Scotland - World Cup General Thread

[Majestic83]

First topic message reminder :

This should serve as our general moaning thread between World Cup matches.

     
SCOTLAND V JAPAN
23 September 2015
Kingsholm - Gloucester

    
SCOTLAND v USA
27 September 2015
Elland Road - Leeds

          
SCOTLAND v SOUTH AFRICA
03 October 2015
St James Park - Newcastle

      
SCOTLAND v SAMOA
10 October 2015
St James Park - Newcastle                                       

SCOTLAND SQUAD FOR THE 2015 RUGBY WORLD CUP:

Props: Al Dickinson, Ryan Grant, Gordon Reid, Willem Nel, Jon Welsh

Hooker: Fraser Brown, Ross Ford, Stuart McInally

Lock: Grant Gilchrist, Richie Gray, Jonny Gray and Tim Swinson

Loose Forward: David Denton, John Hardie, Josh Strauss, Alasdair Strokosch and Ryan Wilson

Scrum Halves: Greig Laidlaw (captain), Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Henry Pyrgos

Fly Half: Finn Russell, Duncan Weir

Centre: Mark Bennett, Peter Horne, Matt Scott and Richie Vernon

Wing: Sean Lamont, Sean Maitland, Tommy Seymour and Tim Visser

Full Back: Stuart Hogg

[funnyExiledScot]

The fantasy league has basically removed the anonymous nature of an internet forum as we've all posted our names up there.  Unless someone went for a fake name...

RDW if you are being groomed, you've now made it much easier for folk to track you down, lets hope your mrs is incorrect.  

Apparently Schizoid is already sitting outside his house waiting for him to come home.

The fantasy league rules make it extremely difficult to pick a team, particularly all the transfer windows. I'd rather they just took them away and left it to participants to figure out which squads and individuals would be subject to rotation, and which players were more likely to get injured.

[RDW]

Just to warn you all, Mrs RDW-to-be has joined the league - shame on all of you if she beats you given that her selection criteria for most of them was whether they were hot!

[Weegie Wizard]

Given she has agreed to marry you, I presume Jacques Burger is in her team?  

[RDW]

[R!skysports]

Great! Gatland has picked donkeys to face uraguay!  Now I need to change my fantasy team

Most of my Welsh were subbed out due to injury lol

[tigertattie]

Great! Gatland has picked donkeys to face uraguay!  Now I need to change my fantasy team

Most of my Welsh were subbed out due to injury lol

I only had one Welshie coz I honestly think they won't make it out the group!

[tigertattie]

If anyone wants a laugh, go to this page:

http://thescotlandteam.com/

And spot the amateurish photoshopping!

One of the examples (of 2) can be seen even more clearly on the "squad" page...

you're going to need to help me out here!!!!

[funnyExiledScot]

Just to warn you all, Mrs RDW-to-be has joined the league - shame on all of you if she beats you given that her selection criteria for most of them was whether they were hot!

Presumably if she beats you the wedding is off!!?

[EWT Spoons]

If anyone wants a laugh, go to this page:

http://thescotlandteam.com/

And spot the amateurish photoshopping!

One of the examples (of 2) can be seen even more clearly on the "squad" page...

you're going to need to help me out here!!!!

i might be wrong but Gordon Reid looks like something is very wrong with him...more wrong than normal

[RDW]

Just to warn you all, Mrs RDW-to-be has joined the league - shame on all of you if she beats you given that her selection criteria for most of them was whether they were hot!

Presumably if she beats you the wedding is off!!?

I think it would represent a good metaphor to prepare me for married life!

[GLove39]

ffs is there no escaping the Red Hot Chilli Peppers?! Apparently they're playing in Gloucester on the 27th... Good thing I'll be in Leeds by then!

[Eejit]

ITS ALMOST HERE!!!!

[TheMildlyFranticLlama]

Somehow managed to get away with working from home on Wednesday and this is after making it clear to my boss that I would be watching the rugby!

[RDW]

ffs is there no escaping the Red Hot Chilli Peppers?! Apparently they're playing in Gloucester on the 27th... Good thing I'll be in Leeds by then!

First world problems eh!

[RDW]

Somehow managed to get away with working from home on Wednesday and this is after making it clear to my boss that I would be watching the rugby!

[TheMildlyFranticLlama]

Somehow managed to get away with working from home on Wednesday and this is after making it clear to my boss that I would be watching the rugby!

[highland_scot]

If anyone wants a laugh, go to this page:

http://thescotlandteam.com/

And spot the amateurish photoshopping!

One of the examples (of 2) can be seen even more clearly on the "squad" page...

you're going to need to help me out here!!!!

i might be wrong but Gordon Reid looks like something is very wrong with him...more wrong than normal

Clues:
Look at Hoggy's legs bearing in mind when the photo was.

Then at the back, look at the hookers... Think about who wasn't at the announcement then look closely!

[tigertattie]

Niko still being a genius and liability in the same game

[R!skysports]

God darn it. Meal with bod (not the irish one) on wednesday night......grrrrrrrrr

[jimbopip]

Well, as a Warriors fan there were two things which stood out for me last night; Mad Mata being totally mad and Big Naka selling the jerseys.

Niko actually managed to pass the ball from a ruck ten yards back to himself He threw the ball so far away from everyone else he had time to run after it and gather it before the English worked out what he had done.

Very late in the match with Fiji still in it they tried to run from their own half and Naka was held up in the tackle and attempted the miracle off-load: straight to an Englishman From the resulting possession England score and Fiji are too far behind to catch up.

It was also worth noting that Volavola has been signed by the Crusaders as Dan Carter's replacement, on last night's showing they would have been better with Meatball. Dancer could well be a star at this tournament.

Bearing in mind that Fiji are better than Samoa.... we could be alright here... if we beat the Sons of Nippon on Wednesday.

[jimbopip]

I've just noticed on the BBC site that Hogg is still wearing his protective boot and is "hopeful" of making the Japan game.

So, the only other full-back in the squad is NoMaits who has played approximately 90 minutes in the last decade.

And this means that either Schlong or the human turnstile are starting on the wing. Unless Seymour tweaks his back in which case both will start.

[George Carlin]

Come on Jim - let's not beat ourselves before starting the tournament.

If I was a Welsh fan watching the Fiji game, I would be very nervous indeed. Fiji will see that as a game they can definitely win.

[RDW]

Hogg seemed confident of being fit in his interview - says he can't wait to play on Wednesday!

[tigertattie]

Hmmmmm. Would a draw be good for us here?

[tigertattie]

Soooooo. What does this mean for us now????

[RDW]

It means we can lose to south Africa and still top the group.

Going to be very, very difficult though!

[BigGee]

Well any thoughts of complacency are now officially banished. Put our strongest team out, that was always the best plan anyway. It might help not to be totally tactically inept like SA. Hard to see BVC making the same mistake!

[quinsforever]

pool is wide open. what a great start to your group. good luck!

[Notch]

Enjoyed seeing David Denton on twitter saying he hopes the Japanese go and have a few beers to celebrate now

[BigGee]

Scotlands destiny is in their own hands now. Play to our potential and we go through, maybe on top. This just goes to show, no side can just show up and expect to win (except maybe NZ)!

[123456789]

Fingers crossed the USA shock Samoa and we've had the perfect weekend.

[InjuredYetAgain]

I can see a series of "shocks" in this group. I don't think Samoa have real strength in depth and can't see them beating both Japan and the US and A.
By the same token, we could beat anyone in the group on a good day but, on a bad day, get beaten by everyone.
If Japan beat America, they really only need to beat either us or Samoa to qualify as 3 wins should be good enough

[glamorganalun]

The group looks a lot harder after Japan won today they look a very good side not wippng boys.

[funnyExiledScot]

I don't think the result today changes anything for us. I still predict that it'll go down to the Samoa game with us needing to win.

[InjuredYetAgain]

FES - are you assuming the Saffers will win the rest of their games?

[funnyExiledScot]

Yes, I think the Boks will win the remainder of their games. I'm pleased Samoa face the backlash from today and not us!

[InjuredYetAgain]

Or, and I may be being untypically optimistic here, Samoa could also beat the Boks thereby taking them out of the equation totally

[George Carlin]

If the Boks lose to Samoa, the South Africa squad will get their passports confiscated and Meyer will need to write out 1,000 x times "I must not d!ck around with our country's national sport".

[InjuredYetAgain]

But with his intransigence, he will insist on picking a very big guy to lift the pen and then another specialist to do the writing. The racial quota will probably not be met.

[RDW]

Samoa USA now - hopefully they both look really crap...

[InjuredYetAgain]

All Samoa so far but the US defence looks reasonably untroubled (so far).

[RDW]

Neither team looking great so far.

[George Carlin]

There's a match thread for this one:
https://www.606v2.com/t60618-samoa-v-usa

[RDW]

Well on that showing neither Samoa or USA would cause us a real headache, but given we're probably playing USA with a weakened team and the Samoa game will probably be a shoot out for 2nd place, anything can happen.

[123456789]

Japan overtaking us in the rankings could become a positive in that it will mean more ranking points for us should we beat them.

[R!skysports]

Lets be clear - this changes nothing

We still have to beat the Japan, Samoa and USA teams and hopefully the SA

While it is fantastic result for Japan and they played well - BUT this SA team is really really poor - and have been for a while (See reults in the 4 nations)

|We need to take it with a pinch of salt and not panic or over react

We play our game, our way to our normal standard and we will win this

If we panic and play dumb rugby we will likely lose

Keep it tight, kick behind, use our fast forward to move point of attack and then use our backs to break the line

[funnyExiledScot]

Well on that showing neither Samoa or USA would cause us a real headache, but given we're probably playing USA with a weakened team and the Samoa game will probably be a shoot out for 2nd place, anything can happen.

Agreed. The USA game only troubles me because of Vern Cotter's daft squad selections. Surely now he must be regretting going into that game with Swinson, Strokosch and Wilson rather than Hamilton, Harley and Cowan/Barclay. It still makes no sense!

The crunch game will be Samoa, I've always thought that. That'll be our decider and if we win that we'll go through.

[RDW]

Congrats FES, leading the fantasy league after the opening weekend.

I'll settle for 3rd place though!

[funnyExiledScot]

Congrats FES, leading the fantasy league after the opening weekend.

I'll settle for 3rd place though!

Bittersweet for me. I screwed up two valuable transfers putting Liam Williams and Julian Savea into my back three ahead of yesterday. I also put in Gareth Davies as a 3rd transfer but changed my mind at the last minute. Doh!!

[RDW]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing - I was watching the Wales game thinking that Tupiric would have been a very good choice, and he scores 2 tries!

Going to make some changes before Wednesday - the question is who...

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