The average age of a Scotland Front row is nnnnnnnnn19 - A thread for Glasgow and Edinburgh go to banter war…..

[R!skysports]

First topic message reminder :

Bicker away......

A nice video to start with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds9dwHAfy_M


Glasgow Warriors are one of the two professional rugby union sides from Scotland. The team plays in the Pro14 league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014-15 season they won the Pro12 title and became the first Scottish team to win a major trophy in rugby union's professional era. #theyrock

Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners and a real rugby team) is one of the two professional rugby teams from Scotland, although hard to determine if they play rugby. The club competes dances in the Pro14, along with Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Since January 2017, Edinburgh plays most of its home games at Myreside Stadium with selected matches at BT Murrayfield.

[highland_scot]

Out of left field this one

Knock down everything at Murrayfield and build two stadiums.

1 nice wee 1ok seater for Edinburgh and then a new modern Murrayfield for Scotland.

You know it makes sense as 1. we've the oldest stadium of the home nations. 2. we could get the footy lot to pay for half of it and let them play the odd game there too!

You got a couple of hundred million to pay for it? I don't think the footy lot could rub 2 coppers together!

Having looked up recent stadium builds of a similar size, let's make that the best part of £600m... Probably can be reduced a fair bit for the fact we own the land, but then increase for the cost of safely demolishing an existing 67,000 seat stadium within spitting distance of the railway and tram lines... Plus the work involved in building it on a flood plain.

A sure fire way to pump the SRU full of debt.

Or, we can recoup a huge pile of the cost by building it in Livingston and selling Murrayfield for housing/7* hotels/student flats/disneyland Edinburgh (delete as appropriate)!

[TheMildlyFranticLlama]

Wrote on the rumour site that H Jones is being considered as a Nonu replacement. I would personally be happy for Jones to learn from Radradra and Fekitoa. Not happy about having to deal with Toulon's owner.

Radradra has just moved to Bordeaux. If there is any truth to this I only assume no one at Toulon has watched Shug play in a Warriors short or they’d be looking elsewhere

[tigertattie]

I love a boring stat me?

These days, the average age of a stadium is 42 years when it gets demolished (with a median of 35 years if you prefer that route to averages)

The East stand at Murrayfield was built in 1983, the West stand was renovated in 1995

Either way you cut it, Murrayfield is due to be bulldozed in the next 10 or so years.

England, Ireland and Wales have all recently built new stadiums and I know it would come with a hefty price tag, but Scotland are going to need to look at this at some point in the near future.

I really can see Edinburgh getting a temporary (10 or so years) couple of stands being erected on the back pitches and then then at some point after the 2027 world cup a whole new Murrayfield being built with some form of dual stadium. One way for the SRU to cover this would indeed be to sell the land at Murrayfield for housing and then making a new stadium/complex out at the likes of Gogar or South of the City at Hillend/Straiton/etc

The 2027 world cup will likely be in Aus/NZ so Scotland could look to at least jointly hold the 2031 World Cup in a nice new shiny stadium

[TJ]

Why would you want to knock murrayfeild down - its a great stadium

[BigGee]

Why would you want to knock murrayfeild down - its a great stadium

Murrayfield is the right size stadium in just the right place for Scotland and most importantly it is almost paid for.

Probably not quite as good as some of the newer versions, Principality, Aviva etc in terms of facilities and if you were building it from scratch again, a roof would probably not be a bad idea but it remains well fit for purpose and I am sure has got a lot of years of life left in it yet. Redeveloping it into a modern stadium, whilst necessary, almost bankrupted the SRU and was a major factor in why professional rugby took so long to get going in Scotland.

I dare say we will need a new stadium one day but I imagine Murrayfield is likely to see me out and I have no qualms about that!

[tigertattie]

The main thing with Murrayfield is that it takes up a huge amount of space for it's capacity. It has the back pitches, the huge area where Wanderer's used to play and some of the oddest laid out car parks known to man. Plus there's large grassy areas and lets not forget that half of it is built on a man made hill.

The total amount of land for Murrayfield is twice the size of Twickenham and three times the size of both Landsdowne and the Millennium

[EWT Spoons]

I think with the debt etc that MF put the SRU into, I can't see them doing anything massive with it until it becomes absolutely necessary, which is likely to be a while away yet.

[Hazel Sapling]

The SRU just got off a debt pile. Unless the SNP fancy another white elephant to help football (probably is the case) and they agree to redo Murrayfield (as long as it becomes a national stadium for football as well, they may do it), there is not the money to rebuild totally.

The next 3 big budget (£10 million+) priorities are sorting out a stadium for Edinburgh (could sell the SFA on having women's internationals and the u21's there as well for a bit of a boost), sorting out expansion for Glasgow and solving the third team conundrum in some format. A major renovation or rebuild of Murrayfield is probably at least a decade off.

[RDW]

While I agree it would be a long term issue (at least 10 year) I hope the SRU at least have a strategic plan in place for how they are going to deal with it and when action will be required, as you don't just find that kind of money over night. The problem is it will probably need government investment (as they did for Hampden) but governments only work in 4 year cycles.

[EWT Spoons]

Mark Palmer of the times, who has an agreement with the SRU, has just tweeted (unprompted) that it would be good if Edinburgh had their own main sponsor for next season, in the same way Glasgow did last season.

Wonder if that's what this #AlwaysEdinburgh chat is about.

[EWT Spoons]

Oh god, I've just realised "Always" is a ladies sanitary product brand.

[RDW]

Can you imagine Jimbo on here if Edinburgh were sponsored by a sanitary towel brand?

I've been waiting on him to come in with some 'witty' comment given all the chat we've had about Edinburgh's future!

[jimbopip]

Can you imagine Jimbo on here if Edinburgh were sponsored by a sanitary towel brand?

I've been waiting on him to come in with some 'witty' comment given all the chat we've had about Edinburgh's future!

Mrs Pip has been waiting for a witty comment from me for over 30 years now.

Always Edinburgh!!!

I asked MrsPip about the aptness of this as a sponsor and whether this was what the Bufties at HQ were hinting at ....

Her reply, "Well we'll know by the end of the month".

Personally, I think it's a mnemonic from Cockers to his players... if you only show up once a month there'll be blood.

[Eejit]

Can you imagine Jimbo on here if Edinburgh were sponsored by a sanitary towel brand?

I've been waiting on him to come in with some 'witty' comment given all the chat we've had about Edinburgh's future!

Mrs Pip has been waiting for a witty comment from me for over 30 years now.

Always Edinburgh!!!

I asked MrsPip about the aptness of this as a sponsor and whether this was what the Bufties at HQ were hinting at ....

Her reply, "Well we'll know by the end of the month".

Personally, I think it's a mnemonic from Cockers to his players... if you only show up once a month there'll be blood.

Make this man a mod.

[RDW]

Can you imagine Jimbo on here if Edinburgh were sponsored by a sanitary towel brand?

I've been waiting on him to come in with some 'witty' comment given all the chat we've had about Edinburgh's future!

Mrs Pip has been waiting for a witty comment from me for over 30 years now.

Always Edinburgh!!!

I asked MrsPip about the aptness of this as a sponsor and whether this was what the Bufties at HQ were hinting at ....

Her reply, "Well we'll know by the end of the month".

Personally, I think it's a mnemonic from Cockers to his players... if you only show up once a month there'll be blood.

Make this man a mod.

You know the Father Ted episode where Dougal presides over a funeral and utter chaos ensues?

That.

[jimbopip]

You know fellas...this Eejit bloke    

He's named ironically, isn't he?

Like Funny Exiled Scot for whom both adjectives are redundant.

Tojours L'amour Tojours.

(translated as "Always for Luvvies, Always")

[tigertattie]

I've been on the phone to the Edinburgh marketing team and apparently the #Always is in reference to Edinburgh always winning the 1872 cup

[RDW]

I've been on the phone to the Edinburgh marketing team and apparently the #Always is in reference to Edinburgh always winning the 1872 cup

[RDW]

Apparently there will be several major announcements throughout the day

[EWT Spoons]

The Edinburgh fan group thing (I've no idea what they do) had a meeting with the club and posted some chat last night over on the Edinburgh forum, saying there are several initiatives, most of which will go down well, but there will be a couple of contentious areas for some fans.

Will be interesting to see what they all are

[jimbopip]

I've been on the phone to the Edinburgh marketing team and apparently the #Always is in reference to Edinburgh always winning the 1872 cup

Which pretty much guarantees three bonus point wins to the Finless Ones next sea on.

[EWT Spoons]

planning permission submitted today (if submitted today we won't see that for a while) for a 7.8k stadium for Edinburgh rugby

[NeilyBroon]

planning permission submitted today (if submitted today we won't see that for a while) for a 7.8k stadium for Edinburgh rugby

Crikey is that it?

The way they were building up you'd have thought they had got planning permission to build stands in the grounds of Edinburgh castle.

That's like gathering your extended family to tell them you've applied for planning permission to have an extension on your kitchen.

[EWT Spoons]

on back pitches ready for 19/20 season

[EWT Spoons]

there are a number of announcements apparently, so I assume this is just the start, but if not, at least something is happening on a venue we all agree would be best for the club.

I'd say it's also big news, as Edinburgh fans have been shunted all over the place for long enough with an uncertain future as to where the club will call home. This is massive.

[NeilyBroon]

there are a number of announcements apparently, so I assume this is just the start, but if not, at least something is happening on a venue we all agree would be best for the club.

I'd say it's also big news, as Edinburgh fans have been shunted all over the place for long enough with an uncertain future as to where the club will call home.  This is massive.

surely it's more appropriate to announce once you have planning permission though?

Agree it's good news for the fans that something is being done but you're still going to be in the echo chamber next season presumably, as Myreside has proved completely unsuitable.

[EWT Spoons]

I assume given the announcement they are certain it will be passed.....but I guess it is the Edinburgh rugby comms team, so in reality it might have no chance.

Thanks Nelly, you've ruined this for me!

[NeilyBroon]

That's what 15 years of being a Scotland supporter does to you, especially as I started following rugby in the Mackay tenure in charge so I've been conditioned to have low expectations!

I'm sure they will get the planning permission but as I said considering the amount of pomp they were giving it you would have expected it to be something happening next season!

[EWT Spoons]

Aye I'm sure it'll be fine, as they do call out the council for all their support, so I assume this plan has basically been given the green light.

I'll take another season at BTMF for something permanent going forward

[RDW]

Of course ER had to announce it before it was actually given permission and of course it is a big deal - this is huge news for the future of ER and they would want to be the ones that broke it. If they waited for planning permission to be granted then it would be well in the public domain long before they made a formal announcement so they were hardly going to wait for that were they?

ER supporters have been screaming for this for years and the process is finally happening - great news.

[RDW]

Scottish Rugby has today announced it has applied for planning permission to install a new playing venue in the grounds of BT Murrayfield, which will have a capacity of up to 7,800.

The development is intended to be the new home of Edinburgh Rugby and would be located on a section of land currently used as training pitches.

A detailed planning application has been submitted to City of Edinburgh Council to provide a fan-focussed, playing venue in the city that will incorporate a new 3G surface and covered spectator stands around all four sides of the ground.

Edinburgh will play its home matches on the international pitch at BT Murrayfield for the coming 2018/19 season, with the aim of commencing the 2019/20 campaign in the new purpose-built venue.

Scottish Rugby has designed the project using flexible infrastructure and is open to making the space available to other users from the wider rugby community in Scotland, and the possibility of other sports as well.

Scottish Rugby’s Chief Operating Officer Dominic McKay, who has responsibility for Scotland’s two professional rugby teams, said: “We are incredibly excited to be in a position to be able to submit this application to give Edinburgh a new home.

“After many years of exhausting all the potential stadium and playing ground options for Edinburgh in the local area, we have taken the initiative and will be investing ourselves to develop a venue that can help the team to grow and provide a great spectator experience.

“We are fortunate to have space within the BT Murrayfield campus to comfortably accommodate this planned new facility and retain practice pitches for all elements of rugby.

“We see this as adding increased flexibility to the BT Murrayfield site and believe we have submitted a robust, sensible application and hope it will be viewed favourably.

“I’d like to thank the City of Edinburgh Council for their support to date and look forward to working with them over the coming months.”

Edinburgh Rugby Managing Director, Jonny Petrie, said: “Having just enjoyed one of the club’s most positive seasons in recent times on the pitch, it is hugely exciting to announce our intentions to move to a new purpose-built new home.

“It has been a consistent challenge to grow the club without our own ground and we now have developed plans that meet the needs of our fans and reflect the direction we want the team to be moving in.

“We have given ourselves the opportunity to fully engage with rugby fans across the city and beyond and deliver a matchday experience that merits their growing support.”

Edinburgh Rugby Head Coach, Richard Cockerill, said: “I’ve said right from the start that Edinburgh has a lot of potential but it had lacked a strong culture and sense of identity.

“What is exciting about this new project is that as a club, as players, staff and fans we could have a home that we can begin to build something from. It will give us a focal point, excellent facilities and a chance to move the club forward both on and off the pitch.”

With the Scotland national team and other representative sides now regularly training at the Oriam National Performance Centre and the need to replace an existing 3G pitch the plans will utilise land on the west side of the BT Murrayfield site previously used for training purposes.

[EWT Spoons]

badge and team colours have changed as well.

I think, if I've read it correctly, the strip is going to be blue & white going forward as a throwback to the district side, and the badge is different, in style and colour.

Massive overhaul at the club

[RDW]

There's a new badge too!

[RDW]

Worth saying that our name now is officially 'Edinburgh'

http://www.edinburghrugby.org/news/18/05/31/news-edinburgh-returns-its-roots-new-club-brand

Edinburgh Rugby has launched a new brand identity that it feels better reflects the city’s long and proud rugby heritage, whilst signalling a new chapter for the club in the modern game.

The club’s name remains Edinburgh - ensuring Scotland’s capital city remains at the heart of everything - but from today, a new club badge will come into effect alongside colours that were first adorned by the world-famous players that represented the city’s district side.

Head Coach Richard Cockerill today welcomed the club’s striking new identity: “We have to have a strong identity and hopefully this is the start of what this club is going to be about - not only on the field, but off it as well. We have to build an identity that everyone can buy into - whether that’s supporters, how we play with the players we bring in, and how we train and behave.

“We’ve chosen a colour that’s traditional, that goes back to the heritage of the team, and I’m sure our supporters can identify with that, young and old. This is what Edinburgh looks like as a rugby team and hopefully that translates into what happens on the field.”

The new club badge retains the three turrets inspired by Edinburgh Castle, the original district badge and the city’s flag and coat of arms. The turrets are presented in a bold and modern shape above the city’s name, with the only new addition to the crest being the year in which representative rugby was established in Edinburgh - 1872.

Meanwhile, the club colours will return to the original palette of the Edinburgh district side when some of the city’s most celebrated rugby names traditionally played in blue and white.

The old red has been replaced with a burnt orange colour - inspired by the city’s volcanic beginnings at Castle Rock and Arthur’s Seat - to signify this new and exciting chapter for Edinburgh in the modern game.

The new Edinburgh brand was launched on the day that the club’s planning application for a new playing venue was submitted to the City of Edinburgh Council.

Managing Director Jonny Petrie, said: “The proposed new playing venue is a transformational development for this club, and with Richard Cockerill’s ongoing transformation of the team on the field, it feels like the perfect time to relaunch the club’s brand.

“Over the past year, we have conducted an enormous amount of research about the club, the city and the rugby roots in the capital and I share Richard Cockerill’s belief that by reconnecting with our heritage, we can look to the future with a lot of pride and confidence.”

Alongside today’s historic announcement, the club has also announced a new ticketing structure that will see professional rugby in Edinburgh become the best value and most accessible sports team in the city. For more information on ticket prices for the 2018/19 season, visit edinburghrugby.org.

Existing Season Ticket Members will be able to renew their Season Ticket from 10am tomorrow (Friday 1 June) with Season Ticket Memberships going on general sale from Friday 8 June.

Cockerill continued: “We’ve had many new beginnings but we have to build on the strong foundations that were established last season - which is good people, working hard work and caring about what they do in order to win. But we also have to have a brand, a style of rugby and a club-feel that people want to follow and be part of.

“My message to the people of Edinburgh and beyond is to come and be part of something that’s going to get bigger and bigger. Come at the start of it so in 10 years’ time, you can say that you were here at the start of what is going to be Edinburgh Rugby for the future.”

[RDW]

If I read that correctly it sounds like tickets are also going to be cheaper.

[TheMildlyFranticLlama]

Stadium plans are great news. The badge I frankly couldn't give a monkeys about, I never understood people getting up in arms every time a club decides to do a rebrand on their logo. I will be a bit sad to see the black and red go though

[Eejit]

That’s a cracking badge in fairness. Anybody have any pictures of the old district sides somewhere?

[RDW]

All in all I think this is fantastic news and leads to a really exciting future for the club. The new stadium is a very welcome development and I hope it gets approval - that and I hope they don't make a mess of it in terms of planning the space. I also am not too fussed about the badge and while it is a shame to lose the black and red I'll hold judgement until we see the new strip.

Reduced ticket prices are a good step - there's no excuses for fans now.

Interesting that the article says this will replace the existing 3G pitch, which I thought would be due for renewal sometime soon. This will mean that the stadium will be used by other teams and no doubt used for SRU events like finals days etc. It will therefore have a benefit for Scottish rugby not just Edinburgh.

Shame that we wasted a year with the failed Myreside experiment and didn't do this last year!

[TheMildlyFranticLlama]

All in all I think this is fantastic news and leads to a really exciting future for the club. The new stadium is a very welcome development and I hope it gets approval - that and I hope they don't make a mess of it in terms of planning the space. I also am not too fussed about the badge and while it is a shame to lose the black and red I'll hold judgement until we see the new strip.

Reduced ticket prices are a good step - there's no excuses for fans now.

Interesting that the article says this will replace the existing 3G pitch, which I thought would be due for renewal sometime soon. This will mean that the stadium will be used by other teams and no doubt used for SRU events like finals days etc. It will therefore have a benefit for Scottish rugby not just Edinburgh.

Shame that we wasted a year with the failed Myreside experiment and didn't do this last year!

It is, but the press releases that have gone out all make it sounds like Cockers has had a big role in this whole process, certainly the drive to help the club reconnect with its past and build a sense of identity has always been his big driver for Edinburgh. So part of me wonders whether, had Cockers not come to coach us, we'd actually be seeing a rebranding on this kind of scale. The stadium plans may have happened anyway, but the whole joined up approach of new stadium, new branding, new identity..... maybe this didn't happen last year because the architect of a lot of it hadn't joined Edinburgh yet?

[TheMildlyFranticLlama]

Predictably there are a good few people on twitter having a meltdown over the new logo

[Eejit]

Predictably there are a good few people on twitter having a meltdown over the new logo

Spotted that too. I wonder how these people get through life sometimes.

[RDW]

The main complaint seems to be the amount of money they've spent on Black and Red kit, which is now defunct. An understandable frustration, but in the grand scheme of things when considered in tandem with the bigger changes and what changing the club brand means, it really isn't that big a deal.

[TheMildlyFranticLlama]

Its hardly like the new stadium will come with a rigidly enforced ban on black and red articles of clothing, people can still wear their old kit. Clubs change their shirts every year, that doesn't invalidate any previous years shirts you own any more than this rebranding will do. Some people just want something to moan about

[BigGee]

Its hardly like the new stadium will come with a rigidly enforced ban on black and red articles of clothing, people can still wear their old kit. Clubs change their shirts every year, that doesn't invalidate any previous years shirts you own any more than this rebranding will do. Some people just want something to moan about

It's not like Edinburgh ever sold that many shirts anyway!

[RDW]

Its hardly like the new stadium will come with a rigidly enforced ban on black and red articles of clothing, people can still wear their old kit. Clubs change their shirts every year, that doesn't invalidate any previous years shirts you own any more than this rebranding will do. Some people just want something to moan about

It's not like Edinburgh ever sold that many shirts anyway!

There it is!

[Welly]

I like Orange for kits, stands out more.

Every league seems to have a red and black shirt if not two nearly.

[Eejit]

I like Orange for kits, stands out more.

Every league seems to have a red and black shirt if not two nearly.

Ah but Cheetahs already play in orange though and as the men from the Free State pummelled the luvvies from Harvey Nichols this season they get first dibs as the orange team. Joking aside Purple seems to be featured prominently so perhaps it will be purple with orange trim.

[RDW]

Without turning this into a discussion Gok Wan would feel comfortable contributing to, apparently the traditional colours and Dark Blue and white, with dark orange being added as part of the castle logo (to represent lava from the Castle, obvs).

Here's hoping we don't end up with this...

[Eejit]

Without turning this into a discussion Gok Wan would feel comfortable contributing to, apparently the traditional colours and Dark Blue and white, with dark orange being added as part of the castle logo (to represent lava from the Castle, obvs).

Lava? You playing your home games at Castle Grayskull, aye?

- “I have the Power! Duhan Van Der Merwe became the Mighty Battle Cat, and I became John Barclay the most powerful man in the universe.”

[RDW]

Jeezo, the Facebook brigade really don't like the new logo! Almost unanimous hatred of it and outrage!

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