Glasgow and Edinburgh banter thread no. 23 - New season, new thread

[BigGee]

First topic message reminder :

Well a new season is probably time to start off a new thread.

2 weeks to the start of the season and both sides with one more pre season game to go. A lot of unknowns this season again, due to the number of players away with Scotland and other countries for the WC.

For Glasgow, can they continue their general excellence that took them on a fantastic end of season run to the Pro 14 Final, where they just fell short. It might be their last campaign under Dave Rennie, so can they go one better?

Edinburgh also have questions to ask, the main one being whether they can ever pass the ball past the FH and how soon before their wingers are likely to go blue from hypothermia? On a more positive note though, they may finally be playing in Mini Murrayfield by autumn 2020. So only one more year to bear playing in the library!

Good luck to both teams for the coming season, though Edinburgh are more likely to need it than Glasgow!

[jimbopip]

Be honest folks , Aldi Price and Hornito will be away so it's Dobbie or Why???  at 9. One is a very exciting talent with a smoother service action than Roer Federer,  the other may well be GC's Uncle Dougie in disguise.

Jonny to Execeterr makes sense. Rozza on loan makes sense. Grigg, who has  been DR's go to 13, being allowed to leave makes every little sense.
Unless, (a) DW is now having a say in who'll be there next season OR there are a couple of signings lined up and salaries have to be cut to pay for them.

[EWT Spoons]

I think a squad re-balancing is required by Glasgow and is part of what we are beginning to see.

Our squad has historically been larger as we have been contributing a lot more players to Scotland for many years now. That should be less of an issue now that Edinburgh have improved and more of our top players are choosing to move away from Scotland to play.

It is not just purely in terms of numbers that we are imbalanced at Glasgow, we are also overstocked in certain positions, such as centre, hooker and as Dobie emerges scrum half. This means that good players are not getting the game time they need. There are several players kicking around the Glasgow squad that are really not playing at all. Players like Hughes, Kelly, Smith, Nairn. I don't suppose any of them are on big money but it does all add up.

I would be happy for a slightly leaner squad, with maybe the chance for some academy or Super 6 players to step up and fill the gaps. Dobie aside, no youngsters are getting their chance this season. We keep getting told that McLean, Smith, Skyes and Davidson are all prospects, well give them an opportunity then.

Getting involved in a dogfight for a playoff place is not helping their cause I guess and maybe it will change during this 6N window or if and when we can't make the playoffs.

I can see why players like Grigg might be looking to move though and why we are allowing others like Hughes to go off and try their luck elsewhere.

A slightly smaller but higher quality squad is likely where we need to be heading going into the Wilson era. I don't have a huge issue with going away from a big name coach either. There has been speculation about Rennie's future ever since he has been with us and that has probably told in the end, both on him and the players. He was never going to be a long term appointment, we knew that right from the beginning.

I wonder how that will go down, Glasgow fans (not so much here, but on social media) have been losing their Poopie about signings (or lack there of) so if Glasgow are rebalancing the squad then that means more outs than ins, and they're largely already raging.

There does need to be an effort to bring more young players through (for both teams) but whilst Edinburgh have done ok of late with Kinghorn, Graham, Taylor, Carmichael, Ritchie, Bradbury etc coming through in the last couple of seasons, Glasgow seem to have stalled a bit. Cummings looks a talent, as does Dobie, but other than that they seem to have dried up after a few years of Glasgow doing the heavy lifting in terms of bringing young lads through. Hopefully Wilson will kick start this again and give some of the young lads a chance.

In other news (and probably not surprising) Barclay's unlikely to sign a new contract with Edinburgh when his expires, which I think is this summer (could be wrong on that), not sure if he's going to hang up his boots or try somewhere else, but from what I've heard he's unlikely to stay at Edinburgh. I don't even know if he'll go on to coach at the club as they/the SRU treated him badly when he was injured and I'm not sure he wants to extend that relationship. That last bit is speculation from me from what I've heard, but the contract bit is from fairly reliable sources. Unless something changes, this'll likely be his last season with us.

[RDW]

I'd be amazed if Barclay extends his playing career elsewhere. His body has well and truly been through the wars and enough is enough! Plus he's got a young family settled back in Edinburgh.

Would be a shame if there's still bad blood with the SRU. I'm sure he's got some business ventures on the go and he's an excellent pundit so will no doubt get involved with that.

[BigGee]

I am not sure how reflective the Warriors fans on social media are of the fan base in general. Certainly on the warriors forum, they love a conspiracy theory. Most fans, I suspect are a lot more pragmatic and certainly Glasgow do have a loyal fan base, who have enjoyed the journey with them to becoming a decent team. You see that on the away European games when they really do take a decent amount of fans away with them.

I think what has caught a lot of us by surprise is just how quickly the squad has gone out of date. From being runners up last season and in truth very close to Leinster, to being so far off the pace in the space of a year. You can't just blame it on Hogg leaving either, as he really did not play that much, nor that effectively over the past two seasons. The signs were there though, but no one acted on it and with DR knowing he was going to go, he probably did not make the right pitch about it.

Anywhere we are where we are and we have to look forward. Every team has its cycles of up and down and I see no reason with the right recruitment why we cannot be contenders again, even if it takes a year or so. More emphasis on quality rather than quantity and more young Scottish players coming through is what I want to see.

On the Edinburgh front it is not surprising that JB is not going to get a new contract. He does not seem to have been the same player since the injury and the young guns are leaving him well behind.

He has always had a slightly tetchy relationship with the SRU. I still believe that he was in part responsible for the fall out and we saw his petulant side a few times whilst at Glasgow. His recent forays into social media, having a crack at Morrison, while being completely right in what he said, was probably not diplomatic and would worry anyone thinking about bring him into a position of responsibility within the organisation.

Very few sportsmen get to choose the time of their own departure and JB is unlikely to be the exception to that if he does get time called on him at the end of this season. He may not be thrilled at the way it ended on both domestic and international fronts, but I don't imagine the SRU are thrilled about it either, having paid out a probably very expensive contract for two years with very little return.

Such is the lottery of professional sport in many occasions.

[EWT Spoons]

I'd be amazed if Barclay extends his playing career elsewhere. His body has well and truly been through the wars and enough is enough! Plus he's got a young family settled back in Edinburgh.

Would be a shame if there's still bad blood with the SRU. I'm sure he's got some business ventures on the go and he's an excellent pundit so will no doubt get involved with that.

I wouldn't be shocked if he got a short(ish) contract with Glasgow.  They could possibly do with someone like Barclay and he could easily commute.  He also had a fairly prolonged spell without the rigours of international rugby (despite starting playing Int rugby very early), so his body is potentially not in too bad a shape, plus he had nearly a year out with injury, so assuming that healed ok, then he's maybe got a year or two of club rugby in him.  You could be right though that he might call it a day completely, I'm just speculating on what's next for him.

Out of all the players involved with Scotland, he's possibly been treated worse than most.  There was the Scott Johnson era when he was left out of the national team completely, and then with his move from Scarlets to Edinburgh, the SRU tried to back out the deal when he got injured.  I get professional sport is fairly cutthroat, but I'd be amazed if there is a huge amount of goodwill from him towards the SRU, whether that's all the SRU's fault or not. As biggee says, he likely was not faultless through the time he was left out the national team.

As you say he's got a lot of other things on the go, and he seems to love doing the punditry stuff, so might just focus on that.

[tigertattie]

I think a squad re-balancing is required by Glasgow and is part of what we are beginning to see.

Our squad has historically been larger as we have been contributing a lot more players to Scotland for many years now. That should be less of an issue now that Edinburgh have improved and more of our top players are choosing to move away from Scotland to play.

It is not just purely in terms of numbers that we are imbalanced at Glasgow, we are also overstocked in certain positions, such as centre, hooker and as Dobie emerges scrum half. This means that good players are not getting the game time they need. There are several players kicking around the Glasgow squad that are really not playing at all. Players like Hughes, Kelly, Smith, Nairn. I don't suppose any of them are on big money but it does all add up.

I would be happy for a slightly leaner squad, with maybe the chance for some academy or Super 6 players to step up and fill the gaps. Dobie aside, no youngsters are getting their chance this season. We keep getting told that McLean, Smith, Skyes and Davidson are all prospects, well give them an opportunity then.

Getting involved in a dogfight for a playoff place is not helping their cause I guess and maybe it will change during this 6N window or if and when we can't make the playoffs.

I can see why players like Grigg might be looking to move though and why we are allowing others like Hughes to go off and try their luck elsewhere.

A slightly smaller but higher quality squad is likely where we need to be heading going into the Wilson era. I don't have a huge issue with going away from a big name coach either. There has been speculation about Rennie's future ever since he has been with us and that has probably told in the end, both on him and the players. He was never going to be a long term appointment, we knew that right from the beginning.

I'd hardly say that 2 more players than Edinburgh is "a lot" (based on World cup squad)

It just seems a bit odd that there is so much movement. It's almost like the SRU knew before the end of last season that Cowboy Dave was leaving, so they already had their replacement lined up and he's said he doesn’t want too many players that he’s not chosen himself. Then his year he's said he's wanting rid of x number of players so he can bring in his own???

Does Wilson have an eye on bringing in a raft of English talent? Are Glasgow about to start a new "project Lineen" where the club are going to grow their own player base again?

Leinster are the only team who manage to continually bring through their own players with little need to bring in imports. Glasgow could be argued got close to this model of success with Hogg, Jonny Gray, Fraser Brown, etc. It's like that famous Man U team of Scholes, Giggs, etc.

Glasgow now seem to have hit a bump though where the production line looks like its stopped with the exception of Cummings and Horne the competent (who is from the East anyway). Not only that, their top talent like Hogg, Russell, Gray brother, aren’t hanging around.

Are Glasgow looking to clear the books and almost start again from scratch? Will the Warrior nation be able to wait out the rebuilding years, not getting to the top of the tables, in the hope that the team can grow again for a successful few seasons?

[BigGee]

I was not really referring to this WC, the goalpost were already moving by then, but if you look back over the years since the previous one, when Edinburgh were generally sh1t, we had to push up the squad to cover the gaps.

Hopefully, from a Scotland and the clubs perspective the balance will remain.

[RDW]

https://www.606v2.com/t69348-edinburgh-v-kings#3876933

[bsando]

Marfo is on the bench against Dragons this weekend! We could see him make his Ospreys debut.

[BigGee]

Given our lack of decent LHs, could he wander back into the Scotland squad if we get shorter?

[tigertattie]

Given our lack of decent LHs, could he wander back into the Scotland squad if we get shorter?

only if he gets his head out of his own backside and sharpens up.

[BigGee]

https://www.glasgowwarriors.org/news/gray-to-join-exeter-chiefs-next-season

Warriors confirm JG moving to Exeter next season

[tigertattie]

https://www.glasgowwarriors.org/news/gray-to-join-exeter-chiefs-next-season

Warriors confirm JG moving to Exeter next season

Good luck to him. I'm all for established players moving to clubs outwith the SRU (so long as the SRU dont lose sight of them). This frees up a valuable space inthe Scottish clubs for hopefully a young SW player to move up the ranks.

With JG, the move is even better news as he's be a bit meh in the last ocuple of seasons compared to when he was hitting his straps and Exeter are jsut the club to get a forward playing at his best again.

I want to see JG playing for the lions in the next tour!

[BigGee]

https://www.exeterchiefs.co.uk/news/baxters-joy-at-landing-gray

A pretty good judge of horse flesh is Rob Baxter, been tracking JG for 4 years and has finally got his man.

[RDW]

Great move for Gray and Scottish rugby.

Glasgow, not so much.

[RDW]

https://www.606v2.com/t69348-edinburgh-v-kings#3877081

[RDW]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51002568

Peter Wright saying it as it is as usual!

[jimbopip]

https://www.606v2.com/t69353-cowboy-dave-s-gunslingers-v-the-culturally-misappropriated-chiefs#3877661

Job done.

[RDW]

Big game for Edinburgh this weekend - a win and we should secure top spot and a home QF. Makes it all the more frustrating that we ended up drawing the home leg - a game we should have won and would have taken the pressure off.

I expect Cockers to go full strength for this one (and hope he does as I'll be there watching!) and rotate for the home game against Agen after, which should be an easy win.

If we achieve wins over the next 2 games it will cap a good run of 13 games - the 6N will come at a bad time! What is good (I suppose) is that we have won a lot of games but have rarely actually played very well. We've certainly not seen performances on a par with some of the big Champions Cup wins last season.

[EWT Spoons]

I'm hopeful with a few rested against the kings we go full strength as Bordeaux are on top form at the moment.  If we play as badly as we did against Kings though then we'll get our arses' handed to us.

As I'm also going to be at this game I really hope it's at least a decent performance.

Also seems like Bradbury has signed a new deal, Edinburgh are likely to be announcing it at 1130

[bsando]

Great news! Bradbury will be at his best over next 5 years, Edinburgh squad is looking pretty solid going forwards.

[jimbopip]

Just to keep you all updated

As you know Bigson is currently first team captain at my old club, last night he dragged Young Pipetto along to his first senior rugby training session. Pipetto hasn't been near a rugby pitch since he went over to the dark side last year. he arrived just before his brother and joined in the game of touch which was underway.

"How did it go?" I asked in my best paterfamilias voice.

"Well when the ball came to me the guy opposite was the vice-captain and stand-off. Big Bro told me later he is probably the most skilful player at the club."

"What happened?".... I had to bite, didn't I?

"I dummied him and sprinted in for a try." He said with all the nonchalance of a sixteen year old who thinks he and Finn Russell were separated at birth.

At the end of the session when the coach discovered that he was still only 16 he was told he has to come back after his birthday and then start training for next season.

MrsPip, who quite inexplicably had not been told her baby was going training with the big boys, said, "You can do that...but only if you put a bit of weight on before then."

And so it continues.

[BigGee]

If she is anything like my wife Jim, she will thoroughly enjoy feeding him up!

[RDW]

I vividly remember skinning my dad at touch rugby when I was 14 - ghosted through a gap and he just couldn't catch me. 

I think that's when he knew his time was up!

[BigGee]

Back when i started playing club rugby at 15, we a played together, colts snd seniors.

I learnt some important survival skills fairly early on in my playing career. Having a good turn of pace was certainly an advantage!

[Tramptastic]

Welll thats Johnnie Beattie retired https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/51025724

Bit of an unfulfilled talent, had that barnstorming season during the Andy Robinson era where he bumped off about 4 attempted tackles for a pretty darn good try at Croke Park, but never really kicked on from there! Once he left GW and the Killer B's split up he never really reached those heights again...

Have there been any other Scottish players you can think of that never really fulfilled their potential?

Joe Ansbro was one, although his career was curtailed early so he didnt really have a chance to hit some proper heights!

I always though Tom Brown could have done better, he filled in for Hoggy on the tour to Australia in 2012 (?) and played really well but just kind of faded away...

[EWT Spoons]

Ross Rennie - he could have been the player of his generation, he was superb. Sadly injuries did him in, and he never quite reached his full potential. Not his fault through lack of effort, but just unlucky.

[Hazel Sapling]

There were several in that generation with injury. Ansbro, Rennie, Thom Evans and Cusack (he was devastating in the scrum at one point and then was mysteriously injured for two seasons) all come to mind as fringe/beginning to establish themselves internationals that all got cut short due to injury. You can add Bennett, D Taylor, Dunbar and Bennett after each has been injury prone. Only Dunbar had a couple of seasons with a fairly clean bill of health. Bennett may still have that later in his career

Rossouw de Klerk can be added for approaching secondary schoolers for their number. He was the reason Glasgow felt they could lose Welsh. He was getting to the point of being capped when he qualified and is at the Southern Kings after a couple of seasons in France

As for never kicking on

Moray Low - At one point he looked like a solid international level tighthead. Instead he became comfortable and finished as a journeyman

SHC - Looked to be the future at SH and is probably fighting to prove he is a professional player at this point. It could all change for him but for now, barely a journeyman

Marfo - Had a solid 3 months including some good performances at international level before being put in the dog house

Fife - Had several caps before falling down the pecking order and losing form to the point of 7s. We talk about a lack of wing talent available and he is part of the missing generation

Jackson - Left Glasgow in what should have been a Barclay/Weir-esque move to outside of Scotland. Got caught behind a couple of really good players at Wasps and Quins and the injury gods denied him a real chance to compete. A competent professional, his caps came when he was not ready. He could have turned into a second option before the arrival of Hastings and a competent third option for now

K Bryce - Got caps at hooker, constantly injured, swapped position to TH where he was useless. Mixture of injury and messing around with position there. He could have been something more

Tonks - Decent 15 who got pushed to 10 and fell apart. Solid player who at one point looked like a proper back-up to Hogg as the fourth option for the back 3. Did not last long

Ashe - Young no. 8 whose body was not ready for top level rugby. Looked good at times before getting yet another injury. Got to the point where Rennie would rather flog Harley and Wilson within an inch of their lives than pick him. Could change but think international rugby is now beyond realistic hope outside of an Americas tour

A few young guys are at risk of being added to this list. Nairn, M Smith, Wynne, McCallum, Sutherland, Bhatti and Hoyland are the ones that come to mind. The first five might have to drop a level to get consistent game time and the last two are being kept off the field by top players. Hoyland and Bhatti should get a bit more game time over the international breaks but really should be playing much more than they are

[BigGee]

That's a pretty good summary Hazel.

Tonks though, am not sure was ever more than a journeyman.

Ashe, had all the physical attributes but I don't think ever got into the headspace. All this mindfulness stuff that he is keen on, probably is at odds with the inherent selfishness needed to be a top athlete.

To this day, I have never really quite got what happened to SHC and why he fell so badly from grace. He really did look like he had the right stuff and yet faded away so badly. He probably needed a coach like Cockers much earlier in his career who would not have encouraged him to believe he had arrived a long time before he actually had. I put him down to the general malaise that was going on in Edinburgh around that time and he , unfortunately, proved to be one of the casualties.

[RDW]

You can split the SHC story into 2 stages - 2015 world cup then his last season with Edinburgh.

He was genuinely outstanding in the season leading up to 2015 WC, and it coincided with Scotland getting the wooden spoon earlier that year and everyone questioning Laidlaw. Problem is he then spent the next 4 months holding tackle bags as Laidlaw returned to the fore and he and lost all his form. From memory he was then injured for a while, combined with Edinburgh's deep malaise.

His career certainly then stalled for a few years then he came right back to his best form in his last season at Edinburgh - problem was he'd already burned his bridges with Cockers so he was out the door! It really was strange at the time that he was putting in such strong performances and we didn't really have a replacement (Pyrgos hadn't arrived yet - that's slmetgiy we can blame SHC for!).

I bet he looks back on that last season and wishes he hadn't been so demanding in his contract negotiations. I genuinely think if he'd ended up staying at Edinburgh on that form he would have been right back in Scotland contention. Thing is, would he have found that form if he had actually signed a new contract?

Either way it's a real shame, and I hope he gets a long term contact somewhere to give him some stability.

[TJ]

Simon Taylor?  Injures then international retirement meant we never saw the best of him in a Scotland shirt
Ally Hogg?  Moved south then never picked again for Scotland
Gordon Ross? Looked like the next scotland 10 then just faded away

[tigertattie]

Tonks was an ok player. Very much the mold of decent club player but not really international standard.

Mike Cusack, not sure how he makes the list. Didn’t get anywhere really.

We’ve had our fair share of players who would have been great had it not been for injury.

Rennie, Evans (T) and Taylor being the most talented players ravaged by injury.

Players not hitting their potential you have to look no further than Ally Hogg. When he was captain of Edinburgh I had him down as being a future Scotland captain. He then fell from favour spectacularly even when he was pulling up trees in the English prem. one year he had the most metres made of any player, yet Scotland were playing Low, Cowan and Blake

[funnyExiledScot]

Rory Lamont would be another obvious one. Made of glass.

Hopefully we won't be adding Huw Jones to this list.

[BigGee]

Tom Philiip, remember him from a few years back?

Very highly rated and his career over before it had hardy started, got one Scotland cap I think.

[EST]

Tom Philiip, remember him from a few years back?

Very highly rated and his career over before it had hardy started, got one Scotland cap I think.

I've been racking my brain this AM trying to remember his name - looked to be a very promising centre when we had very little to get excited about in that position.

The main one most people have mentioned is Ross Rennie - he could/should have been a bonafide Scotland legend.

[sensisball]

Tom Philip was broken by the SRU's attempt to match the power of bigger French and English teams by encouraging players to bulk up way beyond their natural dimensions. His quads were over-developed to the extend that he suffered significant knee and back injuries. A real shame as he looked the real deal for a season or two at club level.

[Dollar Bill]

James Craig.... serious wheels
Brian Ireland .... Icy was fearless....a nightmare to play against deemed too small for International rugby... would have been a star these days

John Hardie: Self inflicted perhaps but thrown under the bus. In England he would only have been named and shamed for a second offence
Jamie Mayer: Big lump of a Centre... disappeared without trace

Cammie Mather: Seemed to be as disruptive off the park as on it but some player

[RDW]

Tom Philip was broken by the SRU's attempt to match the power of bigger French and English teams by encouraging players to bulk up way beyond their natural dimensions. His quads were over-developed to the extend that he suffered significant knee and back injuries. A real shame as he looked the real deal for a season or two at club level.

To be fair a lot of that was his own doing - he hit the gym hard as a teenager and was pretty obsessed with weights, and completely buggered his back in the process.

[tigertattie]

Tom Philip was broken by the SRU's attempt to match the power of bigger French and English teams by encouraging players to bulk up way beyond their natural dimensions. His quads were over-developed to the extend that he suffered significant knee and back injuries. A real shame as he looked the real deal for a season or two at club level.

To be fair a lot of that was his own doing - he hit the gym hard as a teenager and was pretty obsessed with weights, and completely buggered his back in the process.

I got pelters on social media for saying that a bunch of NZ young teenagers were daft bulking up so much in the gym at such an early age.

Apparently my views on weight training at an early age are from the dark ages and the world has since found out that its ok.

It's not!

Resistance training and conditioning as you grow is great, but bulking up like these guys are doing at such a young age is just going to knacker them in later life. Plus they tend to ignore the skills of the game as their "power" compensates for lack of skill. Fine until they come up against adults who are also ripped, but these adults also have the skills.

Anyhoo, if NZ rugby want to focus on beefing up their youngsters like this, bash on. When they run out of players after they reach 25 due to various injuries, they may lament their ethos.

[Tramptastic]

It's one of those things where it is beneficial from a younger age but it's put firm limits on it. Too much at too young an age can be damaging so young people doing weight training need to be carefully tutored through it - More focus on range of movement, flexibility, recovery and diet will have longer term benefits

[bsando]

On the topic of weights, Sutherland is benching 200kg at moment apparently!? Kinghorn and Dean both agreed on the Edinburgh rugby podcast he was the most in shape player at the club currently.

[RDW]

Yeah I've seen that in Instagram. Not sure how much that level of specific weight training will help his rugby but at least it means he's incredibly strong!

He's signed a new contract but hasn't been picked overly much by Cockers this season.

[sensisball]

Sutherland suffered a double, simultaneous rupture of his adductor groin muscles which meant he was confined to a wheel chair for a month. This was followed by extensive rehab. If he is able to bench 200 kg then his recovery must be coming on nicely (assuming his leg exercise numbers are on a similar level). Hopefully the physios and conditioning coaches are making sure he isn't rushing his comeback. Would be great for Edinburgh to have him available for the rest of the season ( maybe for the end of the 6 n's for Scotland?)

[RDW]

I thought he was back fit? He played not so long ago after a long period out. He's just not being getting picked.

[Tramptastic]

Sutherland suffered a double, simultaneous rupture of his adductor groin muscles which meant he was confined to a wheel chair for a month. This was followed by extensive rehab. If he is able to bench 200 kg then his recovery must be coming on nicely (assuming his leg exercise numbers are on a similar level). Hopefully the physios and conditioning coaches are making sure he isn't rushing his comeback. Would be great for Edinburgh to have him available for the rest of the season ( maybe for the end of the 6 n's for Scotland?)

I think this was a historical injury that happened a couple of years ago, it's only recently he's been talking about it and how idiotic the mental side of professional sport can be

[tigertattie]

I thought he was back fit? He played not so long ago after a long period out. He's just not being getting picked.

Yeah he is back and fit.

Shoe seems to be played at every oppertunity but when he needs a rest, Bhatti is the 2nd loosehead

I'm not sure, but I think the last time we saw Sutherland was as a replacement vs the Dragons in November!

[Tramptastic]

Cockerill was speaking about Sutherland getting more game time so theres hope yet!

[RDW]

https://www.edinburghrugby.org/the-clubhouse/official-edinburgh-podcast

I'd recommend the Edinburgh podcast for those who like that kind of thing. Currently listening to the chunk one - he's hilarious. The Schoeman one was entertaining too. Chunk comes on after half an hour.

[RDW]

Speaking of Sutherland he starts tomorrow!

[Tramptastic]

Oh wow, that's a pleasantly changed up team - Tight 5 totally changed, maybe not 1st choice but looks quite good?

1st choice back row, 1st choice backline and no pyrgos!

[Sponsored content]