Sorry I’ve been a bit slack folks, I put up a preview of the Scotland England match at:scrum.com Fanzone.

Come on the boys! Score-wise, what do you reckon? I think it could be close. My gut says it will be a slog but still winnable. If both teams play some rugby I wouldn’t like to think what could happen….

What have Alex Grove and Ben Cairns got to do to get a shot in this Six Nations? And for that matter Ben Foden? What does Graeme Morrison have to do to get dropped?

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A delayed roundup of last weekend’s premier 1 matches. Things are getting tight at the top as Hawks beat Dundee, Melrose got the win they had needed and every top half team is ravenously hunting for a top four spot rumoured to earn the highest placed teams a station in next years British and Irish Cup. Of course this is all supposition right now. Something that is true, however, is that Watsonians are staring into the relegation abyss after losing to Selkirk. It could come to the wire between them and fellow strugglers Accies but with two of their remaining games against Melrose and Hawks, things aren’t looking good for the men in maroon.

Here are Saturday’s results:
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Phil Godman was last seen limping about during Edinburgh’s very impressive victory over the Ospreys on Sunday (anyone spot Clancy whistling up 20 seconds before time?!), but no word on troubles with any other Scotland players. So in the meantime here, lukewarmish off the presses and in the interests of fair reporting, an injury report on players in England’s EPS who may not feature against us next weekend:

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Rumours are bouncing around the media this week that there is some secret SRU conspiracy afoot to block Italian entry to the Magners League, and so in return a counter-conspiracy to boot the Scottish pro-teams out of the Magners has been mooted by the Welsh press.

“Scottish teams Edinburgh and Glasgow could be kicked out of the Magners League by their Welsh and Irish counterparts, Scrum V understands” is the quote. Key word being could. I could be a millionaire by next week, Scrum V, but it’s bloody unlikely. Would you write about that?

Oops. I think I just dignified it with a response.

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On the 21st of November 2009 Scotland recorded a magnificent result. A win against Australia thought to be nigh on impossible in the days leading up to the fixture. It was some day. Yet while this day was special for everyone lucky enough to see such a spectacle it held extra significance for one young man.

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Rather than trying to piece together my frazzled thoughts on the game, I thought I’d see what others had to say that reflects on the weekend, and on the match in two weeks time, and beyond…

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Thom Evans has returned to Scotland. Apparently he was even up and moving about last week. What a trooper.

Moray Low is out for the rest of the 6N as he requires knee surgery. Get well soon Moray!

Here’s the Scotland A team for the weekend too:

Scotland A: Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors), Mark Robertson (Edinburgh), Alex Grove (Worcester Warriors), John Houston (Edinburgh), Simon Webster (Edinburgh), Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Warriors), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh, capt), Jon Welsh (Glasgow Warriors), Andrew Kelly (Edinburgh), Kyle Traynor (Edinburgh), Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors), Scott MacLeod (Edinburgh), James Eddie (Glasgow Warriors), Scott Gray (Northampton Saints), Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors).
Replacements: Fergus Thomson (Glasgow Warriors), Ed Kalman (Glasgow Warriors), Craig Hamilton (Edinburgh), Roddy Grant (Edinburgh), Mark McMillan (Glasgow Warriors), David Blair (Edinburgh), Peter Murchie (Glasgow Warriors).

Good to see Colin Gregor at full back. Not sure about the rumours of Jim Thompson moving west, I’d like to see him stay and compete with Mossy for the Edinburgh 15 shirt – he’s sure to get a chance as soon as the league resumes anyway and it would be a shame to nail down a place then move. I’d also like to see Gregor given more of a shot at 15, yes he is wee but so is Ben Foden and Peter Horne has looked good at 15 on the few occasions I have seen him too.

Also good luck to the boys playing in the British and Irish Cup this weekend. I’ve got some stuff on this weekend so I’m not even sure if I’ll see the Italy game (gulp), but one of the other guys will chip in with their thoughts I am sure. Thanks for all your feedback on the blog (2 articles down from here), keep it coming!

It’s all changing in Scottish rugby at the moment. A new generation of players are bedding into the national side. Glasgow and Edinburgh could be in the picture for the first ever Magners League playoff. A few club sides have taken part in the first year of the British and Irish Cup. Yep, things are evolving.

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Now that we have a team of crack (pot) writers working with common purpose, I thought it was time to do a bit of work on the site itself. So I’m throwing it out to you, the faithful reader (Al, AD and Gregor feel free to chime in too). Or even the unfaithful reader – if this is your first or hundredth time here we are still interested in your opinions. What would you like to see? More silly stuff? More serious stuff? Interviews? Travel pieces? More rampant nationalism? More articles about the Super 14?

How do we make Scottish Rugby Blog the #1 destination for Scottish rugby news (and ranting)?

Here are some of the things planned for the site:

• Integrating our new twitter feed, along with some big links to follow us on twitter and facebook (yup we’re on there so you can get SRBlog posts in your news feed)
• The ability to liveblog commentaries for the odd (or otherwise) game you might not be able to catch like they do for tennis etc over on the infinitely richer BBC
• I might also look at the design a little, just because I like to tinker so any ideas for colours, styles etc

If you have any other suggestions on these or other matters please add them in the comments section. For example on the home page would you prefer short intros with “Read More” links so that you can see at a a glance the new articles you might want to read, or do you prefer to do all your reading on the home page in one big scroll (we’ve been experimenting with it this week so you can see it in action)?

In the season down-time if you have any ideas for articles or interviews we could do to keep the site busy please mention them too.

Thanks for reading, and contributing!