Scotland v Samoa, 10 October

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SCOTLAND V SAMOA
10 October 2015
KO: 14:30 BST
St. James' Park, Newcastle

Live on ITV

Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Touch judges: JP Doyle (England) & Marius Mitrea (Italy)
Television match official: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)

A. Head to Head

9 Played 9
7 Won 1
1 Drawn 1
1 Lost 7
218 Points 122

B. Recent Form

8 June 2013
Mr Price Kings Park, Durban, South Africa
27 – 17 Samoa

23 June 2012
Apia Park, Apia
16 – 17 Scotland

27 November 2010
Pittodire, Aberdeen
19 – 16 Scotland

20 November 2005
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
18 – 11 Scotland

4 June 2004
Westpac Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand
3 – 38 Scotland

18 November 2000
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
31 – 8 Scotland

C. Teams

SCOTLAND

15 Stuart Hogg 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tommy Seymour, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw (capt); 1 Alasdair Dickinson, 2 Ross Ford, 3 Willem Nel, 4 Richie Gray, 5 Jonny Gray, 6 Ryan Wilson, 7 John Hardie, 8 David Denton.

Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Jon Welsh, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 Josh Strauss, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Peter Horne, 23 Sean Lamont.

SAMOA

15 Tim Nanai-Williams, 14 Paul Perez, 13 George Pisi, 12 Rey Lee-Lo, 11 Fa'atoina Autagavaia, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i (c); 1 Sakaria Taulafo, 2 Ma'atulimanu Leiataua, 3 Census Johnston, 4 Teofilo Paulo, 5 Kane Thompson, 6 Maurie Faasavalu, 7 Jack Lam, 8 Alafoti Faosiliva.

Replacements: 16 Motu Matu'u, 17 Viliamu Afatia, 18 Anthony Perenise, 19 Faifili Levave, 20 Vavae Tuilagi, 21 Vavao Afemai, 22 Patrick Faapale, 23 Ken Pisi.

Well I think Scotland are finally getting somewhere. Last weeks "wakeup" call should have encouraged the team to weed out some of the basic errors in prep for this weekends game. I don't care if Samoa have played awful this world cup they are still Samoa, AKA, biggest, baddest Pacific Islander team in the world. My thoughts are completely on Scotland winning this game and getting out of Pool B.

Team looks great, no excuses really, Scotland need to perform well and do enough to win the match.

jimbopip wrote:On the McMisser front : it isn't just that he lets players run past him when defending in his own half. We could manage that by adapting our defensive patterns to give him extra support. No, it's the fact that he goes missing everywhere on the field.

Pretty much this. It's not his inability to tackle, it's the fact he loses interest and seems to go into hiding.

TJ wrote:I think Weir should go a team where he is the no 1 10 in the squad - even if this means a season in the english or French second division.  He has not even had a seasons worth of games in 3 years.

I think Weir should move to 9. Frankly he was better than Laidlaw last week.

cakeordeath wrote:

TJ wrote:I think Weir should go a team where he is the no 1 10 in the squad - even if this means a season in the english or French second division.  He has not even had a seasons worth of games in 3 years.

I think Weir should move to 9. Frankly he was better than Laidlaw last week.

Wow.

The levels of vitriol being thrown at Laidlaw is approaching embarrassment levels.

The guy was man of the match against Japan, and rightly so. Henners was absolutely ineffective in the first half against the USA and we missed a few shots at goal. Laidlaw was a big part in the turnaround when we started to punish the US in the 2nd half. Admittadly he was quiet against SA but no more than guys like Nel, Didier Hoggba or Denton or Strauss.

It seems 2 good performances isn't enough to redeem him, but one bad performance is enough to suggest Weir plays at Scrum half????????

Samoa's team;


I'm scared just looking at the picture.

Bit of trivia. All of IanBru soaking wet and Census Johnson's head are the same weight. Who knew?

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

cakeordeath wrote:

TJ wrote:I think Weir should go a team where he is the no 1 10 in the squad - even if this means a season in the english or French second division.  He has not even had a seasons worth of games in 3 years.

I think Weir should move to 9. Frankly he was better than Laidlaw last week.

Wow.

The levels of vitriol being thrown at Laidlaw is approaching embarrassment levels.

The guy was man of the match against Japan, and rightly so. Henners was absolutely ineffective in the first half against the USA and we missed a few shots at goal. Laidlaw was a big part in the turnaround when we started to punish the US in the 2nd half. Admittadly he was quiet against SA but no more than guys like Nel, Didier Hoggba or Denton or Strauss.

It seems 2 good performances isn't enough to redeem him, but one bad performance is enough to suggest Weir plays at Scrum half????????

Have you redefined vitriol. I didn't personally attack Laidlaw, I didn't name call. I simple said I thought Weir was better at 9. I will just shut up now and "toe the party line"

cakeordeath wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

cakeordeath wrote:

TJ wrote:I think Weir should go a team where he is the no 1 10 in the squad - even if this means a season in the english or French second division.  He has not even had a seasons worth of games in 3 years.

I think Weir should move to 9. Frankly he was better than Laidlaw last week.

Wow.

The levels of vitriol being thrown at Laidlaw is approaching embarrassment levels.

The guy was man of the match against Japan, and rightly so. Henners was absolutely ineffective in the first half against the USA and we missed a few shots at goal. Laidlaw was a big part in the turnaround when we started to punish the US in the 2nd half. Admittadly he was quiet against SA but no more than guys like Nel, Didier Hoggba or Denton or Strauss.

It seems 2 good performances isn't enough to redeem him, but one bad performance is enough to suggest Weir plays at Scrum half????????

Have you redefined vitriol. I didn't personally attack Laidlaw, I didn't name call. I simple said I thought Weir was better at 9. I will just shut up now and "toe the party line"

I actually agree about moving weir to 9, when he filled in for those 10 minutes while laidlaw was binned I was quite impressed. His passing was very crisp and sharp. His box kicking and clearing kicks were spot on as well.

Moving Weir to 9 would put him behind :

Laidlaw
Henners
SHC
Kennedy
Steele
Hart

What are you guys on?

Overall I am pleased with the squad to play samoa. The back division is probably the strongest they could select. Certainly lots of pace in the outside backs.
The forwards look strong as well, the only player which I really don't understand how he is starting is Ryan Wilson. Has never performed well in the Scotland jersey.
He seems very underpowered compared to other back row options we have and doesn't have a massive work rate either. His defence at times can also be suspect with one of the highest missed tackles percentage in the team which for a blindside is pretty unacceptable.
Personally I would have gone with Cowan at 6. He is an inch shorter than Wilson but is about 5 or 6 kg heavier than Wilson and certainly has a higher work rate. Cowan and Hardie combined would be a real menace for any opposition team wanting to get quick ball.
I know Maitland has taken a bit of stick for not having the best try ratio for Scotland but seeing the stats on the team line up I hadn't even realised Denton has never scored for Scotland. For being such a big ball carrier and prancing around in the backs as often as he does it is pretty poor compared to the try ratio some of the recent 8s for Scotland have had.

Bonus is that embarrassing diddy Visser isn't there TF!

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Moving Weir to 9 would put him behind :

Laidlaw
Henners
SHC
Kennedy
Steele
Hart

What are you guys on?

To start with he would be behind those guys, just like Vernon was behind other centres when he made the switch.
Give him some game time and see what he can do, if he is rubbish he goes back to 10 if not then great.
None of the 9s mentioned there apart from you could say laidlaw have really shown consistent form and made the 9 or back up 9 jersey their own.

Remove Laidlaw from that list and you're absolutely right, Radge.

Moving Weir to 9 is utterly crazy, almost as crazy as tackling a man off the ball when there was no need to, neutralizing all of your team's momentum just as you were getting back into the game, and leaving your teammates in the proverbial crapper.

It would be even crazier to do all those things while captaining your side.

IanBru wrote:Remove Laidlaw from that list and you're absolutely right, Radge.

Moving Weir to 9 is utterly crazy, almost as crazy as tackling a man off the ball when there was no need to, neutralizing all of your team's momentum just as you were getting back into the game, and leaving your teammates in the proverbial crapper.

It would be even crazier to do all those things while captaining your side.

His other option was let Habana score. What would you have done?

Had I been playing I would have taken the yellow and denied a certain score.

It matters not. Clearly some on here don't rate him. I'm curious what he can do to shake off this slagging he constantly gets. He played well vs Japan and well against the US.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Clearly some on here don't rate him. I'm curious what he can do to shake off this slagging he constantly gets. He played well vs Japan and well against the US.

I think Laidlaw has been a great player for Scotland these recent years, and I think(obvious moments aside..) he's had a pretty decent WC so far. Personally I think Laidlaw suffers from being a very unexciting player which makes him more unpopular than his performances deserve in my opinion.

He certainly isn't perfect by any means, I would absolutely love it if he spent a little less time hovering over the ball before dishing it out, but I think he's been a very steady player. I think our recent showings in the no 10 position has shown how big a difference having a steady and reliable player can make in the half back positions!!

AirHOrse wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Clearly some on here don't rate him. I'm curious what he can do to shake off this slagging he constantly gets. He played well vs Japan and well against the US.

I think Laidlaw has been a great player for Scotland these recent years, and I think(obvious moments aside..) he's had a pretty decent WC so far. Personally I think Laidlaw suffers from being a very unexciting player which makes him more unpopular than his performances deserve in my opinion.

He certainly isn't perfect by any means, I would absolutely love it if he spent a little less time hovering over the ball before dishing it out, but I think he's been a very steady player. I think our recent showings in the no 10 position has shown how big a difference having a steady and reliable player can make in the half back positions!!

For me laidlaw needs to speed up his passing, he hovers over the ball too long on occasions and often takes 2 steps before passing. He also needs to vary his game more. In the autumn tests against Argentina he offered himself as an attacking threat making snipes here and there which set up a few tries as it took the pumas by surprise. That's the only occasion I can remember him doing that.
Laidlaw isn't a bad player but for me he isn't great either as his game isn't varied enough and often his basic skills let him down.

Majestic83 wrote:For me laidlaw needs to speed up his passing, he hovers over the ball too long on occasions and often takes 2 steps before passing. He also needs to vary his game more. In the autumn tests against Argentina he offered himself as an attacking threat making snipes here and there which set up a few tries as it took the pumas by surprise. That's the only occasion I can remember him doing that.
Laidlaw isn't a bad player but for me he isn't great either as his game isn't varied enough and often his basic skills let him down.

I agree absolutely on his passing speed, and taking too many steps, it can be frustrating at times for sure!

However, I think he has been a dose of what Scotland has needed in recent years. He might not vary his game much, but I feel like the rest of the squads development has benefited a lot from them knowing exactly what they will get from their no 9.

I'll address your points in turn Bru to better clarify my thoughts.

IanBru wrote:
crazy as tackling a man off the ball when there was no need to

Highly speculative. The ball was about to be collected by one of the fastest wingers in rugby who has just become the RWC's highest try scorer. And up against the imperious Habana we have Greig "frodo the glacial" Laidlaw who (and lets be fair to him is considered a complete gimp and unworthy to even lace the boots of Henry Pyrgos) would have no chance of catching Habana.

IanBru wrote:
neutralizing all of your team's momentum just as you were getting back into the game

Again highly speculative. Apart from an extremely fortunate intercept try we looked barely able to break that South Africa defense. Up untill that intercept try we were doing a fantastic impression of a fly against the windsheild of a fast moving car.

IanBru wrote:
leaving your teammates in the proverbial crapper.

We were in the crapper from minute one as our "powerful" ball carriers we repelled effortlessly and in most cases driven back by a staggeringly physical Bok defence. Our tactics were wrong from the get go.

All of this is a rather moot point however becuase unless he starts pooping out Tiffany cuff links and sending them to all Scotland supporters certain quarters of this forum will never rate him.

I think he was the right choice for the WC because Pyrgos wasn't involved in the 6N at all and S-H-C has only just broken onto the scene.

Post world cup I'd love to see Russell given a run of games with those two - Laidlaw is unlikely to be at the world cup so we need him to be phased out over the next few years.

AirHOrse wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Clearly some on here don't rate him. I'm curious what he can do to shake off this slagging he constantly gets. He played well vs Japan and well against the US.

I think Laidlaw has been a great player for Scotland these recent years, and I think(obvious moments aside..) he's had a pretty decent WC so far. Personally I think Laidlaw suffers from being a very unexciting player which makes him more unpopular than his performances deserve in my opinion.

He certainly isn't perfect by any means, I would absolutely love it if he spent a little less time hovering over the ball before dishing it out, but I think he's been a very steady player. I think our recent showings in the no 10 position has shown how big a difference having a steady and reliable player can make in the half back positions!!

I can't help yearning for the days of Mike Blair vs Chris Cusiter when they were both at their peak. Laidlaw and Pyrgos are decent enough but not a shade of those players in their prime.

Do we have any promising SHs coming through? SHC aside...

Steele is a pretty good player and I still think Kennedy will have a lot to offer the more game time he gets.

How old is Steele though?

Steele is 22

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:I'll address your points in turn Bru to better clarify my thoughts.

IanBru wrote:
crazy as tackling a man off the ball when there was no need to

Highly speculative. The ball was about to be collected by one of the fastest wingers in rugby who has just become the RWC's highest try scorer. And up against the imperious Habana we have Greig "frodo the glacial" Laidlaw who (and lets be fair to him is considered a complete gimp and unworthy to even lace the boots of Henry Pyrgos) would have no chance of catching Habana.

IanBru wrote:
neutralizing all of your team's momentum just as you were getting back into the game

Again highly speculative. Apart from an extremely fortunate intercept try we looked barely able to break that South Africa defense. Up untill that intercept try we were doing a fantastic impression of a fly against the windsheild of a fast moving car.

IanBru wrote:
leaving your teammates in the proverbial crapper.

We were in the crapper from minute one as our "powerful" ball carriers we repelled effortlessly and in most cases driven back by a staggeringly physical Bok defence. Our tactics were wrong from the get go.

All of this is a rather moot point however becuase unless he starts pooping out Tiffany cuff links and sending them to all Scotland supporters certain quarters of this forum will never rate him.

Ooooh my missus would love that....not cufflinks though....perhaps a bracelet or something girly.

On the Laidlaw front, he's nae too bad. Average in fact. He doesn't have anything about him and I get the feeling he has no respect from referees some other captains do. But at times, he does get it right and does play well.

I would keep him for the next year or so because the real manager of the team in future will be Russell. I'd bring SHC in for the 6N and give him some proper game time, depending on his form obviously, with a view to SHC and Russell being our first choice half back pairing for the 2016-2017 season.

Laidlaw's been playing very well. We're probably not seeing these snipes as much (like vs Arg) because of the risk of turnovers. Given how many tackles have been made suggesting low possession, the tactics have probably included an emphasis on keeping the ball.

Re Denton's try scoring record internationally, does anyone know how it compares to his Edinburgh stats?

Just checked, its pretty poor as well for Edinburgh. Only 8 tries in 78 matches for Edinburgh.

Er. How many tries are we expecting No8s to score? Vermeulen doesn't score that many but the guys around him sure as sh!t do.

Kieran Read is a freak, so we shouldn't use him as a basis for comparison.

George Carlin wrote:Er. How many tries are we expecting No8s to score? Vermeulen doesn't score that many but the guys around him sure as sh!t do.

Kieran Read is a freak, so we shouldn't use him as a basis for comparison.

Backrows are blends right. Duane doesn't get tries but usually smashes the door down for chaps like Louw, Burger, De Allende, Alberts to touchdown.

George Carlin wrote:Er. How many tries are we expecting No8s to score? Vermeulen doesn't score that many but the guys around him sure as sh!t do.

Kieran Read is a freak, so we shouldn't use him as a basis for comparison.

Certainly a lot more than 8 in 78 games for Edinburgh and 0 in 30 for Scotland. That is a very poor record.
There have been a host of recent No8s over the recent years who have all got good try scoring ratios. Ally Hogg, Dave Callam, Johnnie Beattie, Simon Taylor.

For supposedly an excellent ball carrier Denton is often ineffective in the red zone and either gets driven back or loses the ball in contact.
The coaches and team should be using him more effectively as with his size and power he should be getting over the try line more regularly.

Majestic83 wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Er. How many tries are we expecting No8s to score? Vermeulen doesn't score that many but the guys around him sure as sh!t do.

Kieran Read is a freak, so we shouldn't use him as a basis for comparison.

Certainly a lot more than 8 in 78 games for Edinburgh and 0 in 30 for Scotland. That is a very poor record.
There have been a host of recent No8s over the recent years who have all got good try scoring ratios. Ally Hogg, Dave Callam, Johnnie Beattie, Simon Taylor.

For supposedly an excellent ball carrier Denton is often  ineffective in the red zone and either gets driven back or loses the ball in contact.
The coaches and team should be using him more effectively as with his size and power he should be getting over the try line more regularly.

It's a fair point Maj but how about looking at the amount of tries the backs scored when those number 8's were around compared to how many the backs have scored lately with Denton's record.

A complete turnaround I would imagine.

I'd rather there were 25 tries scored by backs in 10 matches than 6 scored by the number 8.

Tattie Scones RRN wrote:

Majestic83 wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Er. How many tries are we expecting No8s to score? Vermeulen doesn't score that many but the guys around him sure as sh!t do.

Kieran Read is a freak, so we shouldn't use him as a basis for comparison.

Certainly a lot more than 8 in 78 games for Edinburgh and 0 in 30 for Scotland. That is a very poor record.
There have been a host of recent No8s over the recent years who have all got good try scoring ratios. Ally Hogg, Dave Callam, Johnnie Beattie, Simon Taylor.

For supposedly an excellent ball carrier Denton is often  ineffective in the red zone and either gets driven back or loses the ball in contact.
The coaches and team should be using him more effectively as with his size and power he should be getting over the try line more regularly.

It's a fair point Maj but how about looking at the amount of tries the backs scored when those number 8's were around compared to how many the backs have scored lately with Denton's record.

A complete turnaround I would imagine.

I'd rather there were 25 tries scored by backs in 10 matches than 6 scored by the number 8.

That is very true, our backs are now a real attacking threat and scoring tries regularly. Now teams are having to worry about our wide attacking back play and have a wider defensive line to counter act that.
In the past teams used to be able to defend fairly narrow against us and have more men around the fringes and narrow channels as they knew that is where the Scottish attack would be. This make is even more of an achievement for some of the 8s who scored regularly.
Now teams do have to worry about our backs and have their defensive patterns lined up accordingly, our backs play quite a wide attack pattern and because of this it should actually be creating more space for Denton to run into and either get across the gain line or score!

Nonsense - Denton is too busy clearing out rucks and doing the dirty work that he doesn't have time to score!

Majestic83 wrote:

Tattie Scones RRN wrote:

Majestic83 wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Er. How many tries are we expecting No8s to score? Vermeulen doesn't score that many but the guys around him sure as sh!t do.

Kieran Read is a freak, so we shouldn't use him as a basis for comparison.

Certainly a lot more than 8 in 78 games for Edinburgh and 0 in 30 for Scotland. That is a very poor record.
There have been a host of recent No8s over the recent years who have all got good try scoring ratios. Ally Hogg, Dave Callam, Johnnie Beattie, Simon Taylor.

For supposedly an excellent ball carrier Denton is often  ineffective in the red zone and either gets driven back or loses the ball in contact.
The coaches and team should be using him more effectively as with his size and power he should be getting over the try line more regularly.

It's a fair point Maj but how about looking at the amount of tries the backs scored when those number 8's were around compared to how many the backs have scored lately with Denton's record.

A complete turnaround I would imagine.

I'd rather there were 25 tries scored by backs in 10 matches than 6 scored by the number 8.

That is very true, our backs are now a real attacking threat and scoring tries regularly. Now teams are having to worry about our wide attacking back play and have a wider defensive line to counter act that.
In the past teams used to be able to defend fairly narrow against us and have more men around the fringes and narrow channels as they knew that is where the Scottish attack would be. This make is even more of an achievement for some of the 8s who scored regularly.
Now teams do have to worry about our backs and have their defensive patterns lined up accordingly, our backs play quite a wide attack pattern and because of this it should actually be creating more space for Denton to run into and either get across the gain line or score!

Somebody needs to tell him.

joking aside if he was doing all the dirty work then I wouldn't mind him not scoring or getting close to scoring. Its the fact he is doing neither.

He also needs to have a personal coach to work on his skill levels as they are still shocking.

George Carlin wrote:Samoa's team;


I'm scared just looking at the picture.

Bit of trivia. All of IanBru soaking wet and Census Johnson's head are the same weight. Who knew?

Better warn Bru; they are all music lovers. There'll be none of your Francois Peinnaar thumbs up nonsense if he misses any notes or mis-pronounces any of the lyrics.

Majestic83 wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:Moving Weir to 9 would put him behind :

Laidlaw
Henners
SHC
Kennedy
Steele
Hart

What are you guys on?

To start with he would be behind those guys, just like Vernon was behind other centres when he made the switch.
Give him some game time and see what he can do, if he is rubbish he goes back to 10 if not then great.
None of the 9s mentioned there apart from you could say laidlaw have really shown consistent form and made the 9 or back up 9 jersey their own.

Therein lies the two big problems; Laidlaw's form is consistent yet he still retains the jersey.

Jimbo - SHC showed poorly in the WC games he played making a couple of really bad errors as PYrgos was not much better. Its not laidlaws fault he is the best we have.

Much as I respect your opinion TJ, Henners is a much better scrum half and Samwise is more exciting to watch.
Laidlaw is equal third fourth choice with Meatball, just behind the legend that is Richie V.

Jimbo - I agree that their potential is higher but while Pyrgos took his chance to become second in the pecking order he did no more than that and SHC blew his chances with two dreadfull blunders and was rightly pulled.  their time will come but not yet.  Laidlaw has been back to pretty much his best and while not sparkling makes few mistakes. Laidlaws passing has been superb  This WC is a year too soon for samwise and Henners

Ok I can accept Laidlaw is only an average 9. What I cannot accept or understand is why he is Captain. He is woeful in that role. For those of you of a masochistic nature watch the Ireland game from March this year at the Library. Paul O'Connell is ripping the pish out of Laidlaw (and the ref tbh) who meekly rolls over. The problem is who else do we have in a young team. Dickinson ? He is in the form of his life so maybe not a good idea to spoil that. Suppose its too late now anyway for the RWC but thinking ahead to the 6Ns.

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:Ok I can accept Laidlaw is only an average 9.  What I cannot accept or understand is why he is Captain.   He is woeful in that role.  For those of you of a masochistic nature watch the Ireland game from March this year at the Library.   Paul O'Connell is ripping the pish out of Laidlaw (and the ref tbh) who meekly rolls over.    The problem is who else do we have in a young team.   Dickinson ?   He is in the form of his life so maybe not a good idea to spoil that.   Suppose its too late now anyway for the RWC but thinking ahead to the 6Ns.

Sadly there just doesn't seem to be any players who you'd call captain material in the current squad so Laidlaw seems to be best of a bad bunch.
Long term it does look brighter with Gray Jnr, Adam Ashe, Fraser brown & a few of the younger up and coming ones being natural leaders.

My captain would be Alex Dunbar.

Eckie the brawler?

Well, no one would mess with him.

I am quite looking forward to this match, hopefully Samoa brings it, they have looked rather disinterested thus far.

It would be nice if Samoa actually played one match somewhere near their potential before they go home.

The Tuilagi decision will be perceived as a bit of a farce inside their camp (and outside for many) and hopefully the subsequent feeling that its Samoa vs the rest of the rugby world is the motivation they need to show up and perform.

Scotland will win a feisty and physical game with at least two yellow cards is my prediction.

It may be that, ultimately, Stewie Hogg is the Cap'n !!!!! It may cool his more excitable jets if you get my drift ?

Just looked at the vid for Tuilagi - deffo yellow card so worth a week or two ban as it wasn't picked up on the field of play. He lifts his knee well higher and further forward than a normal stride

Thought the Tuilagi ban was harsh.

On the subject of captain, surely Jonny Gray is the obvious candidate.

Looking at the next decade, there only 3 names that I expect to see for the foreseeable future.

Gray

Bennett

Hogg

Bru bro, good luck with the chanting tonight. If you see Richie McCaw feel free to explain the offside law to him. I'm sure he's just confused.

Bring on the Samoans.

Ross Ford and Matt Scott apparently still have to pass concussion tests today for their selection to be confirmed.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:My captain would be Alex Dunbar.

Not sure about Dunbar tbh. He is our best i/c by a distance but Captain ?

RDW_Scotland wrote:Ross Ford and Matt Scott apparently still have to pass concussion tests today for their selection to be confirmed.

That doesn't sound good considering it was reported that it should have been late yesterday???