Glasgow and Edinburgh 30 - Starting the new season with 2 wins - Long may it continue

First topic message reminder :

Well both Scotland's pro teams got off the mark with a W this weekend, though probably fair to say that Glasgow's was slightly more pleasing on the eye!

Still not to be sniffed at and probably a while since it last happened.

A good omen for the season, let's hope so, though early season games are not always a predictor of longer term performance. Both sides still got plenty of players to bring back into the fold and a lot of improvement to make.

Roll on 2023/24!

EWT Spoons wrote:Regarding the recruitment, I actually don’t think it’s any better or worse than a number of other teams.

In some ways we’ve done well, it would be hard to argue that Schoeman, Duhan (first time round), the players you’ve mentioned and a number of others, aren’t really good signings, but we’ve also had some absolute shockers, I won’t name names, but I think anyone who has watched any Scottish rugby would be able to identify a good number of them.  During Solly’s reign it was particularly high in the Poopie column.

Whilst I was typing this out though, it occurred to me the biggest challenge we’ve had is at 9 & 10.  If you exclude Blair just due to how long ago he played for us, the best 9 we’ve had has been Laidlaw, who had his faults and would never be described as world class, but he was certainly a very good 9.

As for 10 well I genuinely can’t think of a 10 in the last decade who I would flag up as a being anything other than being average.  Healy might turn out to be good, as he showed flashes of it at Munster, but so far at Edinburgh he’s not been a player who I would hang my hat on.  Mind you with the way Everitt has the team playing I’m not sure any 10 could flourish.

I dunno, I think chamberlain showed great promise before getting dumped out. Tovey was pretty decent. Sheil looked good until he actually started regularly playing. Vellacott looked good until he started regularly playing. It seems to very much be a pattern.

I'm no longer positive about Healy - he drifts out of games too much and isn't showing anything in attack. Again it might be coaching, but he's been a disappointment so far IMO after a promising start.

NeilyBroon wrote:

EWT Spoons wrote:Regarding the recruitment, I actually don’t think it’s any better or worse than a number of other teams.

In some ways we’ve done well, it would be hard to argue that Schoeman, Duhan (first time round), the players you’ve mentioned and a number of others, aren’t really good signings, but we’ve also had some absolute shockers, I won’t name names, but I think anyone who has watched any Scottish rugby would be able to identify a good number of them.  During Solly’s reign it was particularly high in the Poopie column.

Whilst I was typing this out though, it occurred to me the biggest challenge we’ve had is at 9 & 10.  If you exclude Blair just due to how long ago he played for us, the best 9 we’ve had has been Laidlaw, who had his faults and would never be described as world class, but he was certainly a very good 9.

As for 10 well I genuinely can’t think of a 10 in the last decade who I would flag up as a being anything other than being average.  Healy might turn out to be good, as he showed flashes of it at Munster, but so far at Edinburgh he’s not been a player who I would hang my hat on.  Mind you with the way Everitt has the team playing I’m not sure any 10 could flourish.

I dunno, I think chamberlain showed great promise before getting dumped out. Tovey was pretty decent. Sheil looked good until he actually started regularly playing. Vellacott looked good until he started regularly playing. It seems to very much be a pattern.

I would have to disagree with you on that one.

Chamberlain was just potential, it never panned out, he might have gotten there, but he wasn't ready for the step up to being the starting 10 for a pro side.  Tovey wasn't good, he was okay at best.  Sheil is quick but his game management isn't there.  If a player is 'good' until he starts actually playing, then he's not good.

RDW wrote:I'm no longer positive about Healy - he drifts out of games too much and isn't showing anything in attack. Again it might be coaching, but he's been a disappointment so far IMO after a promising start.

I still think his biggest problem is his 70s supply teacher tache.

RDW wrote:I'm no longer positive about Healy - he drifts out of games too much and isn't showing anything in attack. Again it might be coaching, but he's been a disappointment so far IMO after a promising start.

Welcome to the club. He might improve, but so far I've seen nothing that suggests he's anything other than a fairly average club player.

A.top class 9 would go a long way. Vellacot ain't it, Price is past it and Sheil is lacking in the basics. I think making Velacott co captain was a mistake, and you wonder if he would have done that if he knew Price was coming.

Oh, and a decent centre!

But that all counts for nothing if our tactics are just to do one out passes all game and run head first into the defence.

But this is where I struggle.

Vellacott is 28. He was once a regular part of the English premiership highlight reel. He came to Edinburgh bringing that same form. Now he's on a par with pyrgos. Something has definitely gone wrong there, he's definitely de-skilled.

Look at mark Bennett. Came in with a real point to prove, looked hungry and was making a big impact. Now seems uninterested.

Look at the players who have left, like Bradbury who have really upped their game. Darge another example, given the opportunity in Glasgow grabbed it with both hands.

The players seem to believe, like us, that Edinburgh is a career graveyard, to the point where I worry if a Scottish qualified player joins them they'll be ruined at what should be the peak of their career.

Whilst I don’t disagree with you, that certain players probably do regress at Edinburgh, I don’t necessarily think it really applies to the players you’ve listed.

Vellacott could be part of a highlight real at Edinburgh (and has been) but highlight reels don’t automatically apply to a full game performance.  Vellacott is still the best 9 at Edinburgh, but he’s not a particularly good one.  I would also say he’s still significantly better than Pyrgos.

Bennett came in with a snapped ACL (his 2nd ACL snap), missed a chunk of the season he joined us, he then played a handful of games at the end of the season. In the first or second match of the following season he tore a hamstring and was out for months, only making the last few games of that season.  The poor lad has had so many injuries during what was probably his prime.  He’s now 31 and is playing outside a 9 & 10 who don’t pass to him primarily due to the gameplan.  For the season or two he had a coach who played attacking rugby (Mike Blair) he was getting the ball regularly and was even in conversation of additional Scotland caps.

Bradbury – Was generally brilliant at Edinburgh, he got multiple Scotland caps (19) because of his performances for us.  All he’s done is continue that form at Bristol and incidentally hasn’t featured for Scotland since he left.
Darge - Couldn’t get into the Edinburgh team as he was behind several international players, his game didn’t improve once he left, he just got a chance to play.  Which is no reflection on him or Edinburgh, there are only so many backrow positions and he was directly up against Watson, who went on to become a B&I lion.

Perpignan are looking for a SH, with Danny Care and/or Ali Price on their radar.

A move to France might not be a bad thing for Price as his Scotland career comes to its end. It is not clear if either of the Scottish teams really want/need him now and are certainly unlikely to pay top dollar for him now.

Sean Everitt is going on about Nel retiring at the end of the season and Edinburgh looking for a replacement, which is awkward because the man himself has been dodging the question and there's been no official announcement...

There has just been an official announcement!

More a case of slight mistiming I expect!

Just read that Everitt interview and he also says he is keen to hang on to Ali Price and they are looking for a replacement for Bill Mata.

Magnus Bradbury has been tipped to come back up the road to fill that role.

What a legend Nel has been. When players retire I'd like to think what state the club / country would have been if that player didn't exist, and it's fair to say both Edinburgh Scotland's would have been in a poor state for many years without him. One of our best ever scrummagers and very mobile. Great bloke by all accounts too!

Team's oot for the Scarlets' match.

McBeth Hiddlestone Fagerson
Williamson Cummings
Miller Darge Venter
Horne Weir
Cancilliere McDowell Jordan Rowe
McKay

Bench
Mathews, Dell, Sordoni, Manjezi Brown, Gordon Dobie Munn

First things first; that 23 should be too strong for Scarlets. The back three is pretty much our first choice. With Shug'n'Shona crocked then we are playing our first choice (by necessity) centres. With Jordan at 12 I'm surprised there is no place for Ross Thompson. It looks like the General would rather shift Jordan to 10 and bring in Munn rather than play Thompson. I get the feeling that RT may be spending a lot of time perusing Rightmove these days. It's a strong pack, although I'm surprised that Sordoni and Ragnar are both there. Ragnar could do with a rest after the Six Nations, I would have preferred him on the bench tomorrow, and Sordoni looked like he had hurt himself last week. McBeth and Dell at loose head look good. In the back row I would hope Mullet replaces Darge as soon as possible.

Secondly, looking ahead to the Quins match...
No sign of Gray the Elder.
Turner, Dempsey and Fagerson being rested.
No sign of Wee Shona.
No trace of Ross Thompson at all.

So barring injuries next week we'll probably see
McBeth
Turner
Ragnar
Cummings
Williamson
Fagerson
Dempsey
Darge

Hornito
Meatball

Seba
Jordan
Stafford
Rowe
McKay

10-13 could be where the Quins think we're vulnerable. Meatball v Marcus Smith

More of the same from Edinburgh going down to the Sharks 23-13. Put a huge effort in and really fronted up but totally blunt attack, stupid mistakes, poor errors etc etc.

You’d think with all the time Ryan Wilson spent in Glasgow that he’d be able to pronounce it correctly

Well the Warriors have given Scarlets a good old fashion thrashing tonight.

Hat trick for Kyle Rowe

Glasgow play for the whole 80 mins for a change and funnily enough, it work!

I'm guessing Scarlets were dire again then?

Welshmushroom wrote:I'm guessing Scarlets were dire again then?

Not great in truth, which is a shame after they won a tough game last week.

They were just a bit outclaased tonight and their heads unfortunately did drop.

Tough trip to SA for Edinburgh. Need to find a way to get more out of their attack by the sounds of comments on here. In truth the squad needs gutting in certain positions and perhaps a new attack coach would be helpful?

bsando wrote:Tough trip to SA for Edinburgh. Need to find a way to get more out of their attack by the sounds of comments on here. In truth the squad needs gutting in certain positions and perhaps a new attack coach would be helpful?

It's maddening - our attacking shape is literally one out passes and run straight into defence. That's schoolboy amateur stuff never mind pro!

One of the big intrigues about next weeks euro clash between Warriors and Quins is that Danny Wilson is now part of the Quins coaching team. Here he is talking to Mark Palmer in the Times about that match and his Glasgow exit.



Danny Wilson is too long in the tooth — and now too far removed from the grim final days of his Scotstoun reign — for the Harlequins head coach to attach any additional significance to Friday’s meeting with Glasgow Warriors.

For the rest of us, however, the affable Englishman’s presence on the touchline lends an extra layer of intrigue to a Heineken Champions Cup last-16 tie that already seemed rife with possibility.

Wilson has declined all previous invitations to discuss the manner of his departure from Glasgow in June 2022, two days after a 76-14 URC quarter-final mauling at the hands of Leinster, but as he breaks his silence on that period, any rancour or resentment appears long gone.

The 47-year-old from Western-super-Mare, who had previously been the Scotland forwards coach, speaks with the enthusiasm and confidence of a man whose team have regularly impressed all season — at least up until a two-month break interrupted Harlequins’ momentum and the first game back last Saturday brought a 52-7 thrashing by Saracens.

“I’ve moved on,” Wilson says, referencing Glasgow. “I had six months [last season] at Leicester [as a coaching consultant] where we made a Premiership semi-final and I really enjoyed my time. Then this period with Harlequins has been really good as well, right up until last weekend.



“It’s a great club full of great people so my only focus is on doing well with them, regardless of who we are coming up against. Quins invest really well into their whole structure: their squad, their youth, their staffing structure, and their facilities. It’s a club set up for success, even if you’ll always get something like that Sarries game coming along as a smack in the face to remind you that things can change quickly.”

Wilson’s Glasgow experience is perhaps the perfect example. The post initially seemed like something of a poisoned chalice, with the man who won the Challenge Cup with Cardiff taking charge at the height of the pandemic and initially being able to interact with his players only over Zoom and then in a strictly controlled Murrayfield bubble. The Warriors had reached the Pro14 final a little more than 12 months previously, but Dave Rennie’s recruitment and squad management had left plenty to be desired. And that’s before we even mention the longer-term failures to replace the likes of Finn Russell, Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray.

Despite regularly being denied the services of a host of international players, and a number of further Covid-related interruptions, Wilson got Glasgow playing and made a couple of significant close-season additions in the shape of Jack Dempsey and Sione Tuipulotu.


Right up until the turn of the year, Glasgow seemed well set. They beat Exeter Chiefs at home in the Champions Cup, and lost only narrowly, twice, to La Rochelle, the eventual winners. Even after a Devon shellacking by the Chiefs in January, the Warriors stabilised to be sitting in third place in the league come mid-April.

They then lost back-to-back in South Africa against the Stormers and Bulls. So far, so relatively untroubling. Next was a narrow defeat away to Lyon in the quarter-finals of a Challenge Cup, which the French side would go on to win. The first real sign of trouble was the non-performance which brought a 28-11 loss to Edinburgh in a match that had been switched from February to May to create a big Murrayfield occasion for the final day of the regular season. Glasgow’s fourth (away) reverse on the spin delivered them to the quarter-final nobody wanted, against Leinster at the RDS.



“I should never have agreed to that fixture change,” Wilson says. “It meant four successive away games in the run-in and that’s when the wheels came off. Edinburgh was the first one where I felt we had played really badly, and then Leinster was a perfect storm.

“They had lost the European final the week before and were desperate to recover something from the season. We were way off where we had been all year. When the scoreboard gets away from you, you start chasing it to try to make it look respectable, then that high-risk [style] leads to a couple of intercepts.

“I just remember looking at the scoreboard thinking, ‘Jesus, this is getting worse and worse and worse’. As head coach, I have to take responsibility for that game. I didn’t think it would cost me my job, but I knew I would have to take responsibility for what was an embarrassing day and a scoreline that rightly upset a lot of people.

“I take that on the chin and accept the responsibility of that game, and therefore it cost me my job. I’ll always look back and think it was a real shame we got to a quarter-final then produced that kind of performance. If we’d lost to Leinster, 40-odd to 20-odd, I’d probably still be there.”

Dublin was on the Saturday and on the Monday, Mark Dodson, the Scottish Rugby Union’s chief executive, headed west to pull the trigger. He is said to have gathered the players in the dressing room to tell them that their weakness had cost a good man his job.



“I do have some fond memories of my time there and there was lots I did enjoy, mainly good relationships with good people,” Wilson says. “I took over in the middle of Covid and felt that we were building a squad, investing in a lot of youth like Ross Thompson, Rory Darge and Ollie Smith. The year I got sacked, we lost two games at home, to Leinster and La Rochelle, the Heineken Cup finalists. Our home record was really strong.

“There are obviously frustrations as well, but ultimately it ended badly and that’s rugby, that’s sport.”

With time having passed, and Franco Smith having more than made his own mark on the Glasgow set-up, I wonder out loud how valuable, how current, Wilson’s inside track can be this week.

“There are a lot of signings I made there where I studied those players inside out, the Jack Dempseys, the Siones, Josh McKay. I know those players very well and obviously a lot of the others as well. I signed a fair few of the other players before I left but never got to work with them.

“In my time there, the commitment to spending money on the squad grew and grew and grew. Obviously I missed the tail end of that. They are now a big-budget squad with some quality internationals.

“Any players I’ve been involved with — in any team — who go on to do really well, play for their country and all the rest of it, that’s fantastic and I’m really proud for those boys.”

Wilson’s wife and young daughters are still living in Gullane, where their near neighbours and close friends are the Tandy family. Steve of that clan joined Scotland as defence coach in early 2020, just as Wilson was preparing to move to Glasgow.

Even as things soured there, he retained a reputation as an excellent technical coach, at home among the nuts and bolts of elite forward play. His imprint in these areas is obvious even in a Harlequins side who, like this week’s visitors, are set up to indulge their expansive instincts.

“That’s been both teams’ style for a long time now. That style is at times high-risk, high-reward, that’s the reality for both teams, but it also makes for a very exciting encounter. But both teams have also scored a lot of tries from driving lineouts. You’ve got two good set-pieces that will go hard against each other, and two sides that play very quick breakdown rugby. Us and Saracens have had the fastest breakdown in the Premiership this year in attack, and Glasgow won’t be far off the same in the URC.

“You’ll see a fair contest around the breakdown, set-piece and everything that goes with it. The high-risk, high-reward leads to turnovers and transition rugby which again can be extremely exciting — not so much for a coach, but certainly for the supporters.


“Europe has gone well for us [with big wins over Ulster and Cardiff and an away success at Racing 92 in the pool phase]. We’ve had some really big results, some really big performances.

“There’s no tougher opposition than the one we’re going to face. One that’s full of internationals, with a huge budget compared to most teams in Europe. Glasgow are in a good place, and it’s impressive the set-up they’ve got now in terms of the player depth and the number of internationals they have available. I imagine they’ll come with 12 internationals at least.

“It all makes for a great encounter and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Well, a fairly typical weekend: Luvvies losing limply, Warriors score a hatful of tries and win.

I'm amazed that no-one has mentioned the brightest moment from PYS. Meatball took the ball up to the line, shaped to pass and skinned the defender on the outside. Having made the line break he drew the next man before passing. He looked just like a dashing ball carrying 10. Then in true Meatball style he did a little hop, skip and jump to celebrate beating a defender.

Which is more than Henry Healey managed yesterday.

RDW wrote:

bsando wrote:Tough trip to SA for Edinburgh. Need to find a way to get more out of their attack by the sounds of comments on here. In truth the squad needs gutting in certain positions and perhaps a new attack coach would be helpful?

It's maddening - our attacking shape is literally one out passes and run straight into defence. That's schoolboy amateur stuff never mind pro!

At least if we were hard to beat that would be something, but whilst our defence is reasonable, it's not good enough to offset offering nothing in attack. Not sure what Everitt has done to justify a contract extension, but I really hope this is part of some wider plan, where we learn to play a compact game before we build on that to add some attacking flair. But I suspect I'm clutching at straws.

Edinburgh have signed Tight Head prop Paul Hill (29) from Saints, joining this summer on a 2 year deal

Edinburgh sign tighthead Paul Hill from Northampton Saints. 200 premiership appearances and still only 29 so right in his propping peak - good signing.

We also signed D'Arcy Rae and Angus Williams on contract extensions. I'd forgotten the former was even at the club!

Edit - snap with spoons

So when Paul Hill was coming on to the scene I really thought he would become a top draw tighthead. But over the last few years I just havent seen him realize his potential.

He's probably better than Nel though so I would say its an upgrade. But what I think Edinburgh should have done is look for some 20+ stone south sea islander.

'Better than Nel' is a bold call given everything he's done for Edinburgh and Scottish rugby!

Unless you mean current 38 year old Nel...

It'd be pretty darn useful for Scotland if Hill has a secret nan from Dunfermline. He's a better TH than Millar-Mills that's for sure.

It's been an odd career for Hill. He looked like an absolute bull in the loose early doors. Then he faded for a while and was a bench player for Saints. Then he solidified his basics and became a reliable set-piece prop. It's a good signing for Edinburgh I think, if not that noteworthy.

The issue with the old "20-odd stone islander" recruitment ploy is that rugby cotton on quite a few years ago now. The Tigers offy has that suggestion all the time. Our pack severely lacks ball carriers outside a few internationals. There's often the, "Send a scout over to Fiji and find some guys who are too big for Sevens", idea. Everyone else is doing it these days though. Those 20+ stone islanders are in academies, worth a s**t ton of money nowadays.

king_carlos wrote:It'd be pretty darn useful for Scotland if Hill has a secret nan from Dunfermline. He's a better TH than Millar-Mills that's for sure.

I'm about to caveat what I'm about to say, that there is a fair bit of speculation about to happen in the following couple of sentences.

I believe he was born in a military hospital in Germany, which I think makes him eligible for any of the home nations.  He last played for England in 2021, so in theory he could be available from next year.

Again this is heavily caveated that I don't know for sure it was a military hospital and I think World Rugby need to decide on who he can play for, so again who knows.

I think they have to have a tangible familial link to switch nations. For instance if Shug had opted for England and tried switching to Scotland based on being born in Edinburgh I don't think he'd be able to...

You can qualify for a second nations through birth, parents or grandparents. Just not residency. It doesn't need to be birth and ancestry.

So if being born in Germany due to his father being there on military service does make him eligible for any of the home nations, then it could happen. I can't find anything on whether his father was military though. Simply that they were in Germany as Hill's mother is Bavarian.

It's an interesting idea that Spoons puts forward though. Children born abroad whilst their parents are on overseas assignments are granted full British citizenship as if they were born in Britain. There is a distinction there to getting children born overseas getting citizenship by descent because one or both parents are British. My brother and sister were born in Germany whilst my dad was posted there in the army, hence it's a topic I'm familiar with. As they were born there whilst my dad was on military service they gained automatic full citizenship and can pass on citizenship by descent at birth to their children even if those kids are born outside the UK. Whereas, had they been born in Germany without our dad being there on overseas assignment, then they would hold citizenship by descent themselves, rather than full citizenship, hence wouldn't have automatically passed on full citizenship to the kids born outside the UK. As citizens by descent do not have an automatic claim to pass on citizenship to their children.

There is that distinction. Whether it can then be argued that they are technically British born, hence qualify for all the home nations by birth, is an interesting concept I haven't heard before. It feels like it doesn't make sense but there's just enough there for it to be tickling my brain.

I accept this concept is complete conjecture on our part, but there's something I truly love about the idea of the SRU responding to the 5-year residency ruling by mounting a legal challenge around what really constitutes being born in Scotland. "Ya see yer honour, there are many similarities between New Zealand and Scotland. The landscape, the rain, the farming, the gargantuan Polynesian back rows who can get over the gain line, every street name in Dunedin, men in skirts".

"some say that the bratwurst and the square sausage piece were created in the same village in Scotland, when the Germanic tribes came over via East Anglia"

NeilyBroon wrote:"some say that the bratwurst and the  square sausage piece were created in the same village in Scotland, when the Germanic tribes came over via East Anglia"

You've just insinuated that the square slice is an English invention (surely a crime against humanity) - this has had the unfortunate effect of making me unreasonably angry. As such you can now be prosecuted for inciting hatred under the new Hate Crimes Act.

Tramptastic wrote:

NeilyBroon wrote:"some say that the bratwurst and the  square sausage piece were created in the same village in Scotland, when the Germanic tribes came over via East Anglia"

You've just insinuated that the square slice is an English invention (surely a crime against humanity) - this has had the unfortunate effect of making me unreasonably angry. As such you can now be prosecuted for inciting hatred under the new Hate Crimes Act.

On the note of English heritage, wasn't the iron brew recipe stolen from a Sheffield smelting plant?

Also Fergus burke has moved to sarries under the "England qualified" headline. Somehow doubt he's plumping for Scotland!

NeilyBroon wrote:

Tramptastic wrote:

NeilyBroon wrote:"some say that the bratwurst and the  square sausage piece were created in the same village in Scotland, when the Germanic tribes came over via East Anglia"

You've just insinuated that the square slice is an English invention (surely a crime against humanity) - this has had the unfortunate effect of making me unreasonably angry. As such you can now be prosecuted for inciting hatred under the new Hate Crimes Act.

On the note of English heritage, wasn't the iron brew recipe stolen from a Sheffield smelting plant?

Also Fergus burke has moved to sarries under the "England qualified" headline. Somehow doubt he's plumping for Scotland!

Stolen or rehomed to a land where it would be appreciated (until the sugar tax gutted it - thank god for the 1901 recipe)?

The Burke EQ stuff might be smoke and mirrors, it all gets a bit funny in the prem when it comes to dedicating nationality. We won't know until he's selected either way! Besides, need the see the lad play first - i hate handing out caps just to capture players, it reeks of either desperation or trickery.

So back to club, when are the warriors announcing squad for Friday? Today or tomorrow?

Tramptastic wrote:

NeilyBroon wrote:

Tramptastic wrote:

NeilyBroon wrote:"some say that the bratwurst and the  square sausage piece were created in the same village in Scotland, when the Germanic tribes came over via East Anglia"

You've just insinuated that the square slice is an English invention (surely a crime against humanity) - this has had the unfortunate effect of making me unreasonably angry. As such you can now be prosecuted for inciting hatred under the new Hate Crimes Act.

On the note of English heritage, wasn't the iron brew recipe stolen from a Sheffield smelting plant?

Also Fergus burke has moved to sarries under the "England qualified" headline. Somehow doubt he's plumping for Scotland!

Stolen or rehomed to a land where it would be appreciated (until the sugar tax gutted it - thank god for the 1901 recipe)?

The Burke EQ stuff might be smoke and mirrors, it all gets a bit funny in the prem when it comes to dedicating nationality. We won't know until he's selected either way! Besides, need the see the lad play first - i hate handing out caps just to capture players, it reeks of either desperation or trickery.

Sarries can count him towards EQ quotas for RFU pay outs until the time he has the chance to represent Scotland this way. He might fancy a tilt at England recognition but that'll be an ask with Ford and Smith x2 all looking good.

Hamish Watson signs on at Edinburgh another year.

Got to say, as much as he's a legend of Scottish rugby and one of my all time favourite players, I wouldn't have been overly disappointed if he'd moved on. His powers are certainly waning and we've got plenty other backrows.

RDW wrote:Hamish Watson signs on at Edinburgh another year.

Got to say, as much as he's a legend of Scottish rugby and one of my all time favourite players, I wouldn't have been overly disappointed if he'd moved on. His powers are certainly waning and we've got plenty other backrows.

That’s very true. I suppose if any player at Edinburgh has earned the right to see out their career at the expense of brining on some newer players it’s the Mish.

Wish I had Sky, Quins v Warriors is shaping up to be a classic. My only question is Tom Jordan starting at ten. Has he had much time there this season?

bsando wrote:Wish I had Sky, Quins v Warriors is shaping up to be a classic. My only question is Tom Jordan starting at ten. Has he had much time there this season?

Probably just as well you did not pay a Sky subscription as it's on TNT (ex BT Sport)

Jordan, Tuipolotu and Lord Stafford are undoubtedly our best three midfield players available atm, so no great surprise they are all starting.

If Siione runs out of puff at some stage, which seems likely, then Duncy will come on and Jordan will move out one.

Sione and Staff will no doubt mix it up in the 12/13 position

Well jetlag means I'm watching this game. 'mon Glasgow!

What a start!

RDW wrote:What a start!

There is a match thread RDW

Much better performance from Edinburgh tonight.

Trying to play a bit, even if it was a struggle at times.

Where has that Ben Vellacott been all season either?

Their reward unfortunately may be a poisoned chalice with a likely further trip down to SA to play the Sharks again.

First half was pretty dreadful - more of the same of what we've seen in recent weeks - but much better second half. Hopefully they use that as inspiration!

Away trip to Sharks very much the last thing we need.

Boff out injured for a few weeks with a back injury.

Edinburgh's injury list is verging on outrageous just now.

Adam Hastings confirmed as coming back to Glasgow. A good move all round really just hope he puts his injury woes behind him!