Glasgow and The Disapproving Neighbours 18 At Last! Whose Round is it?

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EWT Spoons wrote:

I think Graham might get more gametime at 15 than on the wing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was his long term position in the team.  Brown (when he gets back from injury) is predominantly a FB and is a decent player.  Bryce is bang average but is capable of playing FB and whilst Van Der Walt will primarily be needed at 10, he can cover 15 (as I believe he played a fair bit there for his old club) once Hickey joins up with the team.

Hickey, I believe has resigned for Bristol, so won't be coming to Edinburgh. Are they really short of someone who can play IC in any case?

BigGee wrote:

EWT Spoons wrote:

I think Graham might get more gametime at 15 than on the wing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was his long term position in the team.  Brown (when he gets back from injury) is predominantly a FB and is a decent player.  Bryce is bang average but is capable of playing FB and whilst Van Der Walt will primarily be needed at 10, he can cover 15 (as I believe he played a fair bit there for his old club) once Hickey joins up with the team.

Hickey, I believe has resigned for Bristol, so won't be coming to Edinburgh. Are they really short of someone who can play IC in any case?

I think you are thinking of Will Hurrell, the bristol centre, I'm talking about Simon Hickey the Bordeaux 10 who has signed for Edinburgh from next season.

http://www.edinburghrugby.org/news/17/11/21/news-stand-hickey-signs-next-season

EWT Spoons wrote:I think we’re actually not too bad at FB, off the top of my head we have:

1. Kinghorn
2. Graham
3. Brown
4. Bryce
5. VDW

I think Graham might get more gametime at 15 than on the wing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was his long term position in the team. Brown (when he gets back from injury) is predominantly a FB and is a decent player. Bryce is bang average but is capable of playing FB and whilst Van Der Walt will primarily be needed at 10, he can cover 15 (as I believe he played a fair bit there for his old club) once Hickey joins up with the team.

Sadly I think Tonks would be nothing more than filler/sentimental signing and isn’t probably needed anymore.

Arguably Glasgow are probably more in need of FB cover, with Hogg injured, it leaves only Jackson who is capable of playing FB for them, but I can’t see them signing Tonks either.

Of those who you list I would probably put Tonks at 2nd place behind Kinghorn – he is an experienced 15 now and let’s not forget how well he played against Aus in the summer, so he can handle the big occasions. Cockerill has said that Graham will mainly be a winger, and Brown has rarely played fullback over the last few seasons and will only ever be solid yet unspectacular (and his contract is up this season). Bryce is just average and will probably be let go this year or farmed out to the 7s.

So if Tonks came back to Edinburgh we would have 2 quality players at 15 whereas currently we have 1 youngster and a bit of average squad cover. Our 10s will be Hickey and VDV who should be available all season so we should only need cover there, noting that Tonks hasn’t really played much 10 since he left Edinburgh.

Assuming those at the end of their contracts will be let go we would be left with:

10 – Hickey, VDV (Burleigh and Kinghorn cover)

15 – Kinghorn (VDV and Graham cover)

Throw Tonks into the mix and IMO we would have good options!

My point was that we have cover, granted it might not be amazing cover, but cover nonetheless. As you say though a couple of them might be out of contract or let go this year and at which point, Tonks could become an option, but unless he has a release cause in his contract for relegation, he may not be a likely option as apparently he signed a new 2 year deal in April.

Ah, I suspect that's a no then given he's just signed a new contract - I'm sure it was signed in the knowledge that they would likely be relegated during that time.

To be fair if he lives in Richmond he's got a pretty good life down here anyway!

I'm about to counter my own point, but Wiki reckons it was a 2 year deal, bbc say it was undisclosed. In theory it could be only a one year deal in which case he could be available.

I'm choosing to believe Wikipedia though, as surely that length must have come from somewhere, and I'm not willing to trawl through various LI forums etc to see if it was mentioned anywhere.

EWT Spoons wrote:

BigGee wrote:

EWT Spoons wrote:

I think Graham might get more gametime at 15 than on the wing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was his long term position in the team.  Brown (when he gets back from injury) is predominantly a FB and is a decent player.  Bryce is bang average but is capable of playing FB and whilst Van Der Walt will primarily be needed at 10, he can cover 15 (as I believe he played a fair bit there for his old club) once Hickey joins up with the team.

Hickey, I believe has resigned for Bristol, so won't be coming to Edinburgh. Are they really short of someone who can play IC in any case?

I think you are thinking of Will Hurrell, the bristol centre, I'm talking about Simon Hickey the Bordeaux 10 who has signed for Edinburgh from next season.

http://www.edinburghrugby.org/news/17/11/21/news-stand-hickey-signs-next-season

Oops, my bad!

No worries.

I guess to your question though, Edinburgh might be short of an IC.

Freuan is apparently calling time on his playing career (although more of an OC), and burleigh is out of contract this season. That would leave Edinburgh with Dean, who i believe is also out of contract this season. Now assuming Burleigh and Dean sign up, that's a good start, but could probably do with someone else.

Dean seems to be more of an OC as well, at least that is where he gets played.

There is Rasolea, who has been solid when he has played, without being spectacular. He is OOC as well at the end of the season. Do Edinburgh fans think he is worth another shout? The fact that Cockers is not playing him that much probably answers that question though.

So to answer my own question, yes they probably do need an IC and could do with getting Burleigh signed up again asap, he is still playing well into his 30s and should easily be good for another couple of years.

Are there any academy prospects over on that side? Alternatively they could look west. Paddy Kelly is a very decent 12, who because of injury and the number of good players at Glasgow, has not had much of a look in. There is also Stafford McDowell, still in the U20s, but also likely to be very good.

Mark Bennett, I am sure has also played 12 in the past, but is probably much more comfortable at 13. Hopefully we will see him play this weekend against the Kings, almost the perfect match to bring him back into. If he can get a few games in during January, I wonder if he will make the Scotland squad?

Dean seems to play both 12 & 13, I think a lot of Edinburgh fans (myself included) think he's better suited to 12.  Plus we have more cover at 13 with Bennett, JJ & Rasolea (for now), although it's not exactly a lot of depth.

Galbraith is also at the club, but I don't know if he's injured or not rated as I don't think he has even been on the bench thus far.  There are a couple of academy lads in Hutchison & Taylor, both of whom I believe prefer 13.

I don't know the number of players for each position, but assuming 1 established, 1 capable back up and 1 youth player (is a bit thin on the ground but makes some sense), then:

12. Burleigh, Dean, Galbraith
13. Bennet, JJ, Rasolea (not strictly speaking youth in that he's 26, but the young lads at 13 are still a fair bit off first team action).

In theory if Scotland have a full complement of centres to pick from, then Bennett is the only one likely to be considered for the squad, so we shouldn't be too badly off from International call ups.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Bru - happy New year to you too but why are you on here so infrequently these days??

Cheers bud, it's nice to be back! I started a new job at the end of July which doesn't leave me much time in my day to post on here, and the 'filthy things' I've been doing (cheers Schitz) tend to take up my evenings. I guess I got turned off a lot by the general negativity on 606 during/after the Lions, but that's all ancient history, thank god! At least for a couple weeks more when the first 'Lions 2021 - Predictions for Bolters?' thread comes along...

With the Six Nations coming up though, I have no excuse not to be on here!

Bru? Did you go to another firm? In-house? Or has the long-promised career in adult entertainment finally proved too much of a lure?

Hey GC, after I completed my training contract in June, I started at a brand new firm a couple months later. I’m living the dream... well, whoever dreamed of practicing insolvency law, I’m living that guy’s dream!

It’s interesting, I tend not to think of that stuff as ‘adult entertainment’ - it’s really just ‘a night in with Ian’. Selling ringside seats is a more recent idea.

We'll soon be needing a new ongoing banter thread if someone wants to step up to the plate!

Added one

https://www.606v2.com/t66999-the-average-age-of-a-scotland-front-row-is-nnnnnnnnn19-glasgow-and-edinburgh-go-to-war#3658585

And might add some more details too