The Glasgow and Edinburgh General Chat. Discussions are limited to 6 people before 10pm to prevent the spread of Jimboish.

First topic message reminder :

Another chat thread dedicated to speculation, rumination, and general perambulation through the trials and tribulations of the club from the west with no forwards and the club from the east without a backs coach.

One day we'll have more rugby to talk about!

With the euro fixtures cancelled hopefully we can get the 1872 played in one of the next two weekends. We're getting close to a situation where our players are going to be seriously lacking gametime.

IN other news, time to play spot the shiny new blue badge! This should be an easy one.

(p.s. it's not tattie)

Edinburgh confirm the signing of Lang....plus Glenn Young which was a surprise!

Please with that - not sure the weegies will be to see another lock at Edinburgh..

Glen Young from Quins to Edinburgh?

I'm not hugely excited about Lang, but we do need more options at 10. Chamberlain isn't really ready to make the step up, unsurprisingly.

Not sure we need another lock, to add to Gilchrist, Toolis, Hodgson, Carmichael and Ferreira, however let's see what he brings.

Perhaps with Lang we'll see him bring new ideas to the 12 jersey. I like both Dean and, in particular, Taylor, but they are more direct than creative and our backline is crying out for something different.

BigGee wrote:Tom Gordon signs on for a long term deal, which seems to be SRU speak, for 3 years.

Good club player, who may or may not step up to full international level but will do s job for Glasgow

Agree with that. Good player, gives you a specialist option at 7 and won't be done for effort. Doubt he'll cause Watson or Ritchie sleepless nights over the Scotland jersey, but a nice option nonetheless and plenty time to develop.

Assume Glen Young is a replacement for Davidson. Fraser McKenzie is going to be 33 and out of contract in the summer with a number of injuries down the years. If McKenzie is finishing that would leave Gilchrist, Toolis, Carmichael (if he is alright), Hodgson, Young, Sykes and Jupp.

Lang I guess will be the Peter Horne for Edinburgh of starting 12 and covering 10 if needed. Still would like a proper 10 at Edinburgh or a 10/15 but not sure there will be much money for that. Would you like Brandon Thomson?

Cornell Du Preez rumoured to Toulon

They are not what they were, but nevertheless well played Cornell Du Preez! Still an option for us i think.

Ian Keatley has been released from Benetton by muntual consent, appears he wasn't happy there, or the results, and is now heavily linked with Glasgow.

Kingshu wrote:Ian Keatley has been released from Benetton by muntual consent, appears he wasn't happy there, or the results, and is now heavily linked with Glasgow.

Good club player who will keep things going. Would be a good player as backup for any team. Wonder if he regrets leaving Connacht though Carty is the better player for their style.

Benetton just haven't got going losing the first two games in tight games and just seems like their internationals are tired.

Well hd would likrly be better than any other options Glasgow have, at least until Hadtings is fit again. He might be no bad stop gap

Out of curiosity is the Scottish team blips down to WC/Covid hangover or is it more of a structural issue.

Glasgow have gone from Table Tops the Basement dwellers.  While the internationals have had an effect the Glasgow seconds were more than a match for anyone outside of Scarlets, Munster, Ulster and Leinster.  While no one expected them to top Leinster their run has to be a massive worry.  I assume it's a coaching issue as it has only happened since the change.

Edinburgh, I don't know if it's focusing on Europe or the coach has changed from giving the ball to the back three a little to not at all.  They have a similar team to the last few years.  When they finished 5th two years back they had silly losses but this year they just don't seem at the races even at home (apart from Glasgow games)

It has been surprising with the rise of the national team.  Is that maybe the problem that it's hard to get back the club after a good international period.

Edinjburgh - I think are much of a muchness. They had the wind knocked out of them losing the home semi final last season, when they just did not turn up and lost their way a bit. They were then decimated by international call ups but are slowly re discovering their mojo.

Glasgow are a team that had got long in the tooth, while the stars were picked off by other sides and need a bit of rebuilding. The long term needs were not really the priority of the last coach, Rennie and recruitment was disrupted by Covid. Wilson has got a job on his hands, Glasgow still good enough with their A team, but that has been rarely seen this season but lack squad depth atm.

RDW wrote:IN other news, time to play spot the shiny new blue badge! This should be an easy one.

(p.s. it's not tattie)

is too me!

Inserts shiney blue badge for easy access parking!

Glasgow add a few more options as well to bolster the squad/.

Sean Kennedy, who seems to have refound his mojo back in the west, gets an unspecified (for the immediate future) contract. Will probably take that as being to the end of the season.

Johny Mathews, the scouse hooker and Ewan Mcquillan get contracted till the end of the season as well.

Mathews has actually been taking the bench spot recently, ahead of Stewart and Dolokoto, neither of whom is marked as being injured. Might give a clue as to the current pecking order of hookers at Glasgow. He is a mobile modern hooker but am not sure what his throwing is like.

Ewan McQuillan has been in or around pro rugby for a number of years now, without ever really standing out, a good scrumaging prop from what i remember, but not so good around the park. It does make you wonder where DW sees Nicol and Rae in the longer term scheme of things. Nicol has been invisible this season, without ever really impressing in the opportunities he had previously. Rae has also slipped down the pecking order and is behind Pieretto now for the bench option. Where everyone really stands in DWs view will likely become more clear once Fagerson heads off to Scotland duty.

Agree with BG above Brendan on Glasgow. Wilson does not have the same pedigree as Rennie, but it is hard to evaluate when recruitment was limited, academy players being unavailable until recently for some unknown reason and an extended international period with an injury crisis in the back five of the pack has left us poorly resourced. We also lost our scrum coach who helped work wonders with the props. This season looks like a write off

Sean Kennedy and McQuillan are decent squad filler. Rae always seems to be fine as a tighthead when he plays so I don't get why he is not ahead or equal to Pieretto who is nothing special. Nicol was injured early on so may not be in proper shape hence McQuillan.

Not sure what to make of Matthews. Grant Stewart looked like proper competition to Turner the last couple of seasons and he has had an injury as well early on in the season. Matthews has gotten better over the course of the past couple of months but he is 27 and unlikely to make a jump.

I would hope we are not signing several old squad types to try to paper over the cracks rather than give the young guns (Dobie, Nicol and Stewart) an opportunity.

1872 has been rescheduled for this Saturday which is good.

Going back to the Lang/Young chat, Lang is pretty stodgy at international level but is more than good enough for the Pro 14. He'll add some class and experience to the midfield stocks, although not really help with the whole lack of cutting edge thing (you could have SBW in his prime just now and it wouldn't make a difference TBF). It also gives us much better balance at 10 - we've got our first choice capped player (VDW), the up and coming youngster (Chamberlain) and the experienced pro who can do a job if required (Lang).

On Young, Gilchrist and Toolis are our front line options but from then there's plenty up for grabs. McKenzie should really be off at the end of this year as he's been long term injured and is getting on now. Charmichael has been injured for huge periods of his career (he missed the entire 2018/2019 season) and seems to be injured again just now, and has had concussion issues recently which is always a red flag. He's somehow got 64 Edinburgh caps in 4 years even though he's been injured for most of it! He signed a new deal in 2019 which I'm guessing is 2 years so he may have another season.

The saffer lock was brought in just to cover this season. Davidson is off too.

So that probably leave Gilchrist, Toolis, Young, Charmichael, Hodgeson and the young pups which is a decent mix.

Cockers has probably signed more locks over his tenure than any other position!

The other good thing about these two is they're both Scottish, at a time where there's a lot of scruitiny on foreign journeyman signings. One of them is even a pureblood!

https://theburghwatch.blogspot.com/p/squad-list_4.html?m=1

This is a really handy guide to whose contract is up at Edinburgh. I take it as meaning the following are out of contract, noting that there's a number of players with undisclosed contract lengths.

Willemse
Nel
Berghan
McCallum
McKenzie
Ritchie
Mata
Haining
Pyrgos
Groom
VDW
Graham
Sau
Kinghorn

I'd like to keep all the front rows if we can, as they're not so easy to replace. McCallum may be at risk as he's been around a while now and rarely gets picked. Nel will need to decide if he has another year left in him.

McKenzie has been a good servant but its probably time for him to go.

Ritchie isn't an essential signing with Watson signed up and the emergence of Crosbie and others. Wouldn't say no to him, but he may be one that we could afford to lose (there haven't been any rumours however)

Mata isn't the player he once was - hopefully he regains his mojo once his fitness improves. He may still have clubs interested but I bet his value has gone down from this time last year. Another we could potentially afford to lose.

I like Haining and would happily keep him on, especially if we loses Mata.

We probably only need one of Pyrgos or Groom, but would leave us quite inexperienced at 9 if we lose one of them. I wouldn't mind if we kept both if there are no other options in the market. Scott Steele to Edinburgh instead of Groom?

VDW is an important re-signing - hopefully he doesn't do a Duhan and leave as soon as he's become SQ.

Graham and Sau would be good to keep. Sau has been a good squad player during international windows. I'm hopefully Graham's form is a temporary blip / down to Edinburgh's awful attack.

Kinghorn would benefit from a move away but he's a bit of a marquee player so I'm guessing they'll want to keep him.

So looks like the Healy pursuit has fallen flat, and the Weir pursuit also seems to be falling by the wayside a bit. Worrying as Glasgow really need another option at FH (well... An option full stop!) and I don't think keatley is the one, experienced though he is. I guess we'll get another chance to see Thompson in action this weekend because he may well be the long term answer provided he can step up for 80 mins. Looks pretty bleak and must be very difficult to persuade any player to move to Glasgow unless they're looking to play for Scotland. Some decent enough re-signings though, hopefully we'll get more announcements soon, especially regarding FH and FB!

https://www.theoffsideline.com/glasgow-warriors-stand-off/amp/?v=6cc98ba2045f&__twitter_impression=true

Glasgow aiming to sign one, potentially two 10s in the near future.

RDW wrote:https://www.theoffsideline.com/glasgow-warriors-stand-off/amp/?v=6cc98ba2045f&__twitter_impression=true

Glasgow aiming to sign one, potentially two 10s in the near future.

Jade Te Rure and Harry Leonard are both free. 27 and 28 respectively. That's who I'd recommend for Glasgow, to understudy Weir.

Te Rure!!

I'd actually completely forgotten about him.

Thanks FES.

Always happy to help out the scouts at Glasgow

Keatley is probably the most reasonable, affordable option for Glasgow. We are not competing to be top of the league at this point and someone who can run a backline and kick simple penalties is enough for this season. There is no point breaking the bank for a Southern Hemisphere player unless it is because he is SQ.

If we are going to replace B Thomson, we need two FH's and, if Keatley comes over and is competent, that would be fine as a one year pick up to be second choice. P Horne is 32 in October and is at best a third option at this point. R Thompson will hopefully be ready to be a proper third option next year anyway.

Any news on back rows or wingers?

That's yer Duncy back for next season.

Rather him than Keatley.

Good news about Duncy, my wife's favourite player!

Thats good news. Meatball has done well down south and become the player he had potential to be. I actually prefer him to Hastings right now

Wonderful news about Meatball
Will he be up to the job of being the first choice 10 and mentoring young Ross Thompson?

We still need one more established 10 though. Even if to get us through this season.

I am not against taking Keatley on a short term deal and seeing if the fire still burns. He is not going to be expensive as his stock has never been lower, so i don't see it as a huge risk. He would have a contract to play for which would incentivise him as well.

I can't really see us picking up another functioning FH at this short notice.

Good news on Chunk Weir. Glasgow at least have one stand off for next season now!

Chunk! Chunk!
Meatball is twice the player Chunk was.
Well twice the neck.

Oh, Chunk ?
The same Chunk that introduced himself to his first squad meeting by announcing: "Ma name's Chunk and nae c*** kens me" ?

https://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/rugby/13081652.jacobsen-retirement-raises-question-of-morale-in-camp/

That's a sizeable, belligerent pair of shoes Weir would be filling.
They don't make 'em like that any more.

That should of course have been Chunky Weir, to give him his full name.

So first half he'll be at fly half then he'll be moving forward to replace pieretto while Thompson plays at FH. Pretty good acquisition lads, the man is a machine!

Well there we go - Jamie Ritchie signs the "longest contract in club history" for Edinburgh.

'Longest contract in club's history' in the current lexicon of doublespeak coming from the SRU - you would imagine that is 4 years!

Good bit of business to tie him down. Likely a future club and international captain.

Bit silly for them to make a big deal of that then not actually say the length of the deal in the press release.

I'm guessing 5!

Ritchie and Watson are big signings.
Especially after some of the stuff coming out from leavers about cockers management style.

RDW wrote:Well there we go - Jamie Ritchie signs the "longest contract in club history" for Edinburgh.

Aye, Mbawza is some player! The long term deal is confirmation that he's an itch Cockers doesn't want to scratch.

Mbawza is a great player and signing.

He covers 6 and 7 and is a great pairing with Watson. Also if Watson does go off then Ritchie slides over to 7 and some big brute, if we ever find him, comes off the bench to 6/8.

Great signing. Scotland's premier club side going from strength to strength.

Especially after some of the stuff coming out from leavers about cockers management style.

Which is? I have heard nothing and would be interested

TJ wrote:

Especially after some of the stuff coming out from leavers about cockers management style.

Which is?  I have heard nothing and would be interested

Well to be frank I think some of the players were a bit upset about things like having to walk from the changing rooms to to the training field where previously they were taking thier cars. Thats about the extent of it as far as I know.

Unless of course folk are still meaning the initial period where Cockers was enforcing a defense based game plan and the backs werent happy that they were not getting the ball!

Cockerill's squad management has been poor at time in terms of not finding game time for Marfo and then Bhatti (not sure about the contract with Scott if that was his responsibility). Rotation is probably his weakness though not to the same extent as Solomons. Saying that McCallum can probably feel hard done by.

Other than that though Marfo had nothing against him and said you always knew where you stood. Bhatti in the article said he knew what he was asked to do and was stuck behind Schoeman and a resurgent Sutherland who just outperformed him.

Cockerill seems like a hard man to please but you always know what is expected of you. Remember listening to Goode talk on his podcast about Mike Ford when Burgess called M Ford a snake. Goode was saying Ford lied to him about his son coming to Bath to be first choice during negotiations and it broke the first rule of having trust between player and coach. Could never play for him after that.

I would be interested to know if there was something more though.

Cockers by all accounts seems to be tough but fair. Can't really ask for much more than that.

His rotation policy may not be conducive to bringing on players form a Scotland point of view but his job is to get Edinburgh to win games. He'd be sacked if Edinburgh weren't giving the SRU some victories so we can't blame him for wanting to put his strongest players out there week in week out

Glen Bryce giving out a parting shot on Instagram before heading off to the States, basically saying that Glasgow wanted to keep him and offer him a contract but it was vetoed by the SRU.

Hard to know what to make of that, he had been playing well enough for Glasgow, but at 29 and never likely to be an international, maybe they preferred to make the space for Mclean and Smith to come through and get the gametime that they need which might be better for Glasgow and Scotland in the longer term. They will also be cheaper options you would imagine in the short term at any rate.

The anti SRU journalists around have all been lining up on Twitter to condemn this interference!

Rory Hughes, just in case there was ever a chance of him returning to play up here, finally burnt that bridge once and for all, with his comment 'Fu#k the SRU' in the messages accompanying the post!

Hughes was a decent enough player but was ultimately a consistently injured third choice wing when they finally called time. How many times did he actually play in the two years prior to not offering him a contract? There was a player in there, but behind the scenes he did not sound like a choir boy. I think he is out of rugby now which suggests no one was willing to take him on at the money he felt was worth it.

The contracts work by the SRU has been questionable, particularly around the Matt Scott situation. Bryce is someone Glasgow could have used for a couple of years as a stop gap whilst O Smith, McLean and O Melville get up to speed. On the other hand, I guess Seymour and L Jones may be around as the elder stateman with a bit more pedigree. Problem with having two clubs and being tight on money, I doubt he will be the only one who we could have used and won't have the money to take on.

match time, eh?
Only top level Rugby this weekend. Will have to adopt a team to support.....