Pro12: Edinburgh Rugby v Zebre

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Referee: Leighton Hodges (WRU, 50th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Mike Adamson, Stephen Hart (both SRU)
Citing Commissioner: Iain Goodall (SRU)
TMO: Jim Yuille (SRU )

Head to Head
5 Played 5
3 Wins 2
2 Losses 3
0 Draws 0
10 Tries 9
9 Conversions 6
10 Penalties 9
9 Drop Goals 0
98 Points 84
26 Avg. Age (for some reason Zebre are not listed as having an average age)

Edinburgh
Last 3 Matches
17/4/15 Edinburgh 45 - 16 Dragons
11/4/15 Edinburgh 3 - 34 Munster
5/4/15 L Irish            18 - 23 Edinburgh

Zebre
Last 3 Matches
11/4/15 Zebre 26 - 28 Scarlets
28/3/15 Ospreys 53 - 22 Zebre
6/3/15 Glasgow 26 - 5 Zebre

Teams

Edinburgh
15 Tom BROWN
14 Dougie FIFE
13 Sam BEARD
12 Andries STRAUSS
11 Tim VISSER
10 Phil BURLEIGH
09 Sam HIDALGO-CLYNE

01 Alasdair DICKINSON
02 Ross FORD
03 WP NEL
04 Anton BRESLER
05 Ben TOOLIS
06 Stuart McINALLY
07 Roddy GRANT
08 Mike COMAN (captain)

16 Neil COCHRANE
17 Rory SUTHERLAND
18 John ANDRESS
19 Fraser MCKENZIE
20 Cornell DU PREEZ
21 Nathan FOWLES
22 Tom HEATHCOTE
23 Carl BEZUIDENHOUT

Zebre
15 Hendrik Daniller
14 Giulio Toniolatti
13 Mirco Bergamasco
12 Gonzalo Garcia
11 David Odiete
10 Luciano Orquera
09 Guglielmo Palazzani

8 Samuela Vunisa
7 Andries Van Schalkwyk
6 Filippo Cristiano
5 Marco Bortolami (cap)
4 Valerio Bernabò
3 Dario Chistolini
2 Andrea Manici
1 Matias Aguero

16 Oliviero Fabiani
17 Andrea Lovotti
18 Luca Redolfini
19 Andrei Mahu
20 Filippo Ferrarini
21 Alberto Chillon
22 Matteo Pratichetti
23 Brendon Leonard

A word on Tim visser too - he was by some way the laziest player on the pitch. Barely bothered his arse to run back to gather a kick through - even when no one was back!

A definitely think the time is right for him to move on - he just doesn't fit Edinburgh any more.

Job done. We move on.

RDW_Scotland wrote:A word on Tim visser too - he was by some way the laziest player on the pitch. Barely bothered his arse to run back to gather a kick through - even when no one was back!

A definitely think the time is right for him to move on - he just doesn't fit Edinburgh any more.

Was the exact same last week in the semi final. Lazy and looked like he couldn't be bothered. Going to have to up his game a huge amount if he is going to make it in the aviva premiership.
Was appalled by him last week and not much better tonight, v poor attitude!

I thought McInally was superb - if he can keep those performances up while playing at hooker he is going to be a hell of a player for Edinburgh and Scotland

Yep agreed, mcinally was very good again. Hopefully his performances at back row can be replicated at hooker.
Also thought the rest of the pack were outstanding. Anton bresler was exceptional yet again, his work rate is top class and has the skills to match. Quickly turning into one of edinburghs best signings for a long time.
Roddy Grant was yet again brilliant at 7, by far the most consistent openside available for scotland. Surely vern has to finally give roddy a shot at the scotland Jersey.

Yup Bresler has been an amazing signing and is exactly the kind of player the Glasgow's pack has been crying out for, him and Jonny Gray would be quite an amazing pairing but apparently they prefer lightweight 2nd row like Nakarawa and Swinson there.

Majestic83 wrote:Yep agreed, mcinally was very good again. Hopefully his performances at back row can be replicated at hooker.
Also thought the rest of the pack were outstanding. Anton bresler was exceptional yet again, his work rate is top class and has the skills to match. Quickly turning into one of edinburghs best signings for a long time.
Roddy Grant was yet again brilliant at 7, by far the most consistent openside available for scotland. Surely vern has to finally give roddy a shot at the scotland Jersey.

Isn't old roddy going back to the African continent after the summer though?

That was a complete unfounded rumour - he signed a 1 year deal soon after that rumour came out!

No, he (RG) signed on for another year I think.

Mixed views on this. The pack was decent - annihilated Zebre in the scrum and maul - but the backs were really mediocre (Visser and Strauss). Zebre had about 3 yellows but there were no real back tries. If a team can match Edinburgh in the pack, e.g. Munster, there doesn't seem to be an effective plan B. Hopefully once Scott is back and fully fit, he can energise the backline - hopefully Allen will add some energy too.

I might get slated for this, but I think Edinburgh miss Nick de Luca a bit. He worked well with Visser, often creating the chances for him to finish. He also seemed to be the one orchestrating the back moves.

Thought Neil Cochrane was very good coming on, also Sutherland. But Heathcote... he's just crumbling to pieces sadly. I wonder what would have happened if he'd stayed at Bath.

Burleigh after giving a masterclass in tactical kicking last week, probably kicked far to much and not as well this week. Plenty points were left out there and the backs did look cumbersome when they had it.

Still a bonus point win, while nilling the opposition and hardly breaking sweat and not really suffering any injuries other than Strauss. You would have taken that before the start. Just what was needed at this stage in the season.

You would hope Tonks is back for the final and he might play instead of Strauss, though not sure whether at 10 or 12. How he is going to chose between Roddy Grant and Watson (if he is fit), god only knows. That is not a choice I would like to be making and is going to be really tough on whoever misses out!

Depends on our tactics I think - if we're going to maul every lineout again I'd go for Grant. If we're going to pick up the pace then Watson starts. Whoever doesn't start goes on the bench.

Again I think Du Preez should miss out - he's a long way from match fitness and sharpness.

I'd start Grant and use Watson for impact. Could have 6 forwards on the bench actually.

Agree with that, a lot depends whose fit, but something like;

Dickinson, Ford, WP
Toolis, Bresler
McInally, Coman, Roddy

SHC, Tonks
Visser, Burleigh, Beard, Fife
Brown

Sutherland, Cochrane, AnOther (OK Andress then)
McKenzie, Watson, Du Preez
Fowles, Bezzy

Looks to have enough flexibility to cover the backs and has a lot of forward impact.

Oh dear, I've forgotten Strauss, oh well never mind.

If Tonks and Burleigh both start we don't need a sub 10, and Heathcoat was dire when he came on - he's been awful for a while now.

A 6/2 split isn't too bad an idea! Watson could easily cover wing in an emergency.

Baws - BP win for Scarlets.

Edinburgh need to just take each game as it comes.

If they could beat Gloucester then Dragons, who knows what could happen vs Leinster at Murrayfield. Leinster are out of the playoffs, so perhaps they might want to try some younger players/protect the likes of Heaslip and O'Brien (please )

Problem is we now need Scarlets to drop points - this was the game that was most likely for that to happen.

Yeah Blues at home, Treviso away. 8/9 points nailed on for the Scarlets.

On the bright side should we not make top 6 at least we'll get a chance to retain our new shiny Euro trophy...

GLove39 wrote:Yeah Blues at home, Treviso away. 8/9 points nailed on for the Scarlets.

On the bright side should we not make top 6 at least we'll get a chance to retain our new shiny Euro trophy...

There's still the playoff for the last CC spot to be considered.

That's a pain in the hoop though - 2 more knock out games.

I reckon we'll miss out by only a couple of points, which will be massively frustrating given some of the poor defeats this season.

Treviso were very decent against a strong Munster side today, i can see them troubling, if not beating the Scarlets.

There were some howlers of defeats but some good wins too e.g. vs Munster and Glasgow, that other teams have struggled to beat. I don't think a 7th place play-off would be all that bad considering where we were at the start of the season, losing massively to Ospreys.

Anyone know who this knock-out game might be against/where it would be held?

First one is 7th place Pro 12 v 7th place AP (or winner of challenge cup if from an AP team) - home team decided by coin toss

Final playoff is the winner vs 7th place French team. The French team will be away from home

RDW_Scotland wrote:First one is 7th place Pro 12 v 7th place AP (or winner of challenge cup if from an AP team) - home team decided by coin toss

Final playoff is the winner vs 7th place French team. The French team will be away from home

Didn't realise it was that tough.

I've had a look at the tables and it could look like Edinburgh vs:

6 Wasps 53
7 Sale 49
8 Harlequins 48
9 Gloucester 43

Then

6 Oyonnax 57
7 Montpellier 54
8 Bordeaux 51
9 La Rochelle 50

Nematode wrote:There were some howlers of defeats but some good wins too e.g. vs Munster and Glasgow, that other teams have struggled to beat.

For Edinburgh, merely beating Glasgow is par....

RDW_Scotland wrote:First one is 7th place Pro 12 v 7th place AP (or winner of challenge cup if from an AP team) - home team decided by coin toss

Final playoff is the winner vs 7th place French team. The French team will be away from home

So that could mean 2 more games, some players will really be on their knees come the end of May!

It would mean a game every weekend up until the end of May!

VinceWLB wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:First one is 7th place Pro 12 v 7th place AP (or winner of challenge cup if from an AP team) - home team decided by coin toss

Final playoff is the winner vs 7th place French team. The French team will be away from home

So that could mean 2 more games, some players will really be on their knees come the end of May!

That's the....em.............. 7th place winner of the game between 7th placed Pro12 and AP, having to play again against the 7th placed French side, that will just have to play once to decide if it gets through - unlike its AP or Pro12 competitor that will have had to play twice to get the same slot.  Oh the French team will always play away to balance out the lack of having to play twice.....!!!

What a meritocratic little complex world we all live in.  It's like the Tax system.  It could all be and should all be written on one foolscap page....but why spoil the fun of all the bandwidth complexity

RDW_Scotland wrote:It would mean a game every weekend up until the end of May!

Solomons still wouldn't rotate!!