Scotland A v England Saxons, 31 January

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Scotland A v England Saxons
Friday 31 January 2014, kick-off 7.30pm
Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow

Referee: [tbc]
Assistant Referees: [tbc]
Citing Commissioner: [tbc]

A. Squads

1. Scotland A

Forwards – Olly Atkins (Edinburgh Rugby), Fraser Brown, Kevin Bryce (both Glasgow Warriors), Blair Cowan (London Irish), Jonny Gray, Robert Harley (both Glasgow Warriors), Allister Hogg (Newcastle Falcons), Tyrone Holmes, Ed Kalman (both Glasgow Warriors), Kieran Low (London Irish), Gordon Reid (Glasgow Warriors), Grant Shiells (Newcastle Falcons) and Jon Welsh (Glasgow Warriors)

Backs – Mark Bennett (Glasgow Warriors), Jack Cuthbert, Dougie Fife (both Edinburgh Rugby), Alex Grove (Worcester Warriors), Grayson Hart (Edinburgh Rugby), Tom Heathcote (Bath Rugby), Byron McGuigan, Henry Pyrgos (both Glasgow Warriors), Greig Tonks (Edinburgh Rugby) and Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors)

2. Saxons

Forwards - Nathan Catt (Bath Rugby) Calum Clark (NorthamptonSaints) Sam Dickinson (NorthamptonSaints) Dave Ewers (Exeter Chiefs) Jamie George (Saracens) George Kruis (Saracens) Charlie Matthews (Harlequins) Tom Mercey (NorthamptonSaints) Elliott Stooke (GloucesterRugby) Luke Wallace (Harlequins) Alex Waller (NorthamptonSaints) Dave Ward (Harlequins) Scott Wilson (Newcastle Falcons)

Backs - Freddie Burns (GloucesterRugby) Elliot Daly (London Wasps) Sam Hill (Exeter Chiefs) Matt Hopper (Harlequins) Dave Lewis (Exeter Chiefs) Rob Miller (Sale Sharks) Joe Simpson (London Wasps) Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs) Semesa Rokoduguni (Bath Rugby) Tom Varndell (London Wasps)

B. Previous Form

1 February 2013, Kingston Park
England Saxons 9 Scotland A 13

3 February 2012, Galashiels
Scotland A 35 England Saxons 0

C. Teams

England Saxons: 15 Miller (Sale), 14 Rokoduguni (Bath), 13 Daly (Wasps), 12 Eastmond (Bath), 11 Thompstone (Leicester), 10 Burns (Gloucester), 9 Robson (Gloucester); 1 Waller (Northampton), 2 Ward (Harlequins), 3 Wilson (Newcastle), 4 Stooke (Gloucester), 5 Kruis (Saracens), 6 Clark (Northampton, capt), 7 Wallace (Harlequins), 8 Dickinson (Northampton)

Replacements: 16 George (Saracens), 17 Catt (Bath), 18 Brookes (Newcastle), 19 Matthews (Harlequins), 20 Ewers (Exeter), 21 Simpson (Wasps), 22 Slade (Exeter), 23 Sharples (Gloucester)

Scotland A: 15 Cuthbert (Edinburgh), 14 Fife (Edinburgh), 13 Bennett (Glasgow), 12 Grove (Worcester), 11 McGuigan (Glasgow), 10 Tonks (Edinburgh), 9 Pyrgos (Glasgow); 1 Reid (Glasgow), 2 Brown (Glasgow), 3 Welsh (Glasgow), 4 Low (London Irish), 5 Gray (Glasgow, capt), 6 Harley (Glasgow), 7 Cowan (London Irish), 8 Hogg (Newcastle)

Replacements: 16 Bryce (Glasgow), 17 Allan (Edinburgh), 18 Kalman (Glasgow), 19 Atkins (Edinburgh), 20 Holmes (Glasgow), 21 Hart (Edinburgh), 22 Heathcote (Bath), 23 Vernon (Glasgow)

Brilliant chase from no23 there, more wings need to commit like that when chasing the ball

Robson has been box kicking well too. important skill in conditions like this

How was our try scored?

3 x scrum collapse/retreat = penalty try

Stupidest yellow ever

Truly atrocious refereeing.

Try for McGugin!!!!!!!!!!!   

looked to me like the ball was completely out. was on the floor and there was no ruck. did he need to retreat first before picking up?

Hey Mr Pyrgos I doth my cap to you, some lovely kicking tonight.
Or was it Heathcote with the conversion? My video went a bit weird.

and why cant he kick the ball? he's a 10 of course he's going to kick it.

maybe Slade had a cheeky word at the penalty and that was why he received the added bonus of a yellow

Final-fracking-ly! Ref notices Scottish hands in the ruck

The ref was just looking for any excuse. Dreadful. Nice play from Robson again.

Do me a favour, forward pass?!

Who's the rotund pub team player with 1 on his shirt for Scotland?

it did look slightly forward on the replay

Loooong kick now

Daly has looked class standing in at FH

Hart is too slow with the distribution he needs to crank it up a bit

quinsforever wrote:it did look slightly forward on the replay

Must be my video!

I hate the pointless boxkick tactic that all our teams seem to favour   

Nice kicking from Slade, good management.

ffs kick kick kick   

Chjw131 wrote:Nice kicking from Slade, good management.

Agree Cuthbert hoofs it to nowhere and Slade just manoeuvres it into our 22 and a pressure throw in....... massive difference in awarenesss

Grayson Hart is playing well.

Heathcote bottled it there

what an incredible miss   ...... our continued skillset of selecting gash 10s

shocking shocking decision by the ref there. that dive was worse than ashtons ffs

quinsforever wrote:shocking shocking decision by the ref there. that dive was worse than ashtons ffs

um...ok....sure  

and not only was there nothing in it, he was miles away from the ball so there was no advantage even if accidental. terrible decision.

much better Heathcote   

trust me. watch the replay.

COME ON !!!!!

quinsforever wrote:and not only was there nothing in it, he was miles away from the ball so there was no advantage even if accidental. terrible decision.

  

We had two opportunities to score in the second half, neither we're taken.

I have to say that Luke Wallace is an A1 plonker for that impede. Game was (almost) in the bag and he does that??!!!

unnecessary forward pass by Grove.... that's the story of the match for us.

That's a game we should have won with England down to 14 men for 20 mins of the game

So the match ends in a draw   

luke wallace didnt impede. his back was turned when the scots runner was 15YARDS AWAY! but so was the refs so he couldnt see that he got gulled.

flyhalffactory wrote:unnecessary forward pass by Grove.... that's the story of the match for us.

That's a game we should have won with England down to 14 men for 20 mins of the game

Think England had the dominance in the second half. One dropped pass from Thompstone and an absurd decision at the scrum and for Slade spoilt the Saxons chances.

quinsforever wrote:luke wallace didnt impede. his back was turned when the scots runner was 15YARDS AWAY! but so was the refs so he couldnt see that he got gulled.

It was a dive worthy of Tom Daley!

That was one of the worst games I have seen in a long time. Who was the origi al England 9? His passing was embarassingly poor, ball spinning end over end at head height. Stupid yellows, endless pointless aerial ping pong like the bad days of a few years back.

Bring on the 6 nations so my faith in rugby can be restored!

I didn't see enough of the match to know who deserved to win, but the little I did see was pretty dire stuff. I hope the main tournament serves up better fare.

Thought Clark lacked impact. Likewise Wallace, didn't see a single turnover from him.

  

flyhalffactory wrote:unnecessary forward pass by Grove.... that's the story of the match for us.

That's a game we should have won with England down to 14 men for 20 mins of the game

  scotland scored their only chance, england squandered several and a poor yellow (unless Slade said something) and bad last penalty against them.

i would rather say, that even with 2 yellows, england will still consider themselves disappointed to draw. which is pretty much what callum clark said. gut reaction tells a lot.

I thought the referee was incredibly poor - he wasn't consistent, made unfathomable decisions against both sides especially that scrum one where he awarded the put-in to Scotland A. Just bizarre.

Scotland unlucky not to grab the win near the end. Some very encouraging performances especially Ally hogg who led well with big carries and some fantastic work at back of scrum. Fraser Brown at hooker looked very good, good throwing and did alot around the park. Grayson Hart looked sharp when he came on and gave good quick service. Alex Grove also had a good game at 12, solid in D and good handling, shame he never got more of the ball to unleash Bennett, McGuigna who took his try well and Fyfe.

As for the Saxons, I thought that Daly, Miller, Kruis & George looked good. Eastmond was just not all there today, and the back row looked poor. Thompstone should have put at least one chance away and I wasn't over-impressed with Slade. And 2 yellows? Bad rugby.

I don't think anyone put their hands up for the EPS though...

Majestic83 wrote:Scotland unlucky not to grab the win near the end. Some very encouraging performances especially Ally hogg who led well with big carries and some fantastic work at back of scrum. Fraser Brown at hooker looked very good, good throwing and did alot around the park. Grayson Hart looked sharp when he came on and gave good quick service. Alex Grove also had a good game at 12, solid in D and good handling, shame he never got more of the ball to unleash Bennett, McGuigna who took his try well and Fyfe.

Disagree with you there I am afraid - from what I saw England looked the cooler/confident under pressure and deserved to edge it. So much aimless kicking from Scotland, only big positive the defence which was very strong.

What's the score?