Edinburgh v Cardiff Blues, 23 November

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Edinburgh Rugby v Cardiff Blues
Sunday 23 November 2014
KO 16:00
BT Murrayfield

Live on BBC Wicker Man/SC4

Referee: Leo Colgan (IRU, 16th competition game)
Assistant Referees: David Changleng, Stephen Hart (both SRU)
Citing Commissioner: Rob Flockhart (SRU)
TMO: Iain Ramage (SRU)

A. Teams:

Edinburgh Rugby

Nick McLennan, Dougie Fife, Sam Beard, Andries Strauss, Tom Brown, Tom Heathcote, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne; Rory Sutherland, James Hilterbrand, Willem Nel, Ollie Atkins, Ben Toolis, Mike Coman (capt), Roddy Grant, David Denton.

Replacements: Neil Cochrane, Grant Shiells, John Andress, Fraser McKenzie, Tomas Leonardi, Grayson Hart, Greig Tonks, Matt Scott.

Cardiff Blues

Gareth Anscombe, Richard Smith, Adam Thomas, Gavin Evans, Dan Fish, Gareth Davies, Lloyd Williams; Sam Hobbs, Kristian Dacey, Adam Jones (capt), Jarrad Hoeata, Macauley Cook, Josh Turnbull, Ellis Jenkins, Manoa Vosawai.

Replacements: Rhys Williams, Thomas Davies, Scott Andrews, Chris Dicomidis, Josh Navidi, Lewis Jones, Garyn Smith, Geraint Walsh.

B. Form - head to head:

22 Played 22
9 Wins 13
13 Losses 9
0 Draws 0
33 Tries 63
25 Conversions 45
41 Penalties 43
7 Drop Goals 0
359 Points 534
24 Avg. Age 21

C. Form - last season:

Sun 6 Oct 2013
Cardiff Blues 29 - 12 Edinburgh
Rugby Arms Park

Fri 11 Apr 2014
Edinburgh Rugby 22 - 29 Cardiff Blues
Meggetland

Hopefully Dougie Fife will play on one wing, but I suspect Visser's cover will be Jack Cuthbert with Tonks at 15.

If you are not familiar with Jack Cuthbert his similarity as a winger with Visser ends with the fact that they are both tall.

To be fair, Visser hasn't been on form this season, albeit him not being helped by breaking his leg and Edinburgh playing like a sack of crap.

But as FES says, our alternatives just now are Jack -not-a-winger- Cuthbert or Nick -plain-average- McLennan.

What about GC's mildy racist uncle?

tigertattie wrote:What about GC's mildy racist uncle?

I think he's already snagged the role of new defence coach.

Amorosino isn't in the Argentina squad for France, could he be in the Blues squad if released.

Well some good new for Edinburgh - Matt Scott (12) is back! He was meant to be back mid-December but has obviously made a speedy recovery. Hopefully he is on the bench though to start with - can't be rushing him back and getting injured again.

In further good news, Roddy Grant has miraculously healed from the broken face he suffered 3 weeks ago! A back row of Leonardi-Grant-Denton is very competitive.

And in even further further good news, Tom Brown is back! Hopefully means we won't see Cuthbert on the wing.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Well some good new for Edinburgh - Matt Scott (12) is back! He was meant to be back mid-December but has obviously made a speedy recovery. Hopefully he is on the bench though to start with - can't be rushing him back and getting injured again.

In further good news, Roddy Grant has miraculously healed from the broken face he suffered 3 weeks ago! A back row of Leonardi-Grant-Denton is very competitive.

And in even further further good news, Tom Brown is back! Hopefully means we won't see Cuthbert on the wing.

That's smashing - what on Earth is Roddy's face made of?! Looking forward to the next few weeks building up to the 1872, each team announcement should have a 12 days of Christmas feel with injured players returning each week :-)
Cardiff H, Zebre A, L.Welsh H, L.Welsh A, Treviso H is the next few games, looks like this is the pivotal part of our season. Pretty sure even the undecideds among us will have a view on Solomans after this run.

I have checked and Grant's face is apparently made in Scotland from girders.

Great news on Matt Scott, especially with the Messiah crocked for Christmas.

Edinburgh team:

1 - Sutherland
2 - Hilterbrand
3 - Nel
4 - Atkins
5 - Toolis
6 - Coman
7 - Grant
8 - Denton

9 - S-H-C
10 - Heathcoat
11 - Brown
12 - Strauss
13 - Beard
14 - Fife
15 - McLennan

Bench - Cochrane, Shiells, Andress, McKenzie, Leonardi, Hart, Tonks, Scott

Decent squad with a lot more players back from injury than expected. Not sure why McLennan is starting over Tonks, but that is a very strong bench.

Matt Scott will be back soon

It will mean no more Strauss at 12

tigertattie wrote: Matt Scott will be back soon

It will mean no more Strauss at 12

Or, more accurately, Strauss kept at 12 and Matt Scott (12) moved to 13!

Haha that sounds about right! While I am with everybody else in as much as I haven't seen a lot from Strauss, and am bemused with Solly's perseverance with him at 12 - there is a part of me that hopes the guy will turn in an absolute blinder one day out of the blue, run in a hatrick of solo tries and top the tackle count with hits hard enough to make your eyes water.
Unlikely I know but would be funny to see the baffled post match reaction on here!

Is Cuthbert injured? He seems to have been slipping down the pecking order lately and he must be worried that he is now viewed upon as the 3rd choice 15....

Generally happy with the selection and even happier with thenumber of unexpected returnees.

Cardiff Blues: 15 Gareth Anscombe, 14 Richard Smith, 13 Adam Thomas, 12 Gavin Evans, 11 Dan Fish, 10 Gareth Davies, 9 Lloyd Williams; 1 Sam Hobbs, 2 Kristian Dacey, 3 Adam Jones (c), 4 Jarrad Hoeata, 5 Macauley Cook, 6 Josh Turnbull, 7 Ellis Jenkins, 8 Manoa Vosawai

Replacements: 16 Rhys Williams, 17 Thomas Davies, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 Chris Dicomidis, 20 Josh Navidi, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Garyn Smith, 23 Geraint Walsh

RDW_Scotland wrote:Edinburgh team:

1 - Sutherland
2 - Hilterbrand
3 - Nel
4 - Atkins
5 - Toolis
6 - Coman
7 - Grant
8 - Denton

9 - S-H-C
10 - Heathcoat
11 - Brown
12 - Strauss
13 - Beard
14 - Fife
15 - McLennan

Bench - Cochrane, Shiells, Andress, McKenzie, Leonardi, Hart, Tonks, Scott

Decent squad with a lot more players back from injury than expected.  Not sure why McLennan is starting over Tonks, but that is a very strong bench.

McLennan over Tonks is a weird one, as is Toolis over McKenzie but that could be down to returning from injury, but otherwise the team looks ok. I've been impressed with Sam Beard at 13 this season and Fife is pretty consistent. Heathcote won't miss much either. I think we have a chance here.

What's McLennan doing there and where's Cuthbert? Other than that OK.

interesting to see Ellis Jenkins back in the 7 shirt over Navidi. also a big plus to have vosawai available

Looking at the two teams Edinburgh really should be aiming for a win here - no excuses for Solomons now.  Got a lot of the injured players back in key positions, plenty experience in there too.

On the flip side, the Blues are our bogey team, and I still feel our good wins of late in Europe do not represent a corner turned for this team, and that they will still have fragile confidence.

But if we can't beat one of the teams of a similar level to us at home, we really are going to have a long season!

I don't think it will be pretty - and our backs are still going to be fairly blunt - but I reckon Edinburgh 19 - Blues 14

Anscombe starts at 15, Fish on the wing where he can do the least damage. Lots of good things about that Blues side - sadly, I predict an away win (just) but that Edinburgh side is a lot better than I think any of us expected.

Not happy that Cook is in the row again. But having him and Vos on the field gives us two strong ball carriers. If Turnbull decideds to turn up as well then our pack will be pretty good at getting us on the front foot. It all depends on what Davies can do with it.

Coleman wrote:Not happy that Cook is in the row again. But having him and Vos on the field gives us two strong ball carriers. If Turnbull decideds to turn up as well then our pack will be pretty good at getting us on the front foot. It all depends on what Davies can do with it.

I would have rather had Navidi at 6 than Turnball,

Turnball has been a liability, at least Navidi will make tackles

What is Coman doing on the starting lineup? arf forgot he was there for his "leadership" abilities as opposed to rugby abilities.

Surprised Adam Jones hasn't been with Wales i actually think he has found some of his mojo back and has scrummaged better than Samson Lee so far this season, bet Blues fans are delighted about this though!

Looking forward to seeing what Anscombe can do

IronMike wrote:Looking forward to seeing what Anscombe can do

That will involve him getting some decent ball,

We be interesting to see his kicking game and defence

Beard out. Scott starts at 13 Dominguez to bench.

Presidents suite quiet before the game.

Just seen that Argentina beat France last night.

Yeah France still just above in the rankings though.

PS pitch looks great , looks like the Cross beard plan didn't work.

Haha, he was too scary #fearthebeard

the phase before that Strauss try SHC could easily have gone in. Should have spotted the gap.

For all the talk about Anscombe he is absolutely gash lol

Edinburgh are playing pretty well. Plenty of power and passion there.

Awful start, Hoeta is an idiot and Anscombe is already trying too hard.

Bad miss from Davies

That was a bad miss for the blues

Why is Davies taking the kicks, I thought Anscombe was a good goal kicker?

We were making ground through the forwards, until G.Davies decided to throw it to the winger to try to beat 3 men in no space.

Discipline is laughable, nothing like the team that faced Munster

Been impressed with Toolis,he is not taking backward step, really is one for the future. Sutherland doing well also, the kids are doing just fine

Hoeta has been crocked already,

Good

BigGee wrote:Been impressed with Toolis,he is not taking  backward step, really is one for the future. Sutherland doing well also, the kids are doing just fine

He has overtaken Atkins and McKenzie in my books.

We needed to score when we turned down the 3

Sutherland looks a much better prospect than Allan in terms of scrummaging.

Rory Sutherland could be our find of the season

Anscombe having a nightmare debut,

and another card

wales606 wrote:Anscombe having a nightmare debut,

and another card

Disagree with both your verdict and the yellow card.

Nightmare is a bit harsh, just think he's getting used to the game up here. He's looked pretty good in attack.

Bad mistake by Denton, a pity as he has played well so far

Denton is having a shocker. Knocks on and gives a penalty in one go...

Dacey is having a good game

Matt Scott not holding back there, he looks keen to get back into it

Shouldn't have kicked unless your sure you will score when the clock is in the red.

Good first half, Edinburgh should be happy with a 10 point lead