Edinburgh v Glasgow 22/08/20 - bring the hand gel, there's going to be a lot of contact

First topic message reminder :

So the first plague games are to be played in less than two weeks, provided Scotland isn't overrun with the 'rona in that time.

Teams:
Edinburgh

TBC
Glasgow

TBC

Edinburgh are playing for a home semi.

Glasgow are playing for a slim chance.

Who would you like to see? Who should be starting on form (from 6 months ago...)? What changes do you think we'll see from DW? With Lance gone will we see Chamberlain on the bench? Will any more of the young new talent feature?

It's been a while since we've been able to discuss an actual game so am definitely relishing this.

and Hastings gets one back immediately

Good response from Glasgow

ooph! Warriors hit back fast! poor from Edinburgh to concede so quickly

All came from a very good strip on Groom (i think) at the restart following the Edinburgh try

Hastings misses that one, poorish kick

15-13 Glasgow

Fagerson looks such a better player than he was a few seasons ago, improved sharpness making good decisions as well as carrying and scrummaging well

Dean's kicked the ball more than Huw Jones so far haha

Glasgow hold out a promising Edinburgh attack

HT

Glasgow look well organised in defence and probably have the edge in the set plays

Ritchie Gray has looked pretty tidy so far and looks at home with Cummings in the row,

Huw Jones seems to have done everything asked of him so far and almost made a clean break as well.

Understandably, neither backline looks to be firing yet, might get more chance if the players tire and the game opens up in second half.

Anyone's game atm

15-13 to the rugby club at half time.
Mark Bennett has looked very sharp. Glasgow being penalised at almost every breakdown. Luvvies unimaginative and one dimensional in attack.
Big Ritchie looks fit and hungry.

Agree with comments above, DVDM needs to be more involved, he had one touch in that first half in close quarters and one that was after the whistle blew. Kinghorn, Dean, Bennett all working well, just need the pack to step it up a bit more

That was a howler of a kick from Blairhorn

And now a comically awful forward pass by Dean!

Berghan gets caught with his hands in the cookie jar!

Stupid penalty!

Hastings lines up the kick

and misses

More good play from Shuggy in the build up to that, he has looked very comfortable at FB

Finally Duhan gets into the game! Nice try for Groom

20 minutes for Shiel now, Groom off after his second try

Another pen for VDW

23-15 Edinburgh, a 2 score game now

Ryan Wilson in a fight? Well I never!

Good fun to see Haining giving as good as he gets though!

Haining a bit lucky there, he grabbed him round the neck

Ryan Wilson just doesn’t use his brain eh.

Chasing a game and he’d rather waste time trying to “meet folk off the bus”

How this idiot has so many caps is beyond me

There we go Charlie Shiel, cracking try!

That was a good try, Sheil showing he is a good broken field runner as well. Some tired tackles at the end of the first game back though

That's the game to Edinburgh, does that mean they have the home semi?

Chamberlain on for the last 4 minutes

Well not much you can say about that.

Edinburgh once again take home the 1872 cup. Glasgow again left wondering why they can’t beat the true rugby team of Scotland and are left living in the past.

Efficient game by Edinburgh doing what they needed to do to win and win well by scoring double the points the hair gel wearing fake tan smothered boo boys from the west.

30-15 final score, VDW player of the match. Another 1872 cup victory? Ah go on then!

Well done to the Luvvies, not much of a game, but they did what they needed and hopefully that is a part of their build up towards their home playoff semi

Enough good play from the warriors to give us hope for the future.

Expect to see a different team next week and a bit of experimentation from DW

Glasgow’s defence was generally very good until they tired at the end. Jones went well at 15, one high ball knocked on but a solid showing that aside. Some good Edinburgh performances; Bennett, Watson, Kinghorn, Groom & VDW. Very strong cameo from Shiel

Well.
Edinburgh remind me of Leeds Utd circa 1972. Grinding out 1-0 wins, doing just enough, leaving opposition fans baffled and disappointed.
We could be looking at the next pro 14 champions here.
Sheil's try was the highlight of the match.
Enjoy your breakfast Flounder.

The bench seemed to make the difference for Edinburgh. Changing the 2 props at HT gave them the impetuous in the second half, our front row subs were no where as good. Sheil made an impact and Hodgson had a very solid game from right when he came on.

Not a thriller but good to see everyone playing again. Sheil looks like he could be getting close to a Scotland call up, that was a fantastic individual try from him. I think Glasgow should keep Jones at 15 he was good and he'll just keep getting better. They need to tighten up their backline play though they got turned over too easily at times.

Was hardly a 1-0 win. 30-15 is a spanking by anyone’s standard

I’m not sure Edinburgh can get passed Leinster. We’re probably the only team in the league that has a chance though.

Looks like Munster have a chance, especially with De Allende. I wouldn’t rule out Scarlets yet. Slow start for them today but did the job albeit against poor opposition.

Well well. Glasgow x2 = Edinburgh.

This was all about the bench. The replacement Edinburgh front row added so much more than Glasgow, and the efficiency of the Edinburgh pack really decided the game. Just a little bit more familiar and better drilled.

Some comments on individual players:

On the plus side:

Z Fagerson was good for Glasgow, as was Jones at 15 and Brown at hooker. Hastings was the classiest player on the field. Wonderful to see Ritchie Gray back. Not a bad first shift, albeit a few rusty moments. He'll get better.

For Edinburgh I thought Gilchrist put in a shift, and Watson was the best breakdown player on the field. Groom and Shiel were both very good, and VDW was solid. Duhan had little to do, and did it well, and Bennett looked very sharp.

On the negative:

Harley isn't dynamic enough to play in the back row, and Wilson is a liability. His only contribution is to get into scraps and collar a superior player in the hope of both getting yellow carded. A busted flush. Generally the Glasgow bench added little. Gordon was anonymous and I think we all know that Bryce is stretching himself to justify a pro contract. Seymour and Tagive need to be busier.

McInally missed 2 throws. Not good enough for a potential Lion. Carrying was fine but get a haircut. Mata was a bit too loose, miles better than Wilson but still below par. Sau is just keeping Graham's shirt warm.

Also meant to mention Kinghorn. Mixed bag. A few high profile errors, but again a few really nice touches in attack. Hogg will not be too worried about his challenger in my view. I know Hogg makes a few mistakes, but until Kinghorn cuts out the mistakes he'll struggle to win that Scotland XV jersey.

Munster lost with a BP, so I think that is Edinburgh into a home semi

They are 5 points clear with a better PD and more wins.

Hard to see Edinburgh not picking up anything from next weekend either

Thanks! Am watching Leinster vs Munster on delay!!

I agree though. Plenty of action coming up at Murrayfield.

Normal service has resumed!

Now Ryan Wilson and Nick Haining get embroiled in some fistycuffs. Don't envy referee Mike Adamson trying to separate those two big boys.

As Peter Wright points out in commentary, maybe not the time for Wilson to get involved when his team is eight points down

.
Enjoying the BBC live text!

Edinburgh V Ulster appears to be confirmed now.
Edinburgh much improved, but have to admit I'm happier Ulster going to Edinburgh rather than Limerick. I think we have the potentional to win away, but Edinburgh will rightly be the favourites. Hopefully Ulsters two games sees the squad get match fit with no injuries and we have a cracker of a semi to look forward too.

RDW wrote:

Normal service has resumed!

As the flounder I wish to make a formal complaint to you sir.

I was targeted by a group of dissidents, they call themselves “the warrior nation”. They routinely harangued me and kept saying things like “only Glasgow are a real rugby team” and “Edinburgh don’t stand a chance against the once and future champions”

This terrible targeted assault was the kind of shameful mud slinging Nonsense you’d expect from the trump election campaign team. Terrible terrible way to behave.

If I wasn’t rolling around on the floor laughing at how these poor poor people either cling to the past or shout foul that the SRU favours Edinburgh, I’d demand action is taken.

But watching them build themselves up only to fall flat on their faces time and time again is justice enough.

Just watched the game - not the greatest spectacle but that's to be expected for an 1872 and a first game in 5+ months. Ultimately there wasn't a vast difference between the teams but the known strengths and weaknesses came to pass. Obviously we shouldn't really look too much into one game, but I think it was a good indicator on the state of both teams.

Edinburgh absolutely destroyed Glasgow at the breakdown, which was no surprise when you saw the teamsheets. Edinburgh had breakdown savvy players throughout the team whereas Glasgow basically had Fraser Brown and that's it.

The front 5s were pretty even, with Jamie Hodgson making a good impact. I thought the much maligned (by weegies) Gilchrist was the pick of the bunch with a huge shift. McInally wasn't great - he didn't look fit yet, neither did Schoeman. Fagerson looked good.

Backrow was a huge difference. Compare Mata's huge carries and Crosbie and Watson's breakdown work with Glasgow's, well, nothing. Harley is no longer a 6, Fagerson isn't a 7 and Wilson does nothing but get in scraps. Brown look far more assured and a greater presence as Captain.

Halfbacks were petty even. Both 10s had a good game. If VDW gets injured we're not going to do well - it's as simple as that. Charlie Sheil's try was superb. He should be the regular bench spot now - there's no point having both pyrgos and groom.

I was impressed with the Edinburgh centres who offered a lot more than Glasgow. Dean is a real classy 12. Bennett looked sharp but very much still looks to be living off scraps and turnovers. We need more plays to bring him into the game (I'm looking at you here Hodge).

Back 3 was a clear Edinburgh win too. Jones did well at fullback but that just underlines how good a player he is - he needs to be at 13. Edinburgh had the X factor in the back 3 and that got us the tries we need. Kinghorn made a couple of bad mistakes but also looked really dangerous. Seymour was anonymous, as was Tagive going forwards. VDM pretty much did very little but also had some game changing contributions, and that's what you get with him!

Bench was a no contest too - both teams were badly flagging in the 2nd half. Edinburgh's subs stepped up the intensity, Glasgow's made bugger all difference.

So Edinburgh will be pretty happy but know there's a lot of work to do. I watched extended highlights of the Leinster game and it was a huge step up in intensity. Ulster will be tough to beat, Leinster a mammoth challenge. We need to make huge strides in the next few weeks to stand a chance.

Glasgow have plenty rebuilding to do, that's for sure. Some of the foundations are there - the front 5 is good and the defence was generally solid. For Glasgow to play the way they want to play though they need a much better backrow, more impact in the centres and X factor in the backs. Kyle Steyn will help with the latter but that's basically it. Nakarawa will obviously add a lot of class but not enough to make Glasgow the team they used to be.

Also, why was there a stadium announcer when there was no crowd?? Who was he announcing to?

Just looked at the player stats - Tommy Seymour didn't touch the ball!!

Ryan Wilson made 5 carries for 0m. Harley made 1 carry in 50 minutes.

Gilchrist made 20 tackles, 6 more than the 2nd highest tackler (Gray).

The Edinburgh backline runs, passes and carries are way up on their unwashed counterparts.

RDW wrote:Just looked at the player stats - Tommy Seymour didn't touch the ball!!

Ryan Wilson made 5 carries for 0m. Harley made 1 carry in 50 minutes.

Gilchrist made 20 tackles, 6 more than the 2nd highest tackler (Gray).

The Edinburgh backline runs, passes and carries are way up on their unwashed counterparts.

So you’re saying that the stars and the scoreboard show Edinburgh are the better rugby team?

Edinburgh have underrated players like gilchrist putting in good shifts while Glasgow have “bantz” from the likes of Ryan Wilson

Edinburgh did the right things to grind out the win and deserved it in the end. I'd say there were a few better Glasgow performances though, especially in the first half. Agree that Wilson added sweet FA to the game. Why he's still picked as Captain is beyond me, it really highlights how lacking weegies are in the back row, and was something we were all concerned about given the lack of key signings. Fagerson came out with credit, as did brown in the front row. Kebble didn't really convince me. I reckon you're being a bit harsh on Schoe RDW, I thought he looked good when he came on.

A surprise for me was that I think Jones outperformed his opposite man, although he needs to work on getting up in the air for high ball. As you said it shows what a waste it is we don't use him for centre. Talking of centre Glasgow's were just awful. Horne, who now wears a scrum cap? Just looked like he'd got lost on the way to the minis game and ended up playing with the adults. Grigg wasn't much better. Tagive was absolutely anonymous. I'd rather see the new young lad get a shot.

I think my combined xv after sat would look like:

Schoemann
Brown
Fagerson
Cummings
Gilchrist
Crosbie
Watson
Mata

Groome
Hastings

VdM
Dean
Bennett
Sau
Jones

Neily, I agree with most of your summation. The front fives were pretty even in the first 40. Evans Turner Rae were not quite there. I thought the back row for Glasgow lacked a proper 7 and this allied to the new breakdown enforcement caused Hastings lots of problems. Some people said Hastings was a class act yesterday but I thought he ran down too many blind alleys. Slow ball, aggressive line speed leaving him no options outside? Our backs had very little ball and subsequently did very little.
Top Mark's to the Luvvies.