Edinburgh V Scarlets

Edinburgh team to face Scarlets at BT Murrayfield in the Guinness PRO14 on Friday 2 November, kick-off 7.35pm – live on Premier Sports.



15. Dougie Fife (115)



14. Tom Brown (114)

13. James Johnstone (26)

12. Chris Dean (72)

11. Duhan van der Merwe (24)



10. Simon Hickey (8)

9. Henry Pyrgos (8) CAPTAIN



1. Pierre Schoeman (5)

2. Ross Ford (186)

3. Murray McCallum (43)

4. Jamie Hodgson (1)

5. Callum Hunter-Hill (3)

6. Luke Hamilton (7)

7. Ally Miller*

8. Bill Mata (44)



Replacements: 16. David Cherry (3); 17. Rory Sutherland (67); 18. Pietro Ceccarelli (1); 19. Callum Atkinson (1); 20. Lewis Wynne*; 21. Nathan Fowles (61); 22. Jason Baggott*; 23. Juan Pablo Socino (5)



*Edinburgh competitive debut



Unavailable due to international selection: Allan Dell; Stuart McInally; WP Nel; Ben Toolis; Jamie Ritchie; Hamish Watson; Blair Kinghorn; Simon Berghan; Grant Gilchrist; Darcy Graham.

Unavailable due to injury: Cameron Fenton; Fraser McKenzie; Lewis Carmichael; John Barclay; Magnus Bradbury; Senitiki Nayalo; Luke Crosbie; Mungo Mason; Jaco van der Walt; Matt Scott; Mark Bennett; Damien Hoyland

Similar team to last week, although pleasantly surprised to see McCallum released - we would really have been in trouble if he wasn't! It does mean Scotland are without a travelling reserve prop though.

Hopefully we won't see a 2nd half performance as bad as last week - that was probably about as bad as it gets - and hopefully the senior players have had a rocket from Cockers this week.

I can't see us beating the Scarlets but they will be hit by international withdrawls too - just now as bad as us.

Interesting that for the first time ever the team sheet shows who is injured - I suspect this is Cockers showing just how many players he is without!

Don't recognise a lot of the Scarlets team - SHC returns though! Get a chance to see Thomson too.


15 Johnny McNicholl, 14 Ioan Nicholas, 13 Kieron Fonotia, 12 Paul Asquith, 11 Morgan Williams, 10 Dan Jones, 9 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 1 Phil Price, 2 Ryan Elias, 3 Werner Kruger, 4 Steve Cummins, 5 David Bulbring, 6 Blade Thomson, 7 Josh Macleod, 8 Will Boyde


Replacements: 16 Dafydd Hughes, 17 Dylan Evans, 18 Simon Gardiner, 19 Tom Price, 20 Ed Kennedy, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Clayton Blommetjies, 23 Uzair Cassiem

It will be interesting to see what Ally Miller can do, after being pretty much ignored by Cockers all of last season. He had a very good season down with London Scottish before coming up to Edinburgh.

I wonder if he will give Baggott any game time as well, he did not get on at all last week.

I can't imagine Baggot will be coming on unless we're comfortable winning or losing with 60 minutes gone.

Saying that, we were getting pumped last week with 10 minutes to go - that was the chance to bring him on (unless Cockers didn't think that was the best of environments to blood a young 10!)

Wonder what Kennedy did in his 5 mins spell to drop out completely, whereas Pyrgos starts as capt.

Think there are some players being given a chance to make amends for last week (also factoring in injuries and scotland call ups)

So what are the bets on SHC having an absolute worldy, and single handedly destroying us.

Also the Edinburgh bench couldn't possibly be weaker/less experienced. This is largely as a result of Fowles being there, which automatically brings the quality down by a factor of 50

Cockers seems to stick to Pyrgos starting (and usually playing 80 minutes) and Kennedy and Fowles rotates who is on the bench.

I know they're not great players but their confidence must be completely shot just now - they clearly aren't trusted by Cockers and aren't been given more than 5 minutes a game, even when Pyrgos is having a shocker like last week.

Again Cockers has done a lot of good but this is another example of something that will likely come back to bite us later in the season - he can't rely on Pyrgos playing 70+ minutes of every game and not try and get our other 9s up to speed.

Wonder if we'll see Sheil at any point. I mean if the bench 9 is only to be used in a "break glass in case of emergency" type deal, and he clearly doesn't rate Kennedy or Fowles, then it might be worth a shot giving 5-10 mins to someone else.

Kennedy has been told he's playing for his contract this year, so he must be fretting that he's not even getting a chance on the pitch to show he deserves one. As you say RDW that can't be doing much for his confidence.

Cockers has publicly talked up Shiel in the past, so its odd that he isn't getting a chance to be the 'give Henry a 5 minute sitdown' option. It would be good to start seeing what he can do at this level, we know for sure Fowles isn't good enough

I think both Fowles and Kennedy's contracts are up this year - can't imagine both will be kept on at the current rate.

As you say Shiel has been talked up but not even appeared on the bench.

Some alternative SH options must surely be top of the shopping list for Edinburgh, has been their achilles heal ever since GL and MB left!

Did Fowles not sign a 2 year deal last season?

EWT Spoons wrote:Did Fowles not sign a 2 year deal last season?

Not a good bit of business if he did!

aye 8th of Feb 2017 it was reported him and Sutherland signed a new 2 year deal

So that'll mean he's up end of this season then?

Sorry you're right, I was miss reading it.

Aye both look like they are up at the end of this season

Cockers must know now if he's keeping them, and if he's not then it's time to get Shiel some gametime.

I'd probably keep Kennedy as squad cover - he's an experienced pro and has shown he can put in good performances - but Fowles can bugger off.

Interestingly, the odds on this are the same as the Zebre game with us as 3 point favourites.  We're looking at a 20 point humping then.  
Maybe the Scarlets youngsters will want some revenge for the mauling they got last year?

With respect to Fowles, as bad as he can sometimes look it always seems to be coached behaviour.  He's definitely played well in the past and the painfully slow stuff is the same with all 3 SHs.

Kennedy was pretty good in the pre-season game against Bath but it was high tempo, high risk stuff that I don't think Cockerill will want to see in the league.

It is a good point about coaching - Pyrgos certainly never looked that bad at Glasgow. Kennedy and Fowles are naturally high tempo 9s and the tactics our 9s are being given are draining the life out of them. You can almost physically see them reign in their natural instincts and slow down play to do a box kick.

I was amazed when Pyrgos did a pick and go against Zebre!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Cockers must know now if he's keeping them, and if he's not then it's time to get Shiel some gametime.

I'd probably keep Kennedy as squad cover - he's an experienced pro and has shown he can put in good performances - but Fowles can bugger off.

I assume this is how you end all conversations.

Random person RDW works with - "cheers for your help on that guvnor (nod to being in London)"
RDW - "no problem, but Fowles can bugger off"
Random person - "........."
RDW -*walks away*

EWT Spoons wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Cockers must know now if he's keeping them, and if he's not then it's time to get Shiel some gametime.

I'd probably keep Kennedy as squad cover - he's an experienced pro and has shown he can put in good performances - but Fowles can bugger off.

I assume this is how you end all conversations.

Random person RDW works with - "cheers for your help on that guvnor (nod to being in London)"
RDW - "no problem, but Fowles can bugger off"
Random person - "........."
RDW -*walks away*

I agree with that though. Fowles can bugger off

tigertattie wrote:

EWT Spoons wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Cockers must know now if he's keeping them, and if he's not then it's time to get Shiel some gametime.

I'd probably keep Kennedy as squad cover - he's an experienced pro and has shown he can put in good performances - but Fowles can bugger off.

I assume this is how you end all conversations.

Random person RDW works with - "cheers for your help on that guvnor (nod to being in London)"
RDW - "no problem, but Fowles can bugger off"
Random person - "........."
RDW -*walks away*

I agree with that though. Fowles can bugger off

Very hard to argue with any of this. Fowles can bugger off.

TheMildlyFranticLlama wrote:

tigertattie wrote:

EWT Spoons wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Cockers must know now if he's keeping them, and if he's not then it's time to get Shiel some gametime.

I'd probably keep Kennedy as squad cover - he's an experienced pro and has shown he can put in good performances - but Fowles can bugger off.

I assume this is how you end all conversations.

Random person RDW works with - "cheers for your help on that guvnor (nod to being in London)"
RDW - "no problem, but Fowles can bugger off"
Random person - "........."
RDW -*walks away*

I agree with that though. Fowles can bugger off

Very hard to argue with any of this. Fowles can bugger off.

If Fowles rocked up at my local club and said he wanted to play, for free, do you know what I'd say?

Fowles can bugger off!!!

Fowles for Edinburgh’s fans player of the year award this season then?

I don't know about fans player of the year, but he can bugger off.

I saw Mike Blair and Andy Nicol emptying Wheelie bins in my street

I asked what their thoughts were on Edinburgh's scrum half choices, They both replied, "fowles can bugger off"

So what new ways will Edinburgh find to disappoint us tonight?

Amazingly Scarlets haven't won in Edinburgh in 5 years!

Positive start - pace significantly upped from last week

Thomson is in a bad way

Was that Thomson who got injured?? First Johnson now Thomson?? Hope Sam Skinner doesn't get injured too.

Aye and he's likely to be out for a while from the look of it

Could be s high scoring game - whoever can keep the ball longest will likely win

Ahhh that was so crap. Pyrgos passing straight into a Scarlets player!

Henry enjoys passing to the other team doesn’t he

We literally don't have tactics other than one out pass and carry

Great seeing the Scarlets 11 Poopie it when 1 on 1 with Mata! He really didn't fancy that.

Don’t blame him!

What a clear out that was from Schoeman!

FFS Pyrgos - I know that was a free ball but that just wasn't on.

That's more like it Pyrgos!  

Decent first half from Edinburgh but disappointing to not have controlled the last 2 minutes of the half better.

I'm worried about the 2nd half - we typically fade badly and Scarlets have scored with ease whenever they've got into our 22.

So basically, we’re doomed?

Pretty much

Not a fan of this ref at ruck time - Hodgeson was told to leave so he should have left it, but I can't see why it was a penalty in the first place. He's also inconsistent in how long he gives players competing for the bsll.

Cracking defence Socino

Has someone filled his boots with concrete?

Socino absolutely skinned 1 on 1.

Can't help but think Pyrgos should have just stood in the backline on the left - we would have been 1 down on the right but still had 4 players in half the pitch. Instead Socino and fife had half the pitch to cover between two.

Finally we get a holding on penalty! I'd take points here.