Ulster vs Glasgow

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Ulster Rugby v Glasgow Warriors
Saturday 11 October 2014
KO 17:05
Kingspan Stadium

Live on Sky Sports

Referee: Nigel Owens(WRU, 114th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Nigel Correll, Paul Haycock (IRFU)
Citing Commissioner: Murray White (IRFU)
TMO: Simon McDowell (IRFU)

A. Teams:

Ulster Rugby

15 Louis Ludik
14 Andrew Trimble
13 Jared Payne
12 Stuart McCloskey
11 Tommy Bowe
10 Ian Humphreys
9 Paul Marshall

1 Andrew Warwick
2 Rory Best (Captain)
3 Wiehahn Herbst
4 Alan O’Connor
5 Franco van der Merwe
6 Robbie Diack
7 Chris Henry
8 Nick Williams

16 Rob Herring
17 Callum Black
18 Bronson Ross
19 Lewis Stevenson
20 Roger Wilson
21 Michael Heaney
22 Stuart Olding
23 Craig Gilroy

Glasgow Warriors

15. Peter Murchie
14. Sean Maitland
13. Mark Bennett
12. Peter Horne
11. Tommy Seymour
10. Finn Russell
9. Henry Pyrgos

1. Gordon Reid
2. Fraser Brown
3. Euan Murray
4. Tim Swinson
5. Leone Nakarawa
6. Rob Harley
7. Chris Fusaro
8. Josh Strauss (Captain)

16. Dougie Hall
17. Jerry Yanuyanutawa
18. Zander Fagerson
19. Jonny Gray
20. Adam Ashe
21. Niko Matawalu
22. James Downey
23. Sean Lamont

B. Form - head to head:

29 Played 29
15 Wins 13
13 Losses 15
1 Draws 1
49 Tries 47
31 Conversions 33
78 Penalties 68
2 Drop Goals 7
547 Points 526
26 Avg. Age 26

C. Form - last season:

Friday 13 September 2013  
Ulster Rugby 12 - 13 Glasgow Warriors
Ravenhill Stadium

Friday 18 April 2014
Glasgow Warriors 27 - 9 Ulster Rugby
Scotstoun Stadium

So what's your team, Pete? Lay it on us.

And I can't believe I haven't mentioned this already, but Kelly Macdonald. Yowza.

PHENOMENAL looking lady.

Don Alfonso wrote:And I can't believe I haven't mentioned this already, but Kelly Macdonald. Yowza.

PHENOMENAL looking lady.

+10000000


How can someone that lovely come out of Glasgow?

Fear not Ulster fans: Bluto hates picking the ball up at the base and galloping through prettyboy stand offs. When Big Naka comes on our running game stagnates, he just passes everything out straight away.
Quiet night for Mr Humphries. (Which reminds me, "Has anyone seen Mrs Slocombe's Cat?" )

Don I'll try but I am rubbish at this

15 Payne
14 Trimbs
13 Cave
12 McCloskey
11 Bowe
10 iHump
9  Wee P

8 Wilson
7 Henry
6 Diack
5 O'Connor
4 VDM
3 Herbst
2 Best
1 Big Licence

Olding on bench to cover 10 and 12 but he rest of the benchers I don't know.
I would start our strongest side because playing catchup rugby with impact subs is impossible against those Weegies and we want to outmuscle them with our most robust pack possible. We also need to start with our best 7 or we'll be cleaned out there. O'Connor is well worth another look at least IMO.

jimbopip wrote:Fear not Ulster fans: Bluto hates picking the ball up at the base and galloping through prettyboy stand offs. When Big Naka comes on our running game stagnates, he just passes everything out straight away.
Quiet night for Mr Humphries. (Which reminds me, "Has anyone seen Mrs Slocombe's Cat?" )

Fear? Wrong fans, I'm afraid.

Bluto won't be doing any galloping. He will be absolutely banjaxed from repeatedly pawing the ground to stop the Glasgow scrum being driven back behind their own try line. Matawalu will come on, looking to tear it up, and cheerfully offload to iHumph who will canter in for the winning try. Faced with a cauldron of feral fans in King's Pan, ("BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!") Glasgow will wilt a la the Pro12 final. "So many people," they will gasp, heads spinning, "assembled to watch a team play rugby. What sorcery is this?!?"

Stuart McCloskey will come on to ram a one-man maul right over the line. Jared Payne will set off on that weird, mesmerising run of his (FROM HIS BEST POSITION AT 15, D4) where you can't actually tell if he's runnnig quickly or outrageously slowly (apperently even stopwatches don't work on him), and Weegie defenders will stop in their tracks, unable to tell if they can't get to him, they've already tackled him, or time is running backwards. Cave will make clever, incisive breaks, and then slowly plod to the line.

Finally, Hogg will forget who he's playing for. "Did Ulster sign me or not? I remember flying over to beg them to take me..." and run a scintillating line the length of the pitch to dot down behind Glasgow's line for a five metre scrum to Ulster.


In other words, Glasgow going down. Let the trash-talk commence.

Yeeeeeeah Glasgow's going DOWN!!!!!!!!!

Don, big crowds and air crackling with a buzz of anticipation: that's what we thrive on. It's the silence and the vast empty spaces of the Reading Room that get us all agoraphobic. (As opposed to the MFL pack who are aggro-phobic.)
If anything, Bluto may have to come off early. Exhausted from making so many carries after the Tackle monster has decimated your back row and Fozzie has snaffled the ball quicker than a hyperactive kid in Cadbury's World.
If McCloskey is lucky he'll be up against Downey. Lucky in the sense that like banging his head against a brick wall all night it'll be reassuring in it's regularity and the pain will stop eventually. If he's unlucky he'll have Dunbar battering him and then running rings round him. The humiliation will hurt for a lot longer.
As for your front row! Shrek and the Rev will have spent all week being told how wonderful the front row were in Italy while they were redundant. They might just feel they have a point to prove.

This is my first ever foray into "trash-talk", (honest) it's quite fun in a Schizoid sort of way.

Don Alfonso wrote:

jimbopip wrote:Fear not Ulster fans: Bluto hates picking the ball up at the base and galloping through prettyboy stand offs. When Big Naka comes on our running game stagnates, he just passes everything out straight away.
Quiet night for Mr Humphries. (Which reminds me, "Has anyone seen Mrs Slocombe's Cat?" )

Fear? Wrong fans, I'm afraid.

Bluto won't be doing any galloping. He will be absolutely banjaxed from repeatedly pawing the ground to stop the Glasgow scrum being driven back behind their own try line. Matawalu will come on, looking to tear it up, and cheerfully offload to iHumph who will canter in for the winning try. Faced with a cauldron of feral fans in King's Pan, ("BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!") Glasgow will wilt a la the Pro12 final. "So many people," they will gasp, heads spinning, "assembled to watch a team play rugby. What sorcery is this?!?"

Stuart McCloskey will come on to ram a one-man maul right over the line. Jared Payne will set off on that weird, mesmerising run of his (FROM HIS BEST POSITION AT 15, D4) where you can't actually tell if he's runnnig quickly or outrageously slowly (apperently even stopwatches don't work on him), and Weegie defenders will stop in their tracks, unable to tell if they can't get to him, they've already tackled him, or time is running backwards. Cave will make clever, incisive breaks, and then slowly plod to the line.

Finally, Hogg will forget who he's playing for. "Did Ulster sign me or not? I remember flying over to beg them to take me..." and run a scintillating line the length of the pitch to dot down behind Glasgow's line for a five metre scrum to Ulster.

In other words, Glasgow going down. Let the trash-talk commence.

 

jimbopip wrote:Don, big crowds and air crackling with a buzz of anticipation: that's what we thrive on. It's the silence and the vast empty spaces of the Reading Room that get us all agoraphobic. (As opposed to the MFL pack who are aggro-phobic.)
If anything, Bluto may have to come off early. Exhausted from making so many carries after the Tackle monster has decimated your back row and Fozzie has snaffled the ball quicker than a hyperactive kid in Cadbury's World.
If McCloskey is lucky he'll be up against Downey. Lucky in the sense that like banging his head against a brick wall all night it'll be reassuring in it's regularity and the pain will stop eventually. If he's unlucky he'll have Dunbar battering him and then running rings round him. The humiliation will hurt for a lot longer.
As for your front row! Shrek and the Rev will have spent all week being told how wonderful the front row were in Italy while they were redundant. They might just feel they have a point to prove.

This is my first ever foray into "trash-talk", (honest) it's quite fun in a Schizoid sort of way.

Not bad for a first effort. There were extraordinarily elaborate "going down" threads on the original 606. Ironically, I remember talking back then about the Ian Humphreys Unpredictability Matrix.

There are many variables and many more methodologies for assessing these.

If you give Schiz, Bru and Jimbo a while, they will explain Toonie's (a) Player Selection Tombola and (b) Muppetometer - both key tools to properly understanding the genius of Gregor Peter John Townsend, MBE.

GC I fear that the strategic genius that is Toonie has made our Muppetometer as redundant as your mildly racist Uncle Dougie's Betamax video recorder. To whit an 18 year old prop making his debut against a battle hardened Italian front row, in Italy, with a six man pack, on his own 5 metre line? Toonie knew it was going to work out.
The Tombola, however is a different beast.

Rumours are Payne at 13. Again. Where he is no good. On orders from Joe Schimdt. Who seems to be desperately hoping he just all of a sudden starts playing brilliantly, so he can pick him there for Ireland during the AIs.

Don't like Cave, Joe? Fine. Pick Henshaw. please stop sacrificing Ulster's chances for a transformative performance from Payne thet is simply not going to happen. You persuaded BOD to stay on another year, and now we are where we are. Payne is not the answer.

Ah you see Don, Schmidt would now be about 95% and rising on the Muppetometer. Falling to 3.8% if your man Payne scores a hat-trick at 13 against the Warriors but rising to 95.95% if Ulster lose and score no tries.
As for the Tombola; we've given up trying to predict the Glasgow line-ups (I love to see the words "Glasgow" and "line-up" in a sentence which isn't from a court report) there is absolutely no rhyme, reason or logic to them. Toonie turns the handle, puts his hand in and out comes the winning team. Every time. Just like that.

jimbopip wrote:Ah you see Don, Schmidt would now be about 95% and rising on the Muppetometer. Falling to 3.8% if your man Payne scores a hat-trick at 13 against the Warriors but rising to 95.95% if Ulster lose and score no tries.
As for the Tombola; we've given up trying to predict the Glasgow line-ups (I love to see the words "Glasgow" and "line-up" in a sentence which isn't from a court report) there is absolutely no rhyme, reason or logic to them. Toonie turns the handle, puts his hand in and out comes the winning team. Every time. Just like that.

Bit of soap-dodgin' honesty. I like it.

This Payne at 13 nonsense grinds my gears. Payne will get a crack at 13 during the AI, will be underwhelming, and in the meantime Ulster will have dropped out of the top four.

I wonder if Paddy Wallace could take a break from his rugby academy to come in and play 10 for us? What do you think, Joe? Keep our options open?

I think we could be in for a surprise with Glasgow's team announcement. Obviously GT wants to play well against Ulster and get the win, however, I think he'll have an eye on the Bath game.

I'd think GT would normally bench Maitland for his return but I wouldn't be surprised if he started to get some tame time in before Bath.

If you were GT, how much focus would you spend on Bath?

We are badly weakened defensively when Payne is at 13, Cave being a master of mid-field defence. Payne is badly weakened offensively at 13 with by far his best attacking play coming from 15.
That being said he's never had a decent run at 13 to prove he can reproduce the brilliant displays he did for the Blues in the SuperXV. He would probably need simialr team dynamics that were available to him at the Blues, Ulster being a different setup at a different time.
Full back is Payne's only position now and should not be the square peg being fitted into the round 13 hole. It hurts to watch his talent being squandered, a talent that will be of great service to the Irish setup but not at 13.

I did laugh at Rob Kearney in the press a month or so ago.

"Jared is simply brilliant at 13! Sweat, sweat. Shouldn't be considered a fullback at all, really! Natural heir to BOD! Gulp!"

Nematode wrote:I think we could be in for a surprise with Glasgow's team announcement. Obviously GT wants to play well against Ulster and get the win, however, I think he'll have an eye on the Bath game.

I'd think GT would normally bench Maitland for his return but I wouldn't be surprised if he started to get some tame time in before Bath.

If you were GT, how much focus would you spend on Bath?  

I think that if Toonie wants Maitland, Hall and/or Russell to feature against Bath, he needs to get them at least some game time now. That's why I suspect we'll have a talent heavy bench. I hope that Finn gets at least half an hour. Bear in mind that both Hall and Maitland featured for their club sides last week so Pro 12 game time is clearly next for each of them.

I just realised, Nigel Owens is reffing this one. Praise the (whatever deity you folks prefer). This is the first time this season Ulster have had a real ref for match day, it's been comedy refs up until now. In fact the Italian ref, far from being the biggest joker, was the most professional official we've had so far.

Nigel allows the players to decide the outcome of the game, that's all I ask of a ref.

Time to bring this thread back to life with the team announcements in a few hours time.
Have you all forgotten there's a match on saturday or are we collectively to nervous to talk about it

Forgotten? This could be one of the highlights of the season. As an added bonus the warm up will be the MFL who will continue their abject form and lie down and whimper before the rugby juggernaut that is the Dragons Do you Non-Iron chappies know that the young and easily led IanBru has "put my stones on the table right now and bet that the MFL will finish in the top six". Apparently his girlfriend can't wait till the end of the season.
Only a fool would try to predict the result at the Outspan so I'll say Glasgow by 10.

OK Jinbo, MFL? Explain.
I know it refers to Edinburgh but I can't work it out. Is it MotherFlippin Losers?

Poor IanBru, he will be free from cahones at the season finale.

Score predictions are rarely accurate when coming from me but the heart says Ulster by 5, head says Glasgow by 5 or more

Think it is Metrosexual Festival luvvies...

The metrosexual part is mainly a way of saying we are a big bunch of jessies, but isn't helped having players like this (Sam Hidalgo-Clyne also does modelling, and was rated in Scotland's top 50 most eligible bachelors) :



And Dave Denton with his flowing blonde locks...

Does anyone reckon Deccie fitz will be involved in this match, my patience is running thin with him. He had a decent scrummaging style two seasons ago and could be effective but now from the little I've seen if him in the set piece, he is adequate, but the high likelihood of him not lasting 80min or even 40min sets alarm bells off for me, Lutton is just as good and much less injury prone. Also I hope that clown McComish isn't in the squad tonight, I know he is in our (formally known as) HEC squad, but he is a damp squib and Ross should be given the opportunity.

Glasgow team out:

15. Peter Murchie
14. Sean Maitland
13. Mark Bennett
12. Peter Horne
11. Tommy Seymour
10. Finn Russell
9. Henry Pyrgos

1. Gordon Reid
2. Fraser Brown
3. Euan Murray
4. Tim Swinson
5. Leone Nakarawa
6. Rob Harley
7. Chris Fusaro
8. Josh Strauss (Captain)

Replacements

16. Dougie Hall
17. Jerry Yanuyanutawa
18. Zander Fagerson
19. Jonny Gray
20. Adam Ashe
21. Niko Matawalu
22. James Downey
23. Sean Lamont

Interesting!!!

15 Louis Ludik

14 Andrew Trimble

13 Jared Payne

12 Stuart McCloskey

11 Tommy Bowe

10 Ian Humphreys

9 Paul Marshall

1 Andrew Warwick

2 Rory Best (Captain)

3 Wiehahn Herbst

4 Alan O’Connor

5 Franco van der Merwe

6 Robbie Diack

7 Chris Henry

8 Nick Williams



Replacements

16 Rob Herring

17 Callum Black

18 Bronson Ross

19 Lewis Stevenson

20 Roger Wilson

21 Michael Heaney

22 Stuart Olding

23 Craig Gilroy

I fear for Glasgow's 10-12 channel if McClosky is playing...

Indeed, the backline is lacking in physicality in general.

Quick tempo game then!

Payne at 13

McCloskey starting ahead of Olding with Olding as 10/12 cover from the bench makes sense. Glad that O'Conner gets a start. Really hoping he does well enough to start next week.
Williams is more effective coming off the bench for 30 minutes, I think.

I'm not very optimistic about our chances....

Is Dunbar the lad that scored the first one against Dragons? Whats wrong with him.

I hope Ulster keep it tight, and try and tie the likes of Nakarawa and Strauss into defensive mauls and retreating scrums (if we can) and reduce their capacity in open field situations.

I suspect Dunbar is due a rest (Scotland players have a limit on the amount of gametime) or is maybe carrying a niggle.

Probably holding him back for the massive Bath game next week.

Munchkin wrote:Payne at 13

McCloskey starting ahead of Olding with Olding as 10/12 cover from the bench makes sense. Glad that O'Conner gets a start. Really hoping he does well enough to start next week.
Williams is more effective coming off the bench for 30 minutes, I think.

I'm not very optimistic about our chances....

Williams has been our best backrower so far this season so I would back him. Remember he did a great job against Leicester at welford road last season with Wilson coming on so im not worried there. I think we are underdogs though based on performance.

George Carlin wrote:McCloskey and Dunbar have already run into each other once, as caught by this amateur photographic evidence taken at the time:

Great stuff

He did have a good game starting v Tigers, Stand, but I think he has impressed more as an impact sub since. That's not a negative criticism of him. It wasn't until Williams came off the bench last week that Ulster started to play.

It's Payneful to see Cave being denied that 13 shirt again. Stay out of our business please D4, this is a game we need to be winning and not used for your experiments.
Mind you this could be the game Jared rediscovers the form he had at 13 before movng here. Positive thoughts people.
I am with Stand on this one re: Williams. He's been back on form and we need to be punching the holes in Glasgow's defence early on. Bringing an impact sub on to play catchup rugby isn't what is needed on saturday IMO. That's not to say we still won't be playing catchup rugby but I'm remaining positive regardless of my head telling me horrible things.

P.S. I do think (or at least hope) that our boys will have the Glasgow scrum in reverse gear which could be the deciding factor in this match.

Louis Ludik and Jared Payne are the wrong way around. When Ludik has filled in at 13 for us he's looked impressive. Payne has never played well for Ulster at 13 and has been brilliant at 15.

My preferred team would have Cave at 13 and Ludik at 15, but if you're going to play Ludik and Payne together- and they are both natural fullbacks so maybe not- it's Ludik who should move to the centre not Payne. Ludik is the better defender. Ludik makes more yards with the ball in traffic.

Of course, in terms of combos they probably want to see a creative 13 outside a crash ball 12. But Payne hasn't shown he is able to be creative with the lack of time and space on the ball he is afforded at 13. Something Darren Cave, the best outside centre at the club, is able to do very well.

With this Glasgow side, it's really about who needed a rest and DTH, Dunbar, De Klerk and Hogg have played quite a lot.

Other stuff:
- delighted to see Maitland back.
- huge vote of confidence to our youngfellers - Ashe and Zander on the bench instead of the likes of De Klerk and Sherlock/Eddie. Am slightly worried about the lack of proven impact subs in he fron row. Would give the edge to Munser here, although Reid and Murray are very solid starters.
- Finn Russell is back!! Hopefully this will release what is a midfield full of tricks as Finn's range of passing is much better than Weir's. With no Paddy Jackson opposite him, I totally understand Toonie starting Russell.
- Like Ickle Jon as an impact sub very much.

Pete, I think there is no shortage of grunt in our front five. I can't see that pack being pushed around the field. However, the collision between the two back rows should not be on TV before the watershed. There will be some serious seismic shocks at the breakdown.
I was asked to explain the Toonie Muppetometer earlier this week: the backs , and replacements can be called as Exhibit A. No Meatball despite his being given a run at 10 so far. Instead we go with the Deadly Finn who has almost 10 minutes of competitive gametime so far ,but no other 10 on the bench to cover him. We have Hornee Furra Linee and in the centres who are both extremely talented and creative but not exactly the largest pairing you'll ever see. Oh, they're being covered by Schlong and Downey who are huge and defensively sound but not too creative. So either Russell hits form quickly and plays the whole game, unleashing two running centres who bring our devastating back three into the game as often as possible and we build up a lead then bring on Thing One and Thing Two to shut the game down ( at which point Toonie is a genius and the Muppetometer is down to about 0.75%) OR your massive back row smash through the 10-12 channel like the IX Panzer battalion heading for Moscow and we find we have no back up 10 and plan B includes centres who don't really do "that passing thing". (Muppetometer rises faster than GC's pulse rate when watching South African lingerie models playing Twister).
On the other hand; Ickle Jonny, Arthur Ashe and Mad Mental Mata all coming on to run at a tiring defence!!! Doesn't bear thinking about.

On a serious note; Hogg, DTH, Dunbar, Meatball, Macarthur, Kellock all injured or being rested for the Baarf game?

IIRC the Cardiff posters were saying that they had a nudge on in the scrum against Glasgow. Is this the case? We played them the next week and had the best over them. I don't have a lot more to base my hope that our tight five can pick up some momentum here

Glasgow really have very few injuries at the moment, the 2 TH props Welsh and Cussack being the only significant ones. Ryan Wilson and Ritchie Vernon are both running out for clubs this weekend and will no doubt be ready for full selection in a couple of weeks, just in time for the first international window.

Dunbar is still on the list as well, with a quad injury. I don't imagine that is to serious and we should see him again soon. He does seem to pick up a lot of little niggles though, as does Matt Scott for Edinburgh. It is really the only thing holding him back from becoming a really established international player. Hopefully his luck will change soon.

Standulstermen wrote:IIRC the Cardiff posters were saying that they had a nudge on in the scrum against Glasgow. Is this the case? We played them the next week and had the best over them. I don't have a lot more to base my hope that our tight five can pick up some momentum here

I thought the scrums were fairly even until we brought on Jerry at tighthead. He is an average scrummager even at loosehead so he looked a bit lost on the other side. After that, we really did struggle.

Until Mata's intercept try I thought we were losing that game tbh.

Speaking of scrums; away to Treviso and then away to Ulster, Buffy's mate is certainly getting a gentle introduction to life as a professional prop.

Rory Best was reported to have said that along with Warwick and Herbst he reckoned it was the strongest front row he'd ever been a part of.......or something to that effect. It may be media bull but we've definately lost nothing with Court and Afoa's departure, in fact we've gained it seems. Our great strength so far has been the set piece, scrums, mauls and lineouts have been rock solid although that may be a little complimentary to the latter. I'd expect our starting pack to really try and take the Weegies on in toe to toe combat, get them on the back foot giving our backs some vital space. Maybe Payne could then do something from 13.....wishful thoughts eh?

Just looking at the table and we have

1. Glasgow 23pts
2. Ospreys 22pts
3. Ulster 18pts
4. Munster 15pts.

I think Muster (Scarlets at home) and Ospreys (Blues at home) will probably be 4pt winners this weekend so a Glasgow win would open up quite a gap between the top 2 and the rest. Although it is obviously early early doors, it does start to look like a must win for Ulster.

We've lost a little around the pitch Pete, but the scrum is pretty fearsome and Allen Clarke is a very highly respected scrum coach too so his contribution is helping.

BigGee wrote:Glasgow really have very few injuries at the moment, the 2 TH props Welsh and Cussack being the only significant ones. Ryan Wilson and Ritchie Vernon are both running out for clubs this weekend and will no doubt be ready for full selection in a couple of weeks, just in time for the first international window.

I would add another of our Lions, Ryan Grant, to that list.

This is the kind of game where we'll really feel their loss. The Ulster front row is the best in the league in my view and I would really love to have been able to start with Grant and Welsh or Cusack, bringing on Reid and Murray with 30 to go go in order to close this out. Fagerson is a tower of power but the kid is only 20 or something precocious like that.

So I'm nervous about that. However if we can get the ball to our backline, I am confident we will light them up.

I hope Murray has 80 min in him as i personally don't fancy Fagerson coming on against that Ulster front row.

Townsend clearly has an eye on next week's game with resting guys like Dunbar, DTH as well as De Klerk.
I would definitely have started Downey though as the backline looks a bit lightweight.

Good to see Jonny Gray back, Glasgow will definitely need him as they are short in ball carriers otherwise.

George Carlin wrote:So I'm nervous about that. However if we can get the ball to our backline, I am confident we will light them up.

We might say the same if our forwards can get a ScrumV or a lineout within driving distance of the line

George Carlin wrote:

BigGee wrote:Glasgow really have very few injuries at the moment, the 2 TH props Welsh and Cussack being the only significant ones. Ryan Wilson and Ritchie Vernon are both running out for clubs this weekend and will no doubt be ready for full selection in a couple of weeks, just in time for the first international window.

I would add another of our Lions, Ryan Grant, to that list.

This is the kind of game where we'll really feel their loss. The Ulster front row is the best in the league in my view and I would really love to have been able to start with Grant and Welsh or Cusack, bringing on Reid and Murray with 30 to go go in order to close this out. Fagerson is a tower of power but the kid is only 20 or something precocious like that.

So I'm nervous about that. However if we can get the ball to our backline, I am confident we will light them up.

Yes I had forgotten about Ryan Grant, which is perhaps a testimony to how well Allen in particular and Reid have been playing. Allen may well start for Scotland this autumn and I hope Grant comes back in the form of 2012/13 or else he won't walk back into the team.

We are still a little bit light at TH, but ZF (18 not 20) gave a pretty good account of himself last week. He is only going to fill in the gaps this year though and will learn as much as he can. Baring injury Murray will go deep into the game, he as been playing well also so I don't think we will be giving to much away in the front row.