Scarlets vs Edinburgh 24/03 Pro12

Scarlets vs Edinburgh Rugby
Date: 24/03/2017
KO: 19.05
Location: Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli
TV: BBC 2 Wales/BBC 2 Scotland

Form:

Edinburgh
Terrible.

Scarlets
Better

Teams:

Edinburgh
1. Dell
2. Ford (c)
3. Berghan
4. Bresler
5. Toolis
6. Mata
7. Ritchie
8. Du Preez
9. SHC
10. Weir
11. Brown
12. Burleigh
13. Dean
14. Hoyland
15. Kinghorn

16. McInally, 17. McCallum, 18. K Bryce, 19. Gilchrist, 20. Fihaki, 21. Fowles, 22. Tovey, 23. G Bryce

Scarlets:
Johnny Mcnicholl; Liam Williams, Jonathan Davies, Hadleigh Parkes (capt), Steff Evans, Rhys Patchell; Aled Davies, Wyn Jones, Ryan Elias, Samson Lee, Tom Price, Tadhg Beirne, Aaron Shingler, James Davies, Will Boyde.

Replacements: Emyr Phillips, Rob Evans, Werner Kruger, Lewis Rawlins, John Barclay, Gareth Davies, Dan Jones, DTH van der Merwe.


Refs etc:

Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)

Assistant referees: Gary Conway (Ireland), Wayne Davies (Wales)

Citing commissioner: Paul Minto (Scotland)

TMO: Kevin Beggs (Ireland).

If anyone fancies having a wee chat this game, rather than the Lions.

Good to see Bresler back. Can't see an Edinburgh win, I reckon Scarlets by 7

From an Edinburgh perspective, that is probably as good a team as we could have hoped for.

Injuries, Bryce(s) and Weir are probably our biggest weaknesses, actually and Hodge… our attacking play isn’t up to much either come to think of it…sod it, we have a lot of weaknesses.

I’d like to think we’ll be competitive and keep the game respectable/run Scarlets close, but nothing I’ve seen this season leads me to believe that will happen.

It's a strong pack from Edinburgh, and there is some gas out wide. I just hope meatball can get us firing.

It's a tough place to go and win, Llanelli.

Good pack but the backs are lightweight. I wonder why Scholes has been dropped - he seemed to really add something.

Scarlets will win comfortably.

Edinburgh are an utter embarrassment

How is this a 9 point game?

We're utterly useless. Defensively and in attack.

Scarletts playing some nice rugby but by god we're awful. Our wingers aren't even standing in the right place in defence.

Just tuned in to the action.

28mins gone.

Phil Burleigh has just scored!

Then the scoreboard returns to the screen.

19-10 to Scarletts...

Do they have a defence coach? Edinburgh shipped 3 tries in the first 25mins! Patchell scored 2mins into his comeback.

And as I finish writing this, Patchell scores his second try for the Scarlett's BP.

30 mins gone.

Weir's restart goes straight out.

Duncan weir. How does he have so many Scotland caps? He's utter pish!

If Edinburgh play like this against La Rochelle next week, they be totally annihilated.

Bonus point secured after 29 minutes

Jesus F Christ

I've actually turned it off. We've dragged Scarlets to our level and the game is dire.

I hung in there until the end. Unlike the Edinburgh players who seemed to clock out after 2 minutes. That was dire. Absolute P!sh

I watched it. We are worse than we were under Bradley and we've regressed hugely since Solomons was sacked. Hodge is working miracles!

The pack don't look interested, there's no intensity whatsoever, the backs are like Scotland circa 2000s, the defence is in chaos, the attack has no shape (did anyone else notice the painful wrap around in the 2nd half when Weir wasn't quick enough to be there to catch the return pass??) and we are carrying at least three passengers in the backs (Weir, Dean and Brown are adding very little quality).

We'll do well to win another game this season under this regime.

funnyExiledScot wrote:I watched it. We are worse than we were under Bradley and we've regressed hugely since Solomons was sacked. Hodge is working miracles!

The pack don't look interested, there's no intensity whatsoever, the backs are like Scotland circa 2000s, the defence is in chaos, the attack has no shape (did anyone else notice the painful wrap around in the 2nd half when Weir wasn't quick enough to be there to catch the return pass??) and we are carrying at least three passengers in the backs (Weir, Dean and Brown are adding very little quality).

We'll do well to win another game this season under this regime.

Hoyland doesn't look particularly good currently either. I know the pro teams always want to produce SQ players but the Edinburgh backs really aren't doing the business. In the pack I actually think Berghan is looking better the more gametime he gets, much fitter now I would say. He'll be a good deputy for Nel going forward.
The commentator (Hugh Dan) mentioned that Hodge would be welcoming the input from Cockerill, surely Hodge isn't going to be kept on in any capacity, his coaching is obviously awful. I enjoyed Alan Tait's punditry on Friday night, he's not one for sugar coating that's for sure.

On the subject of Weir, I wonder if he'll actually stay in the Scotland picture now that Townsend is coach, he obviously wasn't wanted at Glasgow.

MacKnocked-on wrote: I enjoyed Alan Tait's punditry on Friday night, he's not one for sugar coating that's for sure.

You mean when he said the Scarlets player, who subsequently got MOTM. "looked like a bag of mince"

MacKnocked-on wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:I watched it. We are worse than we were under Bradley and we've regressed hugely since Solomons was sacked. Hodge is working miracles!

The pack don't look interested, there's no intensity whatsoever, the backs are like Scotland circa 2000s, the defence is in chaos, the attack has no shape (did anyone else notice the painful wrap around in the 2nd half when Weir wasn't quick enough to be there to catch the return pass??) and we are carrying at least three passengers in the backs (Weir, Dean and Brown are adding very little quality).

We'll do well to win another game this season under this regime.

Hoyland doesn't look particularly good currently either. I know the pro teams always want to produce SQ players but the Edinburgh backs really aren't doing the business. In the pack I actually think Berghan is looking better the more gametime he gets, much fitter now I would say. He'll be a good deputy for Nel going forward.
The commentator (Hugh Dan) mentioned that Hodge would be welcoming the input from Cockerill, surely Hodge isn't going to be kept on in any capacity, his coaching is obviously awful. I enjoyed Alan Tait's punditry on Friday night, he's not one for sugar coating that's for sure.

On the subject of Weir, I wonder if he'll actually stay in the Scotland picture now that Townsend is coach, he obviously wasn't wanted at Glasgow.  

True, he's off form, but he does at least have something about him. He's an exciting runner with great pace and a good finisher (if only Edinburgh could actually string together a few opportunities to allow him to show off). I hope we stick with him.

Dean is far too slow to play at 13. Did you see him defending the channel for the first Scarlets score? It reminded me of watching Bernat-Salles against Logan in the 1998 5 Nations! He should probably stick to playing 12, but Burleigh is much better than him.

Brown loves the club and works hard, but I'm coming to the conclusion that he just isn't quick enough, powerful enough or clever enough to be a first choice winger at this level. Handy cover, but if we are to move forward then military medium just isn't going to cut it.

As for Weir, he is hopelessly out of his depth. Any time Edinburgh tried something inventive he messed it up, and his ability to make really basic errors is startling. I actually think he's regressing as a player, and is it just me or are his arms too short?? Tovey can stay, but Cockerill needs to sign at least one quality 10 for next season.

MacKnocked-on wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:I watched it. We are worse than we were under Bradley and we've regressed hugely since Solomons was sacked. Hodge is working miracles!

The pack don't look interested, there's no intensity whatsoever, the backs are like Scotland circa 2000s, the defence is in chaos, the attack has no shape (did anyone else notice the painful wrap around in the 2nd half when Weir wasn't quick enough to be there to catch the return pass??) and we are carrying at least three passengers in the backs (Weir, Dean and Brown are adding very little quality).

We'll do well to win another game this season under this regime.

Hoyland doesn't look particularly good currently either. I know the pro teams always want to produce SQ players but the Edinburgh backs really aren't doing the business. In the pack I actually think Berghan is looking better the more gametime he gets, much fitter now I would say. He'll be a good deputy for Nel going forward.
The commentator (Hugh Dan) mentioned that Hodge would be welcoming the input from Cockerill, surely Hodge isn't going to be kept on in any capacity, his coaching is obviously awful. I enjoyed Alan Tait's punditry on Friday night, he's not one for sugar coating that's for sure.

On the subject of Weir, I wonder if he'll actually stay in the Scotland picture now that Townsend is coach, he obviously wasn't wanted at Glasgow.  

I think Hodge needs to be let go, he's done nothing to suggest he is cut out for coaching.  Vern couldn't get rid fast enough at Scotland, and now at pro level he's struggling.  If he wants to coach, let him join a club side and learn there under an experienced head coach, then in time he can make the step up, but at the moment he's clearly not cut out for the role.

I'm normally one of the folk who back Berghan (and in general I still think he's a capable player) but the game on Friday wasn't his best.  Mind you as most weeks nobody had a great game.

I find it tough listening to Alan Tait, he sounds so f'ing miserable all the time, he seems to have gotten a run of games to commentate on recently and I'm not totally sure why.  Watching Edinburgh is a joyless experience at the best of times, throw Tait into the mix and I find myself reaching for a bottle of whisky and some sleeping pills.

Agreed on Hodge. Very hard to build a case for keeping him. I'm sure one of the Edinburgh private schools would have him, or he could help Ben Atiga eat pies.

The fact that the meatball is one injury away from starting as Scotland's Fly Half, is more than enough reason for Scotland fans to keep our feet firmly on the ground.

One prediction I'm pretty confident in making - we'll see plenty of instances of this kind of thing next season:



I'm not sure what the exact ratio of anger to utter bemusement is on that face, but it seems ideal for someone who is going to be responsible for Edinburgh rugby

First thing he'll do is ban hair products.

The only thing in the shower rooms will be Aldi concentrated washing up liquid. For all your bits.

I was listening to a podcast, I can't remember which, and they were talking about Cockerill. Apparently he wouldn't allow any of his forwards to wear anything other than black boots until they had proved their self worthy of a different colour.

Cockerill may not be a coach at the very top of the pile - but then what top coach would take on Edinburgh

One thing cockers will do for sure tho is find the missing Edinburgh backbone - I don't think his teams have ever lacked a bit of spine!

TJ wrote:Cockerill may not be a coach at the very top of the pile - but then what top coach would take on Edinburgh

One thing cockers will do for sure tho is find the missing Edinburgh backbone - I don't think his teams have ever lacked  a bit of spine!

There wasn't a whole lot of spine on display when Glasgow torn Leicester a new one earlier on this season!

Cockerill has a big job ahead of him. I'd have far more confidence in him if he dismissed Hodge on day one and hired a proper backs/attacking coach.