHOrse wrote:Speaking of french rugby, after watching the HC final, and despite the fact that Clermont lost, I would love to see Scotland trying to play Rugby like them more often! So I'm up for Vern Cotter!

Likewise, although he'll have a struggle on his hands replicating that sort of rugby with Laidlaw, Weir, Scott and NDL rather than Parra, James, Fofana and Rougerie.

That's going to be the trick for Cotter, working with the hand he's dealt. He can't sign players simply to cover over the cracks.

Still, he inherits a far better hand than any Scotland coach in the last 20 years.

George Carlin wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Stop it George – you’ve already caused one mass debate!

No idea what you could possibly mean.

I wish to claim credit for this debate... Had I not mentioned the lack of trams on our fine streets, we'd be discussing Sedan chairs as a method of transportation

funnyExiledScot wrote:

AirHOrse wrote:No, they aren't, but its his job to sort them out and not let them get out of hand.

Refusal to acknowledge a problem is there when its your job to deal with them is worse than causing that problem in the first place in my books.

Look at what happened to France and Michalak in the 6N!

A nice tangent back to rugby!

If completely baffles and delights me in equal measure how utterly hopeless France can be at rugby, despite having a wealth of talent that we can only dream of.

Quite how Saint-Andre has kept his job after that 6 Nations is incredible. Kayser, Domingo, Maestri, Dusatoir, Picamoles, Parra, Fickou, Fofana, Bastereud, Clerc, Houget and Medard. Quite how that lot can finish bottom of the pile is beyond me. I'd back a Matt Williams/ Frank Hadden dream team to do a better job, armed with Tricolours text books and tapes of locals speaking from La Rochelle!!

In general, it's baffling. Some things are clear though - they really missed Bonnaire post-retirement, leaving out the HairyKnorrDonkey was a mistake, they midjudged how ferociously the breakdown was competed, Parra was a bit off-form and missed kicks and obviously Fearless Fred made his mark. That's McAllister, Wilkinson, James, Sexton and Steyn taking the 10 shirt in the major French clubs next season. Any link, perhaps, between that and the lack of any sort of playmaker?

France are lucky NZ are in a bit of transition themselves or I’d fear they are going to get gubbed in every game. Saying that with only one week between the Top 14 final and the first test it may still happen! Not that there’s that many Frenchies in the top teams…

George Carlin wrote:In general, it's baffling. Some things are clear though - they really missed Bonnaire post-retirement, leaving out the HairyKnorrDonkey was a mistake, they midjudged how ferociously the breakdown was competed, Parra was a bit off-form and missed kicks and obviously Fearless Fred made his mark. That's McAllister, Wilkinson, James, Sexton and Steyn taking the 10 shirt in the major French clubs next season. Any link, perhaps, between that and the lack of any sort of playmaker?

True, and James Hook at Perpignan as well.

Still, Trinh-duc was fit and roundly ignored in favour of Michalak, which showed really poor judgement. Frankly Beauxis would have been better than Fred.

I think Trinh-Duc is a fantastic player – god knows why he wasn’t starting. Plus he ran over Greig – Chuck Norris – Laidlaw so he must be a beast!

AirHOrse wrote:No, they aren't, but its his job to sort them out and not let them get out of hand.

Refusal to acknowledge a problem is there when its your job to deal with them is worse than causing that problem in the first place in my books.

Look at what happened to France and Michalak in the 6N!

Poor analogy - Michalak and France had the best return in the AIs

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

AirHOrse wrote:No, they aren't, but its his job to sort them out and not let them get out of hand.

Refusal to acknowledge a problem is there when its your job to deal with them is worse than causing that problem in the first place in my books.

Look at what happened to France and Michalak in the 6N!

Poor analogy - Michalak and France had the best return in the AIs

True, but it was immediately obvious in the 6 Nations that Michalak was off form and nowhere near the same level of performance. That's when the coach needs to act quickly and make the change. Saint-Andre got stuck in the mire and was unable to changes things around, and resorted to blaming everything under the sun but himself for the utter mess of a 6 Nations he presided over.

The French coaching during the 6 Nations was amongst the worse I have ever seen - St Andre must have been the only person on the universe who couldn't see that Michalek was a liability throughout. Not even Gatland would have persisted with that - It was woeful coaching.

Michalek also gave poor Hogg a do'in in the last game for no reason. Did he ever get cited for that?

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Michalek also gave poor Hogg a do'in in the last game for no reason. Did he ever get cited for that?

No he got away with it.

EWT Spoons wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Michalek also gave poor Hogg a do'in in the last game for no reason. Did he ever get cited for that?

No he got away with it.

Not that Hoggy has looks to lose, necessarily.

RubyGuby wrote:The French coaching during the 6 Nations was amongst the worse I have ever seen - St Andre must have been the only person on the universe who couldn't see that Michalek was a liability throughout. Not even Gatland would have persisted with that - It was woeful coaching.

You must have forgotten Andy Robinson already, Ruby? The passage of time ... an amazing thing

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

RubyGuby wrote:The French coaching during the 6 Nations was amongst the worse I have ever seen - St Andre must have been the only person on the universe who couldn't see that Michalek was a liability throughout. Not even Gatland would have persisted with that - It was woeful coaching.

You must have forgotten Andy Robinson already, Ruby? The passage of time ... an amazing thing

I dunno. Robinson with Scotland never had the same quality of player that Saint-Andre managed to squander in the 6 Nations. He's a lucky man to hang onto that job.

funnyExiledScot wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

RubyGuby wrote:The French coaching during the 6 Nations was amongst the worse I have ever seen - St Andre must have been the only person on the universe who couldn't see that Michalek was a liability throughout. Not even Gatland would have persisted with that - It was woeful coaching.

You must have forgotten Andy Robinson already, Ruby? The passage of time ... an amazing thing

I dunno. Robinson with Scotland never had the same quality of player that Saint-Andre managed to squander in the 6 Nations. He's a lucky man to hang onto that job.

Maybe not the same quality, but still some selection howlers that compare

I suppose that's true. When it comes to selection blunders, few are in the same league as Andy Robinson.

OK, since this has gone completely off piste, what does everyone make of Bill Lothian's latest fantasy that Embra are going to share Ainslie Park with Spartans?


http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/football/local-football/edinburgh-rugby-could-share-ground-with-spartans-1-2937106

funnyExiledScot wrote:I suppose that's true. When it comes to selection blunders, few are in the same league as Andy Robinson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnishambles

justified sinner wrote:OK, since this has gone completely off piste, what does everyone make of Bill Lothian's latest fantasy that Embra are going to share Ainslie Park with Spartans?


http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/football/local-football/edinburgh-rugby-could-share-ground-with-spartans-1-2937106

Actually, reckon that one could have legs, sinner! Edinburgh do need to move somewhere smaller although Ainslie Park could be a little too small - also a bit too far from Stockbridge to expect fES to travel

Capacity is just over 3k atm, but in Bill's follow up article today he mentions the possibility of increasing to 6k which would do for all Rabo games except the 1872, Euro games would probably still need Murrayfield. Not dreadfully happy about it as a venue though, don't fancy swapping The Roseburn for The Gunner for pre match beers.

It's not that bad though, is it? Just north of the Ferry Road.

Starting to get into scum vill GC! Plus no decent pubs near by, or any kind of infrastructure at all in terms of cafes, restaurants, atms etc. There is a Morrison's though!

As long as you can buy Pimms, a Harrod's pork pie and a tweed hat, surely the average Edinburgh fan will be just fine?
( )

So what we gonna debate today then? Gay Marriage? The war in Syria? Brown or red sauce on bacon rolls?

RDW_Scotland wrote:So what we gonna debate today then? Gay Marriage? The war in Syria? Brown or red sauce on bacon rolls?

Bacon Rolls?

savages...

Ok we can add vegetarianism to the discussion list!

How much has anyone make a conscious effort to moderate their eating, change bad habits and take more exercise as they've got older?

That's a serious question. I would think that only posters in their late 20s/30s will actually have an answer.

There’s a young CAD technician in my office who literally has the worst diet, but is an absolute beanpole. Every day for lunch he has a combination of ready meals, Fish and chips, cans of Irn Bru, chocolate bars and crisps – it will catch up with him before he knows it!

As for me I’m currently on an intensive pre-pre season health and fitness regime – My fitness pal App is very good for keeping track of what you eat. It is meant for people dieting but you can also use it for weight gain.

It is a nightmare working in an office all day though – got to watch what you eat!

Well you don't play front row by being picky with your diet. When taunted for having an ample frame my common retort was "do you know how expensive this thing is to maintain" whilst gesturing at my slender and toned torso.

Nowadays I'm a changed man. I'm running at least 5k every day (just completed that 5x50 challenge), and I am now the lightest I have been since I was 16 years old.

Cutting out meat was hard but it wasn't just a decision to improve my health. As I'm sure I have said before the only thing I really miss is a bacon piece.

Have to say Radge I’ve been mightily impressed with your 50 5ks.

Kind of reminds me of a Mens Health article where a guy wrote about doing a challenge to improve his love life with his wife by doing the dirty every night for a month, except yours sounds less fun!

George Carlin wrote:How much has anyone make a conscious effort to moderate their eating, change bad habits and take more exercise as they've got older?

That's a serious question. I would think that only posters in their late 20s/30s will actually have an answer.

Massively, GC, certainly as regards eating and general exercise (perhaps less so on the drinking front, but I blame that on the company that I keep!). What I've found most difficult tho is to keep on exercising for its sake alone, and the older I get, the more I need to identify specific challenges to train towards (10k runs, half marathons, sprint triathlons, etc.) Cycling to and from work (c.5 miles each way) is a massive help too