Scotland v England, Murrayfield, Sat 8th Feb, 17:00

by yappysnap Sun Feb 02, 2014 10:32 am

First topic message reminder :

Thought I'd start a thread to discuss next weeks game.

ENGLAND

England head coach Stuart Lancaster has kept faith with the side which lost to France and named an unchanged line-up for Saturday's match against Scotland.
Gloucester's Jonny May starts on the wing despite breaking his nose nine minutes into the 26-24 loss in Paris.
Courtney Lawes will be in the second row after his cheekbone bruising eased, while Danny Care and Owen Farrell form the half-back partnership.
"They're determined to put last week's result behind them," said Lancaster.
England will be hoping to avoid a third successive Test defeat, having lost to New Zealand in the autumn and France in the opening weekend of the Six Nations.
Scotland, however, were well beaten by Ireland on Sunday have not prevailed in the Calcutta Cup since their 15-9 win at Murrayfield in 2008.
"Scotland will be hugely motivated by their defeat in Dublin and, as we found two years ago, Murrayfield is a tough place to play," added Lancaster, who began his England reign with a 13-6 win against Scotland in 2012.
May is not expected to wear a protective face mask when he wins his third cap in Edinburgh.
Luther Burrell, who scored on his debut at the Stade de France, will make his second Test appearance at centre, while Jack Nowell takes up the right-wing spot for what will also be his second cap.
Wasps prop Matt Mullan will travel as the 24th man.

England XI v Scotland: Mike Brown (Harlequins, 22 caps), Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs, 1 cap), Luther Burrell (Northampton Saints, 1 cap), Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester Rugby, 9 caps), Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 2 caps), Owen Farrell (Saracens, 20 caps), Danny Care (Harlequins, 43 caps), Joe Marler (Harlequins, 16 caps), Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints, 51 caps), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 44 caps), Joe Launchbury (London Wasps, 15 caps), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 26 caps), Tom Wood (Northampton Saints, 24 caps), Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, capt, 21 caps), Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 6 caps)
Replacements: Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 13 caps), Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 11 caps), Henry Thomas (Sale Sharks, 2 caps), Dave Attwood (Bath Rugby, 6 caps), Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby, 16 caps), Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints, 13 caps), Brad Barritt (Saracens, 17 caps), Alex Goode (Saracens, 14 caps)

Scotland

Scots team:

1.grant
2.ford
3.low
4.swinson
5.hamilton
6.wilson
7.fusaro
8.denton
9.laidlaw
10.weir
11.lamont
12.scott
13.dunbar
14.seymor
15 hogg

by gregortree Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:25 pm

beshocked wrote:Chequeredjersey the IRB have ripped off I Vow to thee my country/ plus the tune from Holst's Jupiter to make their shoddy world of Union. Can't say that pleases me.

Sorry well past it didn't see you already mentioned the rebellious scots verse.

Oh and Edward II was a weakling. Probably the weakest and worst monarch of England. Allegedly he was killed with a red hot poker.....

...in Berkley in my county of Gloucestershire. And any Cockney viewers will know what 'Berk..' from Berkley Hunt is slang for.

by Majestic83 Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:26 pm

RDW_Scotland wrote:Fusaro is definitely going to be the quickest forward on the pitch by a long way. Especially since Richie 'Usain' Vernon isn't playing.

Fusaro is very quick indeed and to be honest he isn't that small compared to past 7s in recent years that graced the world stage. Phil Waugh was only 5ft 9 and he was pretty successful with Australia.

Hope the opposition keep their distance in the early exchanges with Fusaro, he has a tendancy to be nervous and spew his guts up either just as they are about to leave the changing room or on quite a few instances in the first couple of minutes in the game!

by ChequeredJersey Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:28 pm

Majestic83 wrote:
RDW_Scotland wrote:Fusaro is definitely going to be the quickest forward on the pitch by a long way. Especially since Richie 'Usain' Vernon isn't playing.

Fusaro is very quick indeed and to be honest he isn't that small compared to past 7s in recent years that graced the world stage. Phil Waugh was only 5ft 9 and he was pretty successful with Australia.

Hope the opposition keep their distance in the early exchanges with Fusaro, he has a tendancy to be nervous and spew his guts up either just as they are about to leave the changing room or on quite a few instances in the first couple of minutes in the game!

Hooper is quick too. Hopefully Wood and Robshaw get in his face and smash him off the ball. By which I mean, if he gets over the ball in rucks first, do what is effective agaisnt Hooper and smash him off it. I am not advocating off the ball violence

by Knowsit17 Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:37 pm

tigertattie wrote:me

corner

crying

I've said it before and i'll say it again, Scott Johnson is not cut out for any high level job in world rugby. He is a backs coach at most!

Can't we get Geech in till Cotter arrives?

+1

by tigertattie Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:43 pm

only a +1

surely a +millions is warranted!

by ChequeredJersey Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:45 pm

IanBru wrote:There's an awful lot of negativity on these boards, so I think the time is right for me to don my spandex Mr Motivator pants and my dayglo-yellow headband and start pumping you folks up!

"Everybody say Yeah"

There is absolutely no point in picking players for their power when the muddy Passchendaele-esque pitch will just give way. A heavy player simply hits the ground harder when he falls (that's science, by the way), so it makes more sense to pick lighter forwards who are quicker around the park, less likely to be tired out by the surface, and who play with more guile and finesse. Fusaro is that. He is a complete b****rd to play against, he will not take a step back, and he is our best attacking openside (other than perhaps Rennie, who would need a quart of morphine and some PCP to play in this match). He scores actual tries for Glasgow. Like, real tries.

The time for Fozzy is now.

"Everybody say Yeah!"

The same goes for Ryan Wilson. He has more flair in his little finger than Kelly "quick, I'd better pass the ball" Brown and Al "I'd rather stab the ball than carry it" Strokosch. I'm happy with Wilson.

"Everybody say Yeah!!"

Ford is a class act, a true expression of amatuer ethos in a professional world. He knows that, in the grand scheme of things, whether we beat Ireland wouldn't make a whole lot of difference to many people. He knew that if he tried to throw the ball to Galway, and tried to hook the ball forwards, he would lull the journos, the fans, and the pundits into a sense of Dante-inspired dispair. All this, before the real test against England. Make no mistake, brothers, Fordy has been saving himself for this match. Since 2009.

"Everybody say Yeah!!!"

Scott will mesmerise the Torygraph readers with his gliding runs, betwixt Twelvetrees and the other one, over Care, through Goode, and then straight past the lumbering bulk of Burrell. There will be headlines, my friends, all of them variations on the "Great Scott!" theme, but not as imaginative.

"Everybody say YEAH!!!"

And then we come to Jonny Gray. Just as the Baptist preceeded the arrival of the Almighty, so did Richie preceed the birth of a true legend-in-the-making in Jonny Gray. No frippery, no glitzy runs followed by inauspicious tumbles like a Sitka Spruce chopped at the base, no hair dye. What Jonny has is sheer Scottish grit. The kind that stormed the heights at Quebec, held the line at Balaclava and charged full pelt at El Alamein. This is the moment you will see a future Lions captain and tour winner take the field to the quiet Henley-accented quips of "Oh, he's rather a big chap.". Then he's going to kill.

"Everybody say HELL YEAH!!!"

I'm going to leave you with this thought:
"Fitness is a way of life"

Isn't that the catch-phrase from the movie with the con-artist/thief body-builders?

by flyhalffactory Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:45 pm

OK:..... Selection-wise its not what I wanted for the weekend but now is the time to get behind the boys

COME ON SCOTLAND Braveheart

by Scrumpy Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:49 pm

tigertattie wrote:me

corner

crying

I've said it before and i'll say it again, Scott Johnson is not cut out for any high level job in world rugby. He is a backs coach at most!

Can't we get Geech in till Cotter arrives?

But he does look like an extra from Braveheart, believe me you don't want Geech, he has lost the plot.

by AsLongAsBut100ofUs Thu Feb 06, 2014 6:01 pm

Gregortree, in a word, no

by 21st Century Schizoid Man Thu Feb 06, 2014 6:23 pm

I don't get it in a million years. Ross Ford was the worst player out of 138 on view at the weekend in the 6Ns - by a very long way! He has been crap for years now. He personally, by his thorough incompetence, cost us 12 points. He gets to keep his place. Shocked

Jim 'Lump of Particularly Dense Wood' Hamilton, our so called 'enforcer' was probably 137 on that list (or 2nd in the schieze players league !). This penalty magnet moron keeps his place. Shocked

Both these diddies have over 120 caps between them ffs. Kelly Brown, Richie Gray and Pat MacArthur who played for portions of Sunday's match and did nothing particularly wrong (e.g. personally cost us 12 points) are all jettisoned. This is a disgrace ffs.
When we get feckin pumped all over West Edinburgh on Saturday evening someone should sidle up to Johnson and tell him to pack his bags and feck off back to Australia sharpish and take that other tw** Humpty Feckin Dumpty with him too. But then that is asking rather a lot of the cowardly, cretinous, thickoid buffoons of the SRU.

by **George Carlin** Thu Feb 06, 2014 6:23 pm

Christ - I just scanned all of page 7 of this thread and 'rugby' wasn't mentioned.
Top effort everyone.

by **George Carlin** Thu Feb 06, 2014 6:25 pm

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:I don't get it in a million years. Ross Ford was the worst player out of 138 on view at the weekend in the 6Ns - by a very long way! He has been crap for years now. He personally, by his thorough incompetence, cost us 12 points. He gets to keep his place. Jim 'Lump of Particularly Dense Wood' Hamilton, our so called 'enforcer' was probably 137 on that list (or 2nd in the schieze players league !). This penalty magnet moron keeps his place. Both these diddies have over 120 caps between them ffs. Kelly Brown, Richie Gray and Pat MacArthur who played for portions of Sunday's match and did nothing particularly wrong (e.g. personally cost us 12 points) are all jettisoned. This is a disgrace ffs.
When we get feckin pumped all over West Edinburgh on Saturday evening someone should sidle up to Johnson and tell him to pack his bags and feck off back to Australia sharpish and take that other tw** Humpty Feckin Dumpty with him too. But then that is asking rather a lot of the cowardly, cretinous, thickoid buffoons of the SRU.

For non-Scottish posters who might not be used to this, please note that Schiz is not always like this.

Sometimes he gets quite cross and a bit direct in his constructive suggestions.

by 21st Century Schizoid Man Thu Feb 06, 2014 6:31 pm

Apologies GC- had to get that off my chest. Glad I gave my tickets away even more now tbh !

by **George Carlin** Thu Feb 06, 2014 6:36 pm

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:Apologies GC- had to get that off my chest. Glad I gave my tickets away even more now tbh !

by tigertattie Thu Feb 06, 2014 6:38 pm

Schitz, you saying you don't want to buy my tickets now?

by funnyExiledScot Thu Feb 06, 2014 6:52 pm

I'm keeping my tickets, but it's the overpriced food and drink I'm going for.

by Guest Thu Feb 06, 2014 7:31 pm

Time to add my two cents.

This selection is utter garbage. After reading two pages of talk about that and anthems I am STILL racking my brains here. I'm almost as angry as Schiz right now.

Let's summarise:

1. Scotland have gone nearly 2 years without Kelly Brown playing in HIS ACTUAL POSITION at 6. He is selected as a captain at 7 and warned of "stiff competition" although when we look around that competition consists of Fusaro because our best specialist opensides Rennie (fair enough) and Barclay (Wtf?) are not even in the squad. Johnson has PUBLICLY been sceptical of Fusaro and after one not-even-bad game at 7 Kelly Brown is dropped from the ENTIRE SQUAD (yes putting things in capitals makes me feel better) whilst we have a no.8 playing at no.6 which is the original position Kelly Brown earned his captaincy from in the first place. a) why make him captain if you were going to drop him for not even a bad performance b) did some alien/timelord/mafia come up to SJ and order him NEVER to play a backrow of specialists in their right position or he'd have his insides removed?? What gives?? If I was Kelly Brown I would be counting down the hours until Cotter ... unless, horribly, Cotter has something to do with this.

2. Nematode mentioned this and I am glad someone did; I have not been the biggest fan of Max Evans but he had to come on relatively early last match, didn't appear to do anything wrong and is now remaining on the bench, leapfrogged by another. Is he forever going to be an impact sub? I quite like Lamont but I would make a case here for swapping Lamont for Evans or something - if we are devising this squad for attack, quickness etc and not defence defence defence you can't really justify this decision to keep Evans benched.

3. Ross Ford.

4. Ross Ford. It's worth saying twice.

5. Ross Ford. Someone pointed out that learning 15 lineout calls in 4 days would be incredibly hard. I hope to god that Ross Ford is not the only hooker in the squad that knows the 15 lineout calls.

6. Hamilton and the Gray brothers. I think Jonny Gray is solid and I can't wait to see him come out against England. What I can't understand is that when Gray Snr came on our lineout steadied and he seemed to do a bit more work than Hamilton was, yet Hamilton is still in the starting XV and Gray gives way to his brother. I just don't get it.

7. What did Jon Welsh do wrong and frankly what has MacArthur done wrong?

The more I think about these points the more it seems to smack of squad rotation, trying things out before the coach arrives and basically throwing away the 6N. Then I remember Hamilton, Ford, Lamont and think again. So maybe Johnson is literally going hillbilly handfishing and the fish with your name on it is the guy selected each week.

The reason I find this SO depressing is I have a friend coming Saturday to watch the matches, she is Welsh but we are going with my ENGLISH rugby club to watch it all and I am frankly ashamed at all of this. Not ashamed of being Scottish, I will cheer them on and if that was the best we could do I would happily bow down to my English brethren for being the better side. But I know come tomorrow night I'll be drinking in my sorrows thinking of what it could have been, had we not had an utter lunatic selecting the team.

I finish with the best comment I could find to summarise my arguments and feelings tonight, from Radge himself:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:It's like a WUM team.

Goodnight. Best of luck on Saturday one and all.

by doctor_grey Thu Feb 06, 2014 7:51 pm

Not for nothing, but as an England supporter you are all making me nervous. The more you give me this 'we are crap' stuff, I feel the chances of an England victory going down the tubes. I believe this is all an evil plot you lot have hatched to make sure England fall flat on their collective face. We can do that just fine without your help..............

by **George Carlin** Thu Feb 06, 2014 8:21 pm

doctor_grey wrote:Not for nothing, but as an England supporter you are all making me nervous. The more you give me this 'we are crap' stuff, I feel the chances of an England victory going down the tubes. I believe this is all an evil plot you lot have hatched to make sure England fall flat on their collective face. We can do that just fine without your help..............

Scotland v England, Murrayfield, Sat 8th Feb, 17:00 - Page 8 Dr_evi10

by IanBru Thu Feb 06, 2014 9:25 pm

I think we're all desperately in need of a laugh, so I give you Mr Stewart Lee:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxN8PhKzZgY#t=32m05s

Now, this video has some naughty words, but frankly nothing we didn't say when we saw the squad list appear on our computer screens.

Bear in mind, dear friends, that this was filmed at a comedy club in Glasgow. The man is brave.

by 21st Century Schizoid Man Thu Feb 06, 2014 9:54 pm

Brave but not that funny imho

Try this :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lfq8YVimSw&list=RDwdsuShabEx8

by 21st Century Schizoid Man Thu Feb 06, 2014 10:05 pm

Or this for our English friends :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHD3jaNU_dI

by ChequeredJersey Thu Feb 06, 2014 10:45 pm

Who will be your captain?

Cause in that 15, with no Brown it looks like it will be Ford, Laidlaw or Hamilton...

by Argybargy Thu Feb 06, 2014 10:59 pm

ChequeredJersey wrote:Who will be your captain?

Cause in that 15, with no Brown it looks like it will be Ford, Laidlaw or Hamilton...

Laidlaw has been announced as captain. Interesting that there is a very strong case for dropping all the (potential) captains you listed..
I'd have Cussiter starting and captain.

by doctor_grey Thu Feb 06, 2014 11:26 pm

That's funny George!

Does that mean somehow Owen Farrell is Mini-me?

by Guest Thu Feb 06, 2014 11:57 pm

IanBru the 5 minutes I watched of that, at one point, contains a friend I knew in London 3 years ago; where 2 years before that he was in Glasgow. I haven't seen him in ages my GOODNESS that is so weird.

Carry on.

by EST Fri Feb 07, 2014 3:24 am

I dont think I have seen 606 as united in complete bewilderment as I have over this selection.

I know this has been expressed in nearly every post, but what is Johnson thinking - completely and utterly bizarre.

by doctor_grey Fri Feb 07, 2014 6:26 am

I don't understand Scott Johnson and how he keeps landing these jobs in Rugby. He has never impressed me.
Whose (grand)mother is he sleeping with?

by yappysnap Fri Feb 07, 2014 8:08 am

Majestic83 wrote:
RDW_Scotland wrote:Fusaro is definitely going to be the quickest forward on the pitch by a long way. Especially since Richie 'Usain' Vernon isn't playing.

Fusaro is very quick indeed and to be honest he isn't that small compared to past 7s in recent years that graced the world stage. Phil Waugh was only 5ft 9 and he was pretty successful with Australia.

Hope the opposition keep their distance in the early exchanges with Fusaro, he has a tendancy to be nervous and spew his guts up either just as they are about to leave the changing room or on quite a few instances in the first couple of minutes in the game!

Phil also had absolutely fricking massive arms! And to be fair wasextemely talented while playing in a guality side. Something I don't think this guy has.

Now I've said all that your lad Fusaro will probably have an outstanding match ala that little SA 7 who played against the Lions and was an utter turn over machine.

Oh and don't worry about the vom! Greenwood said that a fair few of the 2003 gents used to puke pre game too.

by Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler Fri Feb 07, 2014 9:53 am

If Lancaster in his first couple of years had done what Johnson had hed be getting praised for:
Trying to develop a squad
Making players feel they always have to perform to keep their places
Not picking players just because theyve put in some of the best performances seen by players of their county in recent times.
Not being his predecessor

by jimbopip Fri Feb 07, 2014 10:14 am

EST wrote:I dont think I have seen 606 as united in complete bewilderment as I have over this selection.

I know this has been expressed in nearly every post, but what is Johnson thinking - completely and utterly bizarre.

I keep trying to compose a reply which will highlight the positive aspects of Rab C's latest tombola draw. Then again I keep trying to walk in on MrsPip and Kylie trying on each other's lingerie.
So.. POSITIVES
Scott-Dunbar is the future, official.
Fusaro is being given a chance.
Gray jr is on the bench.
Weir is being given a run at 10. (cue torn hamstring after 15 minutes, and the 10 on the bench is?)

NEGATIVES
Ford: is there anything more to be said?
Second row, selection seems to be stuck in "We need an enforcer and an athlete" So Big Jim gets to play because he's big and nasty regardless of form.
Back row, this is the one area where we have an abundance of talent. There are at least three credible candidates for each position. eg Harley, Strokes and Kellybrows all have valid arguments for being given the 6 jersey and yet we are playing Wilson at 6,FFS.
Scrum half. I am beginning to have serious doubts about Laidlaw's game management Everyone knows that if they can slow the ball down at rucks he will box kick possession back to them. So the opposition don't need to worry about giving away penalties in Scotland's half: Ford will squander any set piece from any ground gained. So they flood the ruck in our half and, inevitably, win turnovers or penalties. At best Laidlaw box kicks and they attack again.
No wonder Schiz gave his tickets away. picard

by Tattie Scones RRN Fri Feb 07, 2014 11:17 am

jimbopip wrote:
EST wrote:I dont think I have seen 606 as united in complete bewilderment as I have over this selection.

I know this has been expressed in nearly every post, but what is Johnson thinking - completely and utterly bizarre.

I keep trying to compose a reply which will highlight the positive aspects of Rab C's latest tombola draw. Then again I keep trying to walk in on MrsPip and Kylie trying on each other's lingerie.
So.. POSITIVES
Scott-Dunbar is the future, official.
Fusaro is being given a chance.
Gray jr is on the bench.
Weir is being given a run at 10. (cue torn hamstring after 15 minutes, and the 10 on the bench is?)

NEGATIVES
Ford: is there anything more to be said?
Second row, selection seems to be stuck in "We need an enforcer and an athlete" So Big Jim gets to play because he's big and nasty regardless of form.
Back row, this is the one area where we have an abundance of talent. There are at least three credible candidates for each position. eg Harley, Strokes and Kellybrows all have valid arguments for being given the 6 jersey and yet we are playing Wilson at 6,FFS.
Scrum half. I am beginning to have serious doubts about Laidlaw's game management Everyone knows that if they can slow the ball down at rucks he will box kick possession back to them. So the opposition don't need to worry about giving away penalties in Scotland's half: Ford will squander any set piece from any ground gained. So they flood the ruck in our half and, inevitably, win turnovers or penalties. At best Laidlaw box kicks and they attack again.
No wonder Schiz gave his tickets away.

We don't need an enforcer.....we need players who are good in their position.

Hamilton isn't really either of them.

It's not like the old days where a couple of hard nuts in the team would ruffle the opposition and make them scared to receive the ball. There's too many officials and cameras about these days. We need hard players yes, but ones that hit rucks, tackle hard and smash ino contact. Not ones that swing an arm into the oppositions face and give away a penalty and/or get yellow carded.

In short, we need a new Jason White.

by ChequeredJersey Fri Feb 07, 2014 11:18 am

Is Swinson really an athletic lock?

by Scrumpy Fri Feb 07, 2014 11:20 am

I think some of you are being a little hard on Scotland, at the end of the day you have two pro clubs, so imo you bat way above your weight.

by Taffineastbourne Fri Feb 07, 2014 11:28 am

Scrumpy wrote:I think some of you are being a little hard on Scotland, at the end of the day you have two pro clubs, so imo you bat way above your weight.

Wales have only got 4 sides and don't do too bad! Whistle

by tigertattie Fri Feb 07, 2014 11:34 am

we're not being hard on the collective. We just dont understand Johnson's rationale.

Dropping Kelly brown who did nothing wrong last week makes no sense.

Yes, give us an openside flanker but put brown back to 6 where he belongs rather than shoe-horning a number 8 into that position. Wilson, for all his form this year at 8 is not a 6 and he was utterly annonimous on Sunday.

Also annonimous was Jim Hamilton, he keeps his place though. Yet Ritchie Gray, who made a bit of an impact when he came on, is dropped from the squad!!!

It's just lunicy.

We, the people of Scotland are sick fed up of a constant flow of inept coaches who cannot select the correct players in the correct positions because for some odd reason, they think that daft selections are the way forward!

PS, Im goning to start to use a spell checker on here!

by Scrumpy Fri Feb 07, 2014 11:37 am

Taffineastbourne wrote:
Scrumpy wrote:I think some of you are being a little hard on Scotland, at the end of the day you have two pro clubs, so imo you bat way above your weight.
Wales have only got 4 sides and don't do too bad!

True.

But they have a better club structure and academy's (for now anyway!) below the four pro teams. They have nothing that Scotland couldn't do.

But I do believe you bat above your weight.

by Impossible Standards Fri Feb 07, 2014 12:28 pm

Fear not my Scottish friends there could be one of these moments to come!

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

They will call it Miracle on Grass! Braveheart

by Geordie Fri Feb 07, 2014 12:31 pm

Dont forget Scotlands other club playing in the Prem just situated on the borders.... Whistle

Hogg, Blair, Shiels, Lawson, McCleod....we gave you Swinson...though you just missed out on Scot Wilson. Bad planning that one!
Glen Youngs the U20 Scotland second row looks a good prospect.

And im sure we'll produce a few more for you now that the conveyor belt is well and truly running again.

by gregortree Fri Feb 07, 2014 12:34 pm

Impossible Standards wrote:Fear not my Scottish friends there could be one of these moments to come!

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

They will call it Miracle on Grass!

Sorry grass all got eaten...so

'Miracle on Nematodes a l'Ail' has a nice ring to it.

Ground staff at Murrayfield have been spraying the home of Scottish rugby with garlic in a bid to eradicate a turf parasite.
Nematodes are roundworms that damage the grass root structure.
The problem was indentified in September and Edinburgh's home matches have gone ahead as scheduled.

by Impossible Standards Fri Feb 07, 2014 12:41 pm

'Miracle on Nematodes a l'Ail' has a nice ring to it.

by gregortree Fri Feb 07, 2014 12:47 pm

Impossible Standards wrote:
'Miracle on Nematodes a l'Ail' has a nice ring to it.

Thank you Impossible... though not sure why you are smiling.
'The Green Green Grass of Cardiff' tends to roll up like badly fitted Axminster at the first hint of a scrum.

by Geordie Fri Feb 07, 2014 12:59 pm

gregortree wrote:
Impossible Standards wrote:Fear not my Scottish friends there could be one of these moments to come!

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

They will call it Miracle on Grass!

Sorry grass all got eaten...so

'Miracle on Nematodes a l'Ail' has a nice ring to it.

Ground staff at Murrayfield have been spraying the home of Scottish rugby with garlic in a bid to eradicate a turf parasite.
Nematodes are roundworms that damage the grass root structure.
The problem was indentified in September and Edinburgh's home matches have gone ahead as scheduled.

Ah nice tactics....try to make us think we're in Paris again eh!!!

by gregortree Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:00 pm

gregortree wrote:
Impossible Standards wrote:Fear not my Scottish friends there could be one of these moments to come!

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

They will call it Miracle on Grass!

Sorry grass all got eaten...so

'Miracle on Nematodes a l'Ail' has a nice ring to it.

Ground staff at Murrayfield have been spraying the home of Scottish rugby with garlic in a bid to eradicate a turf parasite.
Nematodes are roundworms that damage the grass root structure.
The problem was indentified in September and Edinburgh's home matches have gone ahead as scheduled.

PS: Marinading nicely for visit of 'Les Blues' 8th March. Might be a distraction for their front row... hey the groundsmen might be onto something with this marinade.

by lostinwales Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:12 pm

Probably need some dark satanic moles to eat up the worms..

by Impossible Standards Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:14 pm

Impossible Standards wrote:
'Miracle on Nematodes a l'Ail' has a nice ring to it.
Very Happy

Thank you Impossible... though not sure why you are smiling.
'The Green Green Grass of Cardiff' tends to roll up like badly fitted Axminster at the first hint of a scrum.

Just thought it had a funny ring to it that's all. Our green green grass of Wales comes from the Netherlands on pallets. You'd think with all our agricultural land we would be able to supply grass for a rugby pitch.

by **George Carlin** Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:21 pm

GeordieFalcon wrote:Dont forget Scotlands other club playing in the Prem just situated on the borders....

Hogg, Blair, Shiels, Lawson, McCleod....we gave you Swinson...though you just missed out on Scot Wilson. Bad planning that one!
Glen Youngs the U20 Scotland second row looks a good prospect.

And im sure we'll produce a few more for you now that the conveyor belt is well and truly running again.

Geordie - you forgot Tim Visser. Newcastle Academy is the Scottish rugby academy. Fact. The SRU would rather spend the money on a 7s team that gets comprehensively spanked in every tournament instead. Aces, Gordon McKie.

by Geordie Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:32 pm

Yes indeed i did forget him.

Why pay and fund a borders regional team when theres already one up and running...maybe the Scottish RFU arent so bad after all... Whistle

by Nematode Fri Feb 07, 2014 2:16 pm

Edinburgh Rugby stand-off/full-back Greig Tonks [pictured] will miss the rest of the season with a shoulder injury.

Tonks had been continuing his transformation from full-back to stand-off for Scotland A in the nation’s 16-16 draw with England Saxons when he was forced off the field in the first-half.

He will require surgery to repair the damage, with the recovery expected to take around four to six months.

Head coach Alan Solomons, said: “This is really disappointing news for Greig [Tonks].

"He's had a good season for the club and had performed well as injury cover in a new position.

by funnyExiledScot Fri Feb 07, 2014 2:21 pm

That's hugely frustrating, but he's young and the clear priority is to get appropriate treatment and recover as quickly as possible.

For Edinburgh I think this means Bezzy getting an extended run at 10 between now and the end of the season, with Cuthbert cementing the 15 jersey.

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