Edinburgh Rugby vs Zebre, Friday 1st April

Edinburgh Form
Last 3 Matches
27/3/16 Dragons 15 - 16 Edinburgh
4/3/16 Edinburgh 23 - 28 Connacht
28/2/16 Edinburgh 24 - 23 Scarlets

Zebre Form
Last 3 Matches
25/3/16 Munster 47 - 0 Zebre
4/3/16 Ulster 32 - 0 Zebre
28/2/16 Zebre       10 - 27      Leinster

Teams
Edinburgh
Edinburgh Rugby v Zebre, Friday 1 April, kick-off 7.35pm, BT Murrayfield

15                  KINGHORN Blair
14                  HOYLAND Damien
13                  ALLEN Michael
12                  BURLEIGH Phillip
11                  BROWN Tom
10                  TOVEY Jason
9                     KENNEDY Sean


1                     DICKINSON Alasdair
2                     FORD Ross
3                     NEL WP
4                     BRESLER Anton
5                     TOOLIS Ben
6                     COMAN Michael (C)
7                     WATSON Hamish
8                     DU PREEZ Cornell

Substitutes

16                  MCINALLY Stuart
17                  DELL Allan
18                  ANDRESS John
19                  TOOLIS Alex
20                  BRADBURY Magnus
21                  HIDALGO-CLYNE Sam
22                  DEAN Chris
23                  HELU Will

Zebre
15 Kayle Van Zyl
14 Ulrich Beyers
13 Tommaso Boni*
12 Matteo Pratichetti
11 Leonardo Sarto*
10 Kelly Haimona
9 Guglielmo Palazzani

8 Johan Meyer
7 Federico Ruzza*
6 Jean Cook
5 Marco Bortolami
4 Quintin Geldenhuys (cap)
3 Dario Chistolini
2 Oliviero Fabiani
1 Andrea Lovotti*

16 Bruno Postiglioni
17 Guillermo Roan
18 Pietro Ceccarelli
19 Gideon Koegelenberg
20 Emiliano Caffini*
21 Luke Burgess
22 Carlo Canna
23 Giulio Bisegni


Refs & Co
Referee: Leighton Hodges (WRU, 56th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Sam Grove-White, Graeme Ormiston (both SRU)
Citing Commissioner: John Kirk (SRU)
TMO: Charles Samson (SRU)

Good job Spoons.  As often happens when we play the lower ranked teams at home, I see the following panning out:

- we completely dominate possession and territory and win multiple scrum penalties but struggle to score, going in with a disappointing 6 point lead at half time

- the 2nd half is much of the same and we begin to wonder if we will get the 4 tries, and get very frustrated at how utterly incompetent our attack is

- Zebre spend large parts of the game down to 14 men yet we still fail to capitalise

- we eventually get the 4th try with 4 minutes to go from our 3rd rolling maul try, all breathing a huge sigh of relief

- the Facebook brigade say things like 'we shouldn't be so harsh on the team - they got the win and that's all that matters. I thought we played great'


I will be delighted if I am proven wrong and we go on to horse them by 50 points!

That seems about right. Although I'm not totally sure about the bonus point. I'm not convinced we'll get it.

I think we'll dominate for most of the game without ever really looking threatening, finally getting our 3rd try in the 78th min and then get that brief moment of hope when we think we can maybe get it with a couple of mins to go. We'll spend the final couple of mins camped on their try line until one of our players kicks it out by mistake or we knock on etc and miss out.

Solly (and the FB gang) will come out with chat along the lines of we were unlucky not to get the bonus point, but we did well to get the win etc and Zebre are a good team who made it tough for us and so on.

Zebre will have a stronger team out than the one that was embarrased by Munster and the Blues recently, and with a 5 day turnaround we might not be firing on all cylinders.

Still, there is absolutely no reason why we shouldn't get a BP win against this lot.

Solomons really should give that front row a rest but I'm fairly certain he won't.

There is no way Solomons will be resting the front row, scrum is basically Zebre's only weapon and i rate very much their loosehead Lovotti. Still Edinburgh should be gunning for a 5 pointer, Zebre took some really bad drubbings away from home this season.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Zebre will have a stronger team out than the one that was embarrased by Munster and the Blues recently, and with a 5 day turnaround we might not be firing on all cylinders.

Still, there is absolutely no reason why we shouldn't get a BP win against this lot.

Solomons really should give that front row a rest but I'm fairly certain he won't.

You're right there isn't, but that hasn't stopped us in the past.

I have no doubt we'll miss out of 5 points. It really is an extremely rare occurance for Edinburgh and we are hardly on a run of good form.

I just want to go along and not have to be pacing up and down nervous that we might actually lose!

Two schools of thought on rotation: (1) this is the last chance basically unless we plan on throwing the fixture against Leinster on the basis that we won't win anyway, so we have to rotate, (2) every game is now a cup final and we just flog the international boys into the ground.

I personally would have them on the bench for this one, for use in case of emergencies.

1.Sutherland 2.McInally 3.Berghan 4.A Toolis 5.B Toolis 6.Ritchie 7.Watson 8.Bradbury 9.Kennedy 10.Burleigh 11.Hoyland 12.Beard 13.Allan 14.Brown 15.Kinghorn

16.Dickinson 17.Ford 18.Nel 19.Bresler 20.Du Preez 21.SH-C 22.Tovey 23.Dean

funnyExiledScot wrote:

1.Sutherland 2.McInally 3.Berghan 4.A Toolis 5.B Toolis 6.Ritchie 7.Watson 8.Bradbury 9.Kennedy 10.Burleigh 11.Hoyland 12.Beard 13.Allan 14.Brown 15.Kinghorn

16.Dickinson 17.Ford 18.Nel 19.Bresler 20.Du Preez 21.SH-C 22.Tovey 23.Dean

I'd be quite happy with that team, except I'd possibly play SHC ahead of Kennedy. He's barely played all 6 nations and needs to find some form. Against a (in theory) poor Zebre side it should help him rebuild his confidence and get back to the form he showed last season.

I hope we see Tovey at 10 and Burleigh moved to 12 - it will mean an actual stand off starting, and Burleigh in his best position.

It's not like we get our standoffs to do anything complicated so I'm sure Tovey won't take long to adapt!

Surely to christ even old man river will see that he has to freshen up the matchday squad?

This is Zebre, the equivalent of the small kid in primary school class with a squint and a peanut allergy.

Tovey will be really looking forward to this game and I hope that he settled quickly.

I agree that Tovey at 10 with Hurley at 12 is the way to go.

At risk of once again repeating ourselves, Bradbury's cameo against the Dragons showed that he absolutely needs to be given a proper chance.

Du Preez has massively dropped off over the last few weeks.

I fear Solly will stick with the same old. He's not really one to freshen or rotate. CDP has played pretty much every game this season. I would be amazed if he's not involved again.

We should rotate and give some of the fringe/young players a chance, but that's not his style, I wouldn't be totally shocked if we played near enough the same team that started against Dragons.

EWT Spoons wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:

1.Sutherland 2.McInally 3.Berghan 4.A Toolis 5.B Toolis 6.Ritchie 7.Watson 8.Bradbury 9.Kennedy 10.Burleigh 11.Hoyland 12.Beard 13.Allan 14.Brown 15.Kinghorn

16.Dickinson 17.Ford 18.Nel 19.Bresler 20.Du Preez 21.SH-C 22.Tovey 23.Dean

I'd be quite happy with that team, except I'd possibly play SHC ahead of Kennedy.  He's barely played all 6 nations and needs to find some form.  Against a (in theory) poor Zebre side it should help him rebuild his confidence and get back to the form he showed last season.

That's a fair point. It is often easier though for a 9 to make a confidence boosting impact off the bench when defences are tired and the game is more open. Don't feel strongly.

George Carlin wrote:
This is Zebre, the equivalent of the small kid in primary school class with a squint and a peanut allergy.
 

Speaking of which, I wonder what Lee Jones is doing these days....

funnyExiledScot wrote:

George Carlin wrote:
This is Zebre, the equivalent of the small kid in primary school class with a squint and a peanut allergy.
 

Speaking of which, I wonder what Lee Jones is doing these days....

he carries Sean Lamont's kit

I'll be disapointed with anything other than a cricket score. Zebre are a shambles.

Team announced in the next half hour according to ER Twitter, fingers crossed Solly rotates a bit.

So pretty much as expected Solly has stuck with the same old same old, other than Tovey is in

Edinburgh Rugby v Zebre, Friday 1 April, kick-off 7.35pm, BT Murrayfield

15                  KINGHORN Blair

14                  HOYLAND Damien

13                  ALLEN Michael

12                  BURLEIGH Phillip

11                  BROWN Tom

10                  TOVEY Jason

9                     KENNEDY Sean



1                     DICKINSON Alasdair

2                     FORD Ross

3                     NEL WP

4                     BRESLER Anton

5                     TOOLIS Ben

6                     COMAN Michael (C)

7                     WATSON Hamish

8                     DU PREEZ Cornell



Substitutes

16                  MCINALLY Stuart

17                  DELL Allan

18                  ANDRESS John

19                  TOOLIS Alex

20                  BRADBURY Magnus

21                  HIDALGO-CLYNE Sam

22                  DEAN Chris

23                  HELU Will

Well on the plus side we got what we wanted with Tovey at 10 and Burleigh at 12 - I'm fairly confident we should see improvements in the backs just from that.

He's stuck with the same front row but hopefully they will only see 50/60 minutes like last week. There is a rest week next weekend too.

Hidalgo-Clyne dropped - no real surprise, but I would have liked him ot try and play himself back into form.

I'd forgotten we still had Coman!

No surprises. Solomons has picked his strongest XV on paper, SH-C excepted.

Excited to see how Tovey/Burleigh get on together.

Is Sutherland injured?

Jason Tovey debut and starts at 10
Mike Coman wins 50th cap
Replacement scrum half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne currently on 298 pts
There are four changes to the starting XV that edged Dragons at Rodney Parade on Sunday, to take on Zebre at BT Murrayfield on Friday (1 April, kick-off 7.35pm).

On-loan stand-off Jason Tovey, who arrived at the club last week, will start in the 10 jersey with Phil Burleigh moving to inside centre. Moving up from the bench, Sean Kennedy starts in the number 9 jersey.

Blair Kinghorn, who kicked off last week’s win with a long-range penalty, remains at fullback while Damien Hoyland and Tom Brown again occupy the wing berths.

Meanwhile there’s just one change in the pack with Mike Coman returning to lead the team on the blindside, earning his 50th cap for the club in the process.

Packing down in the front row again are Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford and WP Nel, with Anton Bresler and Ben Toolis making up the second row. Try scorer against Dragons Hamish Watson remains at openside and Cornell Du Preez runs out once more in the number 8 shirt.

There are three changes to the bench, with the return of Allan Dell and Will Helu, and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, who is within two points of kicking 300pts for the club, moving to the replacements.

The capital side currently sit in seventh spot in the table with four matches remaining in the league. Last year at BT Murrayfield Edinburgh overcame Zebre 37-0, five tries from McInally, Fife, Ford and Grant (2). The last time the two sides met, at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in October 2015, the outcome was reversed as Zebre won 19-11.

Head coach Alan Solomons said:

“Every game is absolutely vital for us and it is imperative that we deliver on Friday night.”

Friday’s fixture is crucial to the impact on the club’s aim to make the top six of the Guinness PRO12 and a place in the top tier of European competition next season.

Tickets can be purchased online, via phone on 0131 346 5180 and in person from the Ticket Centre in Roseburn Street.

Players not considered due to injury: Jack Cuthbert (knee), Grant Gilchrist (arm), John Hardie (neck/groin), Nasi Manu (neck), Fraser McKenzie (neck), Jamie Ritchie (hamstring), Matt Scott (arm), Andries Strauss (knee/ankle), Jade Te Rure (knee).

Edinburgh Rugby v Zebre, Friday 1 April, kick-off 7.35pm, BT Murrayfield

15 KINGHORN Blair

14 HOYLAND Damien

13 ALLEN Michael

12 BURLEIGH Phillip

11 BROWN Tom

10 TOVEY Jason

9 KENNEDY Sean



1 DICKINSON Alasdair

2 FORD Ross

3 NEL WP

4 BRESLER Anton

5 TOOLIS Ben

6 COMAN Michael (C)

7 WATSON Hamish

8 DU PREEZ Cornell



Substitutes

16 MCINALLY Stuart

17 DELL Allan

18 ANDRESS John

19 TOOLIS Alex

20 BRADBURY Magnus

21 HIDALGO-CLYNE Sam

22 DEAN Chris

23 HELU Will

Jaysus - I had forgotton that Will Helu Ladies existed. I hope that Andress gets his 50 caps.

Are we going to miss Coman People when he is pedalling his epic leadership in the Aviva next season?

Or just be grateful that we can give Bradbury a game most weeks?

George Carlin wrote:Jaysus - I had forgotton that Will Helu Ladies existed. I hope that Andress gets his 50 caps.

Are we going to miss Coman People when he is pedalling his epic leadership in the Aviva Championship next season?

Or just be grateful that we can give Bradbury a game most weeks?

RDW_Scotland wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Jaysus - I had forgotton that Will Helu Ladies existed. I hope that Andress gets his 50 caps.

Are we going to miss Coman People when he is pedalling his epic leadership in the Aviva Championship next season?

Or just be grateful that we can give Bradbury a game most weeks?

For reasons unkown, I had a proper chuckle at that comment, George.

I like Coman, he is a good honest pro and has been a bit underated in Scotland. That being said, with Bradbury and Richie needing game time, and Manu (hopefully fit) and Du Preez around, Edinburgh should be well stocked at 6.

Why has Ritchie been dropped from the squad?

tigertattie wrote:Why has Ritchie been dropped from the squad?

Sutherland too.

With Coman back he was always going to come straight back in, and Solomons perhaps (rightly) sees Bradbury as offering more impact off the bench.

Ritchie has had a lot of gametime this season for a teenager!

tigertattie wrote:Why has Ritchie been dropped from the squad?

Not Saffer enough.

RDW_Scotland wrote:

tigertattie wrote:Why has Ritchie been dropped from the squad?

Sutherland too.

With Coman back he was always going to come straight back in, and Solomons perhaps (rightly) sees Bradbury as offering more impact off the bench.

Ritchie has had a lot of gametime this season for a teenager!

It is perhaps going to be Coman's last or penultimate home game for Edinburgh so perhaps Solly has become all sentimental in his dotage in granting Coman the chance to sign off in style. Glasgow have been doing that with Lamont for three years.

Re: Sutherland he's been great this season but I've also been increasingly impressed with Dell at loosehead. He isn't as small as I originally thought and he's extremely useful in open play. That's three really handy looseheads we have, and the decision to pack off Ryan Grant to Glasgow all those years ago is now looking respectable.

Ryan Grant really did have one season of form and now he's just average at best!

odd how someone can go from nothing, to being a lions tourist, then go back to being nothing!

We have a real 10 playing its only been what - 2 seasons since we had a proper 10?

Edinburgh have found bonus points hard to come by this season. Maybe with a real 10 we might get one but I really wouldn't count on it. As above I expect us to have 3 tries by 50 mins and spend the last 30 mins knocking the ball on, getting penalised for obstruction and finding new and creative ways to man sausage it all up!

TJ wrote:We have a real 10 playing its only been what - 2 seasons since we had a proper 10?  

Edinburgh have found bonus points hard to come by this season.  Maybe with a real 10 we might get one but I really wouldn't count on it.  As above I expect us to have 3 tries by 50 mins and spend the last 30 mins knocking the ball on, getting penalised for obstruction and finding new and creative ways to man sausage it all up!

Why? Strauss isn't playing 12!!!

Our forwards are a decent pack! (albeit requiring a bit of a rest), Tovey should do a job at 10. Hurley is actually a decent 12, our wingers are reasonable and we don't have Cuthbert at 15!

tigertattie wrote:

TJ wrote:We have a real 10 playing its only been what - 2 seasons since we had a proper 10?  

Edinburgh have found bonus points hard to come by this season.  Maybe with a real 10 we might get one but I really wouldn't count on it.  As above I expect us to have 3 tries by 50 mins and spend the last 30 mins knocking the ball on, getting penalised for obstruction and finding new and creative ways to man sausage it all up!

Why? Strauss isn't playing 12!!!

Our forwards are a decent pack! (albeit requiring a bit of a rest), Tovey should do a job at 10. Hurley is actually a decent 12, our wingers are reasonable and we don't have Cuthbert at 15!

We could have Dan Carter at 10 and it wouldn't make any difference if we play with such a slow, ponderous and predictable gameplan as we have done most of the season.

Do you realise that Dan Carter will now be having nightmares about this! Can you imagine him playing 10 for Edinburgh? Just go outside and think what you have done - reduced the finest player of recent years to tears!

One of my main concerns from the Dragons game was that we were lacking any kind of urgency.  We should have gone out there hell bent on getting the win but we looked nervous, uncertain and just lacking any spark.

At one point the ball was spilled and the Dragons loosehead pounced on the ball before Hidalgo-Clyne did, even though they were around the same distance away. He just didn't look interested at all, and that was flowing through the team.

They look completely bereft of confidence!

Grant Gilchrist resigns for another season.

I really hope he cures his bout of Glass Man syndrome. He's got it worse than Rory Lamont ever had...

Who was saying he was off to the south of France? Bit of a risk for any team to hire someone so injury-prone. Well, I suppose if Toulon could repair Jonny Wilkinson, I guess anything is possible.

Anyone know where Cuthbert and Fife (also Strauss) have gone? If C&F are fit they surely must be moving on?

I feel Bradbury should have got the game time Ritchie got. He's been great off the bench whereas Ritchie looks light weight and gives away quite frustrating penalties.

Nematode wrote:Anyone know where Cuthbert and Fife (also Strauss) have gone? If C&F are fit they surely must be moving on?

I feel Bradbury should have got the game time Ritchie got. He's been great off the bench whereas Ritchie looks light weight and gives away quite frustrating penalties.

Cuthbert injured

Fife - off playing sevens in Hong Kong

Ritchie on the crocked list (Hamstring) as well for those who were asking earlier. He probably needs a rest anyway and I will be glad to see Bradbury get more game time, he looked decent last weekend.

Half tempted to watch this on Alba rather than watch Dragons v Ospreys. Very interested to see how Tovey goes.

Good to see this is on Alba - when j looked at Christmas they only had one Edinburgh home game scheduled.

Looks like they've found more money from somewhere!

RiscaGame wrote:Half tempted to watch this on Alba rather than watch Dragons v Ospreys. Very interested to see how Tovey goes.

What should we expect from Tovey tonight? My memories of him are that he's got a huge boot and is a decent goal kicker.

High hopes that he'll make a big difference given that he's an actual 10!

I rate him as a goal kicker, but not sure he will get to do it? His kicking from hand is ok, but I suspect you might not see too much of it tonight. This season he has been making a few lovely breaks, so he might get a bit of joy against this opposition.

I'm not sure too much can be expected of him, given it's his first week there, but I hope he does well for you.

RiscaGame wrote:I rate him as a goal kicker, but not sure he will get to do it? His kicking from hand is ok, but I suspect you might not see too much of it tonight. This season he has been making a few lovely breaks, so he might get a bit of joy against this opposition.

I'm not sure too much can be expected of him, given it's his first week there, but I hope he does well for you.

You have watched Edinburgh play right?? We kick the hell out of the ball for 80 minutes!

It will either be him or 19 year old Kinghorn kicking - I suspect it will be Tovey.

I recall Tovey being pretty handy ball in hand, and importantly he'll have Burleigh at 12 as well. Those two plus Kennedy at 9 and Watson at 7 has the makings of being able to play at a tempo hitherto unseen from Edinburgh this season other than in isolate patches.

The fact is that a win isn't enough tonight. We need 5 points.

I am ever the optimist!

funnyExiledScot wrote:I recall Tovey being pretty handy ball in hand, and importantly he'll have Burleigh at 12 as well. Those two plus Kennedy at 9 and Watson at 7 has the makings of being able to play at a tempo hitherto unseen from Edinburgh this season other than in isolate patches.

The fact is that a win isn't enough tonight. We need 5 points.

I am ever the optimist!

Edinburgh only have 1 BP win this season. That's embarrassing.

What's worse is that Solomons is already gearing up for not getting one - saying that we're building as a team and are setting up the foundations, which means that try scoring still needs to be worked on.

It is embarrassing, especially when you consider the number of scrum penalties we've won and yellow cards the opposition have suffered off the back of it. I don't think it's even an issue with the players we have, I think it's the system and the coaches who appear to have it drilled into the players that if in doubt slow it down, reset and box kick/chase.

Zebre:

15 Kayle Van Zyl
14 Ulrich Beyers
13 Tommaso Boni*
12 Matteo Pratichetti
11 Leonardo Sarto*
10 Kelly Haimona
9 Guglielmo Palazzani

8 Johan Meyer
7 Federico Ruzza*
6 Jean Cook
5 Marco Bortolami
4 Quintin Geldenhuys (cap)
3 Dario Chistolini
2 Oliviero Fabiani
1 Andrea Lovotti*

16 Bruno Postiglioni
17 Guillermo Roan
18 Pietro Ceccarelli
19 Gideon Koegelenberg
20 Emiliano Caffini*
21 Luke Burgess
22 Carlo Canna
23 Giulio Bisegni

Vince - that loosehead you rate so highly seems to be an Academy kid?

If he can keep Nel at bay, then he must be pretty great.

Can I also mention that Jean Cook is one of my mother's friends and whilst she makes a fabulous scone I am not totally convinced about her suitability as a blindside, given her status as a 9 stone Presbyterian woman with piles and a glass eye who thinks all team games are stupid.

George Carlin wrote:Can I also mention that Jean Cook is one of my mother's friends and whilst she makes a fabulous scone I am not totally convinced about her suitability as a blindside, given her status as a 9 stone Presbyterian woman with piles and a glass eye who thinks all team games are stupid.

Just had an attack of the workplace giggles over this one, top work GC

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Can I also mention that Jean Cook is one of my mother's friends and whilst she makes a fabulous scone I am not totally convinced about her suitability as a blindside, given her status as a 9 stone Presbyterian woman with piles and a glass eye who thinks all team games are stupid.

Just had an attack of the workplace giggles over this one, top work GC

To be fair, she is only up against Coman...